Weekend Round-Up: Spurs need to panic over Kane, Man City can still rely on Aguero, Liverpool win ugly

Disappointing weekend for… Harry Kane

He isn’t as magic as Dele Alli, or as fun, but the other Handshake Twin is just as important to Spurs’ success this season. His finishing, and ability to score from chances created for him, and by himself, make Spurs threatening in a way they have rarely ever been in the Premier League. Harry Kane has 24 goals already this season, at a rate of almost a goal a game. At just 23, he won’t ever be as good as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi or Neymar, but he could easily be as effective as Robert Lewandowski.

It will be grim for Spurs this week, as they find out how severely Kane injured himself as he strained to shoot against Millwall. If he is out of action for longer than a couple of weeks (and estimates say it could be close to two months), Spurs will have to rely on the underwhelming Heung-Min Son and Vincent Janssen in attack.

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Heads could drop if defences are resilient, too, as the team will know just how important he is. There is Alli to pick up some of the slack, but Spurs are yet to recruit a reliable understudy – Mauricio Pochettino is expected to try again this summer. They are fortunate to have negotiated all of their toughest games this season, with a match against Arsenal still months away, but they won’t want to leave the chase for the top four up to Son and Janssen, despite Son’s excellent efforts against Millwall.

Depressing weekend for… dignity

Heung-Min Son faced racist abuse from Millwall fans throughout the game against Spurs. This is no surprise. There have been attempts from the club and others to suggest to the fans that racism is a disgrace, but it plainly has not got through to the fans yet. Millwall fans, like Rod Liddle, appear to delight in saying the unsayable because people find it distasteful.

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This is nothing more dignified than a toddler deliberately soiling himself and making a dirty protest in order to get attention. This is a group of people who want revel in being disliked. Being disliked for standing up for something principled is worthwhile, and to stand up to criticism takes strength and courage. Being disliked for being racist is just pathetic.

Millwall have thousands of fans, meaning that most of the people watching the game and supporting them on Sunday either were being racist, or didn’t care enough to tell their fellow fans to keep their mouths shut. This has happened too often with Millwall. Danny Baker famously said he wished cancer on those who wanted to move his club’s ground. But the council didn’t go far enough – they should close the club down entirely.

Best goal of the weekend… Sergio Aguero

Sergio Aguero didn’t do much, he merely turned up at the back post to tap in from Leroy Sane’s cross. Sane had done well to measure the pass and to use his pace to get in behind the defence. In truth, it wasn’t a great weekend for special goals, but it highlighted just how important Aguero has become despite Pep Guardiola’s best attempts. He dropped him against Barcelona, and tried to replace him with Gabriel Jesus. Jesus’ injury might have given Aguero his chance back and given Guardiola little option to use him, but he has been largely faultless despite a comical lunge into David Luiz earlier in the season.

Aguero, like Kane, has 24 goals this season, and Manchester City are looking like one of the favourites to take one of the remaining Champions League places. For all the pretty patterns that Guardiola has had City making at times this season, the kind of squad he inherited means he remains dependent on an old fashioned, but brilliant, striker in Aguero.

Most important goal of the weekend… Oumar Niasse

Paul Clement has enjoyed a bright start to his Swansea career. There is optimism where once there was Bob Bradley. So, too, has Marco Silva at Hull City. He’s brought organisation and plenty of new players into the side. The most impressive part of Silva’s time is that the players have been swiftly incorporated.

The most important of those at the weekend was Niasse. Niasse was isolated at Everton, dropped by new manager Ronald Koeman and told that he wasn’t needed anymore, despite having little time to prove himself. Fair enough, that’s how football works sometimes. But Niasse did not give up, didn’t cause trouble, and made it plain he intended to stay on in the Premier League – his self belief was not dented. Niasse has four goals in 10 appearances for his new club, who are now just a point away from safety, and his two goals against Swansea has prevented Clement from relaxing.

Surprise of the weekend… Liverpool win despite failing to raise their game

Under Jurgen Klopp this season, Liverpool have played in two ways. The first, exciting method was to blow sides away, using direct attacking and inventive players to take apart the defences in front of them. Unfortunately, because of the energy and outperformance required from the team to pull off such a thing, Liverpool quickly faded and could barely stand up after the winter.

Against Burnley, it looked again like Liverpool were too fatigued to rouse themselves after they fell behind to a swift attack that led to Ashley Barnes scoring at the back post. They struggled against two banks of four, as Burnley had their counter-attacking game well planned, and the players knew how the approach would work.

They got lucky, in that Georginio Wijnaldum’s first shot hit a defender and bounced back to him to score, and that Emre Can managed something brilliant in a game where he underwhelmed in everything other action. But this was different, because Liverpool failed to raise their performance but it didn’t cause them to give in. It keeps them in the top four, and they are pulling away from Arsenal and United, occupied by the FA Cup.