Harry Kane scored a hat-trick to wrap up the Premier League Golden Boot as Tottenham ended an impressive campaign with a 7-1 thrashing of relegated Hull City.
Mauricio Pochettino’s men were unable to keep pace with champions Chelsea, but end the season with 86 points, by far their best tally in the Premier League, beating their previous record by 14.
Kane had jumped past Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez in the top-scorer stakes with four goals against Leicester City on Thursday and fended them off with back-to-back trebles to finish the campaign on 29 league goals.
Spurs’ goals summed them up at their flowing best with Dele Alli, Victor Wanyama, Ben Davies and Toby Alderweireld all joining Kane on the scoresheet to subject City to their heaviest Premier League defeat.
A Spurs side that has begun to hunt records and trophies will have been put out by Sam Clucas’ goal, which denied Hugo Lloris a share of the Golden Glove award with Chelsea’s Thibaut Courtois.
The home fans at the KCOM Stadium were not given much to cheer on the pitch but spent the vast majority of the game serenading head coach Marco Silva, whose revival of the Tigers has just fallen short.
Hull fans began the match in fine voice, pleading with Silva to remain in Humberside, but they were swiftly silenced as teenage left-back Josh Tymon coughed up possession and the ball was worked for Kane to lash home left-footed from the edge of the box.
Tymon was once again the target as Spurs doubled their lead within two minutes, Eric Dier chipping over the 17-year-old to find Kieran Trippier, whose cutback was gleefully tapped in from four yards by Kane.
The double strike sapped momentum and volume from the contest, but a coiled Spurs attack struck again three minutes before the break as Oumar Niasse was robbed of possession and Alli checked across his man before picking out the bottom-right corner.
Having thrashed Leicester 6-1 in midweek, Spurs seemed content with their lot at the start of the second half, but Clucas’ deflected strike beating Lloris only served to reawaken them.
Alli clipped a gorgeous ball over Hull’s defence that Christian Eriksen could not squeeze past David Marshall, but Wanyama was given the freedom of the six-yard box to head the Dane’s set-piece home.
Spurs were beaten 5-1 by relegated Newcastle United on the last day of last season, but this vintage is far more ruthless and Kane had his crowning moment as he was sent clear and finished with a calmness befitting the league’s most lethal marksman.
There was further damage done to the Premier League’s leakiest defence, who end the season having been breached 80 times after Davies thumped home from 20 yards and Alderweireld converted to ensure Spurs, though without a trophy to show for it, end the season as the Premier League’s top scorers and with the stingiest defence.
Key Opta stats:
– Tottenham are the fifth Premier League side to register 400 wins (D247 L315).
– Spurs are the third team to score 7+ goals in an away Premier League game (Man Utd 8-1 v Nottm Forest in Feb ’99 and Nottm Forest 7-1 v Sheff Weds in Apr ’95).
– Hull have conceded seven goals for the first time in the top flight and for the first time in league football since October 1990 (1-7 v West Ham in the second tier).
– Harry Kane is the sixth player to score a hat-trick in successive Premier League appearances and first since Wayne Rooney in 2011.
– Kane has netted four Premier League hat-tricks this season; only Alan Shearer managed more in a single campaign in the competition (5 in 1995/96).
– In all competitions, Kane has five hat-tricks this season, a haul only Cristiano Ronaldo can equal for players in the big five European leagues.
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