Son burns bright in rampant Spurs victory
Tottenham Hotspur ensured Stoke City's terrible start to the new season continued with an emphatic win, inspired by Son Heung-min.
Son Heung-min scored an impressive double as Tottenham Hotspur romped to a 4-0 Premier League victory away to out-of-form Stoke City.
Winger Son was brought in for his first appearance of the season as part of three changes from Mauricio Pochettino and rewarded his manager with two impressive strikes either side of half-time.
Dele Alli added a third and Harry Kane – having been set up by a rampant Son — sealed the victory with his 50th Premier League goal.
The triumph saw Spurs continue their solid start to the new season, taking their tally to eight points from four matches.
Stoke, on the other hand, remains bottom of the table with only one point and 10 goals conceded after a miserable afternoon in which manager Mark Hughes was sent off.
The Potters, who handed debuts to loan signings Wilfried Bony and Bruno Martins Indi as part of three changes, actually made the brighter start and Marko Arnautovic had a goal correctly disallowed for offside after finding the net with a powerful strike.
Glenn Whelan saw his volley deflect inches over, while Ryan Shawcross tested Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris – back in the team after a hamstring injury – with a close-range header.
Tottenham, meanwhile, had a penalty claim turned down by referee Anthony Taylor when Son went down under Geoff Cameron's challenge, before Stoke keeper Shay Given kept out Alli's chipped effort.
The visitors were improving and they wasted a glorious chance to open the scoring on the half-hour mark as Son's pass deflected off Arnautovic to send Alli through on goal, but the midfielder somehow missed the target with his left-foot effort.
Arnautovic's booking for diving then resulted in a furious Hughes being sent to the stands by Taylor, before the breakthrough arrived four minutes ahead of half-time.
Christian Eriksen twisted and turned on the right to beat Joe Allen and pick out Son with a low cross, with the South Korea international doing the rest by finding the bottom corner with a clever first-time volley.
Shawcross stabbed just wide for Stoke early in the second half, before two Spurs goals in three minutes ended the game as a contest.
Eriksen was involved again, beating Shawcross' challenge and connecting with Son, who unleashed a magnificent curling strike into the top corner on 56 minutes.
A swift counter-attack then made it three, with substitute Erik Lamela and Kyle Walker combining down the right to set up Alli, who made amends for his earlier miss with a cool finish.
With 20 minutes remaining, Son found Kane from the left and the striker somehow had the time to take a touch and slot home from two yards out for his first goal in six league outings, becoming the fourth Spurs player to reach the half century.
Walker cleared a Shawcross header off the line in the closing stages, but Given also denied Eriksen and Moussa Sissoko — handed his debut from the substitutes' bench — at the other end as the visitors threatened to make it five in an emphatic triumph.
