Son, Alli spearhead Spurs to victory at Leicester

LEICESTER, United Kingdom: Son Heung-min and Dele Alli gave Tottenham a 2-0 victory at Leicester City on Saturday as Mauricio Pochettino’s gamble in resting Harry Kane paid off handsomely.

The Spurs manager left Kane on the substitutes’ bench as he planned ahead for Tuesday’s vital Champions League game in Barcelona.And while his side lacked a little of their normal spark without their attacking spearhead, they had enough to see off the disappointing Foxes with relative ease.

Son opened the scoring at the end of a dismal first half with a left-footed rocket from the edge of the penalty area before crossing for Alli to head home the second after half-time.Kane and Christian Eriksen were wrapped in cotton wool with Spurs needing to inflict a rare home defeat on Barca in midweek to guarantee progress to the last 16.

The England captain came off the bench for a 16-minute cameo to tune up for the midweek assignment, but by then Son and Alli had inflicted the blows that took Tottenham back above Chelsea and Arsenal into third in the table and within six points of leaders Liverpool.

Leicester were made to pay when they switched off at the end of a poor first 45 minutes.Son cut in from the left and ran across the edge of the 18-yard box with Nampalys Mendy failing to close him down, although his bending, left-footed finish past a helpless Kasper Schmeichel and into the top corner was still a strike to admire.

Wes Morgan’s timely block early in the second half denied the South Korean a second goal from an inviting cross by Alli.But moments later, the pair reversed roles to finish off a ruthless counter-attack with Son crossing from the left and Alli staying onside to head home at the far post.

On Saturday night, Chelsea inflicted champions Manchester City’s first Premier League defeat of the season with a 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge.N’Golo Kante and David Luiz were on target for Maurizio Sarri’s men as City paid for failing to take advantage of their first-half dominance.

Chelsea had barely been in the City half before taking the lead approaching the break, when Eden Hazard teed up Kante to fire into the roof of the net.

However, it was the hosts who enjoyed the better of the second period and sealed a huge victory 12 minutes from time when Luiz’s looping header from Hazard’s corner dipped in via the crossbar.

United ended a four-game winless run in the league with a comfortable victory over bottom club Fulham.Jose Mourinho left Paul Pogba on the bench again as he rang the changes, and three of those brought in — Ashley Young, Juan Mata and Romelu Lukaku — scored in the first half.

Aboubakar Kamara’s penalty pulled a goal back for Fulham, but any hope of a fightback from the visitors was ended by a red card for Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Marcus Rashford added a fourth for the hosts.

Arsenal extended their unbeaten run to 21 games but left it late to beat lowly Huddersfield 1-0 thanks to Lucas Torreira’s bicycle kick seven minutes from time.

Ralph Hasenhuttl got off to a terrible start as Southampton manager as Callum Paterson scored the only goal in a 1-0 win to move Cardiff three points clear of the bottom three and leave Saints level on nine points with Fulham.

Burnley also moved out of the drop zone by beating Brighton 1-0 to win for the first time in nine games, while West Ham’s third straight win — 3-2 over Crystal Palace — moved them into the top half.