Kane was wronged, not in the wrong... but that's no surprise

HARRY KANE scored a 22nd League goal of the season in Tottenham’s 1-1 draw with Everton on Monday, leaving him on course for his best return in years, but his involvement in the game’s big flashpoint generated far more attention.

- Dan kilpatrick

Kane was struck in the face by Abdoulaye Doucoure following a robust 50-50 between the pair and the Everton midfielder was promptly shown a straight red card. Kane went to ground clutching his face and lay there while Doucoure was deservedly sent packing.

A close-up replay showed Doucoure, palm splayed and index finger over Kane’s closed eye, gripping his face, which was visibly sore afterwards.

Somewhat predictably, however, the reaction has focused more on Kane’s response than the behaviour of Doucoure.

Kane was labelled ‘a disgrace’ and ‘embarrassing’, accused of ‘milking’ the incident and widely painted as a bad actor. Pundit Jamie Carragher criticised Kane for “rolling around when there’s nothing wrong with him” — although Kane did not actually do any rolling.

The end result of the match was even pinned on Kane for firing up the Goodison Park crowd with his ‘antics’ (true, to an extent), rather than the visiting team collectively for a pathetic 20 minutes before Michael Keane’s 90th-minute equaliser.

Afterwards, Spurs’s head coach Cristian Stellini was essentially asked to defend Kane’s actions, which he did.