Tottenham vs. Wolves: Harry Kane milestone goal lifts Spurs to victory after poor first half

It's not perfect but seven points from three games will do for Antonio Conte. Tottenham Hotspur defeated Wolves 1-0 to kick off Saturday's slate of matches. Harry Kane passed Serio Aguero to become the all-time Premier League leading scorer for a single club, netting his 185th goal with a tidy header from an Ivan Perisic flick-on. It's the type of goal from a set play that Antonio Conte dreams about when he goes to sleep at night. And that was enough to secure all three points.

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Only Conte and Spurs will know if the goal was a designed play but it's a good time to note that a new set play coach was added during the summer in Gianni Vio who oversaw the Italian national team previously. Son's short corner was flicked on by Perisic and Kane did what he has now done 250 times for the club scoring a goal that would prove to be a winner.

While the goal, and Kane's milestone may be the main talking point of the match, the result was in doubt in the first half as Spurs only took one shot, while enduring 12 from Bruno Lage's side. Halftime adjustments, like tweaking the positioning of Emerson Royal and Dejan Kulusevski, left Spurs much improved in the second period, and on balance they deserved the three points they ended up with, but getting there was a process.

With Davidson Sanchez deputizing for an injured Cristian Romero, Royal stayed in the starting lineup at right wing-back to provide coverage for an onrushing Rayan Ait-Nouri along with new signing Goncalo Guedes up top. Royal won two tackles but it was his pressure, allowing Sanchez to clean up behind him with five clearances and two blocked shots that kept the Spurs defense from breaking. While Wolves took 20 shots in the match, they could only muster an xG of .62 compared to Spurs' 1.62, a total that was mostly boosted by Kane's goal, a point blank header worth 0.70 xG on its own. For a Spurs team that hasn't hit top gear, this is a result that they'll take, but Conte will want to tinker to find his best rotation before Champions League begins soon. 

Wolves could end the weekend in the relegation zone as pressure mounts on Lage. Wolves are now on one point through three matches as new signings Matheus Nunes and Guedes weren't enough to change their fortunes. It was more of the same as Wolves had joy getting into space but were unable to find a finishing touch. Some of that was down to Conte building Spurs into a unit that defends well even when the side isn't at their best, but it's also been a lingering problem for Wolves under Lage. The simple shift next match will be removing striker Daniel Podence for a now healthy Raul Jimenez but Raul only scored six goals in 34 appearances last season so the crux of the scoring woes looms for Lage. A sustained drought for the team could cause the board to look for a change.