Kane and Alli are not Spurs' only deadly duo

HARRY KANE and Dele Alli have hit the headlines in a big way today - but they are not the only partnership paying off for Spurs.

The Sun puts the Kane-Alli effect down to "telepathy", the Guardian credits friendship and Gary Lineker insists it is good news for England.

But Pochettino's players are actually pairing up all over the field and it all points to an effective system that the squad are buying into.

At Everton and West Brom it was Toby Alderweireld that Alli combined with before tidy finishes.

At Manchester City it was Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen as the latter scored a vital winning goal.

Lamela is also hitting it off with Kyle Walker and the link-up love-in even extends to the defence, where Kevin Wimmer has stepped in almost seamlessly to partner Toby in the absence of the injured Jan Vertonghen.

The big Austrian saved our bacon in the dying moments against Arsenal.

True, both Kane's goals at Villa Park were set up by Alli and this is not intended to take anything away from the quick-thinking 19-year-old.

The £5million man from MK Dons has been an absolute revelation and just how big his future can be is anybody's guess. But that is a different article for a different day.

The positioning of our forward players throughout the Villa game highlighted that the attacking roles are interchangeable. No matter who puts the ball in, Spurs have all the major danger areas covered.

For Kane's first goal, a minute before half-time, he produced a difficult finish across keeper Brad Guzan. Nothing is left to chance, though, and in support he has two men ready for either the pass or the rebound - Lamela on the penalty spot and Walker at the back post

The latter had bust a gut to catch up 50 yards after Alli's quick set-piece found Kane.

Kane’s second saw Alli race onto the ball in the channel - usually a move undertaken by Danny Rose.

If his pass is a split second earlier, it finds Lamela at the front post but as it is Kane steered it into the top corner – with Walker lurking in the background.

But it’s not always Alli doing the creating. In the 23rd minute, Kane fed Rose without even having to look up. He just knew the full-back would be bombing on. 

Once again Spurs flood the box with Lamela at the front post, Kane on the penalty spot and Eriksen at the back. This time the ball found Kane, whose effort was saved by Guzan.

It was even more impressive seven minutes later when Walker cut the ball back for Lamela, whose clever side-foot was turned onto the post by Brad Guzan.

It was Toby's ball out wide that found the right-back racing forward. The same three took the same spots in the box but in that instance Rose and Alli provided another bank of threat running in on the edge of the box should Walker’s cross slip through.

I remember the frustration from watching Spurs teams routinely let rebounds and loose balls go begging – be it through lack of support or worse still lack of effort. It left us relying on the talents of one or two star performers to do the unexpected.

But this team and this system are starting to come together. It is hugely encouraging to see a group of players working so hard to help each other out and, when it works, it leaves very little to chance.