London: Harry Kane’s 250th Tottenham goal took Spurs to the top of the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Wolves on Saturday as a 2-1 defeat to Southampton compounded Leicester’s miserable start to the season.
If anyone is to rival Manchester City and Liverpool in the title race, Tottenham look well set after backing Antonio Conte heavily in the transfer market in his first full season in charge.
After a strong end to last season to snatch a place in the Champions League from north London rivals Arsenal, Tottenham have already taken seven more points than they got from their respective fixtures last season in the first three games of the new campaign.
However, Conte was still displeased with a sloppy first-half performance that could have been punished against more potent opponents.
Missing the target
New signings Goncalo Guedes and Matheus Nunes impressed for Wolves, but they have scored just once in three games this season as Guedes, Ruben Neves and Daniel Podence were guilty of failing to hit the target.
Spurs improved markedly after the break and got their reward when Kane bulleted home a header after Ivan Perisic flicked on Son Heung-min’s corner.
Kane’s 185th Premier League goal also set a record for the most scored by anyone for a single club, edging ahead of Sergio Aguero’s 184 for Manchester City.
“I said that if we repeat the same results as last season we stay after three games with zero points,” said Conte. “Instead to get seven points showed that this team is improving in many aspects.”
Arsenal can leapfrog their local rivals to top spot later on Saturday as the Gunners aim to keep their 100 per cent record going away to Bournemouth.
Fofana left out for Leicester
At the other end of the table, Manchester United remain bottom ahead of their huge clash against Liverpool on Monday.
But Leicester are only one point better off after Che Adams came off the bench to score twice and further darken the mood around the King Power.
Wesley Fofana was left out of Brendan Rodgers’ squad as the Frenchman seeks to force through a move to Chelsea.
Leicester are the only Premier League club yet to spend any money in the transfer window, but may have to in the final 10 days of the window to ward off a difficult season.
Poor defending
James Maddison’s free-kick had put the Foxes in front, but Adams twice pounced on poor defending in the absence of Fofana to give Southampton their first win of the season.
The pressure is also back on Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard after his side threw away a perfect start to lose 3-1 at Crystal Palace.
Ollie Watkins opened the scoring for the visitors at Selhurst Park after five minutes, but Wilfried Zaha quickly levelled.
Zaha then put Palace in front at the second attempt after his penalty was saved by Emiliano Martinez.
Jean-Philippe Mateta made the points safe 19 minutes from time.
Thrilling London derby
Fulham remain unbeaten on their return to the top flight as Aleksandar Mitrovic’s powerful header won a thrilling west London derby against Brentford 3-2.
The home side stormed into a two-goal lead thanks to Bobby Decordova-Reid and Joao Palhinha, but for the second time this season Brentford fought back from 2-0 down through Christian Norgaard and Ivan Toney.
Mitrovic had the final say, though, when he rose highest to meet Kevin Mbabu’s cross to send Marco Silva’s men into fourth.
Everton secured their first point of the season thanks to Demarai Gray’s late equaliser to cancel out Brennan Johnson’s goal for free-spending Nottingham Forest in a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park.
