Spurs crush Norwich to break Arsenal hearts as Son Heung-Min shares Golden Boot

As Sundays go, Tottenham Hotspur had quite a good one.

Antonio Conte’s side knew exactly what they needed to do. Avoiding defeat away at already relegated Norwich City would hand them a top four finish and a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League. The fact that they could do this at the expense of arch-rivals Arsenal was even sweeter.

The reality is that the Gunners originally had their fate in their own hands. Even after their crushing 3-0 defeat against Spurs in the North London Derby, Mikel Arteta’s men were aware that they would return to Europe’s elite for the first time since 2016/17 if they could win their final two games of the season. In theory, this should’ve been easy, seeing that neither Newcastle United nor Everton had anything to play for.

But Arsenal lost 2-0 at St James’ Park, and the pendulum suddenly swung.

Spurs had already beaten Burnley the previous afternoon, and it became clear that, unless Arsenal could overturn a 15-goal swing, a point would be enough away at already relegated Norwich City. The Canaries had only won once since the end of January and sat rock-bottom of the Premier League table. The Gunners were going to need a minor miracle to take place.

It didn’t happen.

After just 16 minutes, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg played Rodrigo Bentancur into the box down the left. He simply squared the ball to Dejan Kulusevski, who was able to force the ball into into the net to give Spurs the lead. Already, the mammoth task for Norwich (and Arsenal) began to look impossible.

If the first goal was bad, the second was downright embarrassing.

A Norwich throw-in was played back to goalkeeper Tim Krul, who proceeded to pass the ball straight to Bentancur, allowing the Uruguayan midfielder to turn provider once again. He set up Harry Kane to head the ball into an empty net, doubling Spurs’ lead just after the half-hour mark.

Just one minute earlier, Arsenal had also doubled their lead at home to Everton, but it became clear that their efforts would ultimately be in vain. The final nail in the Gunners’ metaphorical coffin took until the 64th minute to arrive. It also marked the moment when Norwich totally started to crumble, as Kulusevski shrugged off Max Aarons down the right flank before curling a stunning strike over Krul for 3-0.

There was only one thing missing for Tottenham.

Son Heung-min will have undoubtedly expected Mo Salah to be benched for Liverpool’s game against Wolverhampton Wanderers, and that he would have the chance to match or even overtake the Egyptian international’s tally of 22 Premier League goals to win the Golden Boot.

It felt like an impossible task when Krul kept denying the South Korean forward, but seconds after forcing an incredible one-on-one save, Son finally found the back of the net. Once again, he was given too much space inside Norwich’s penalty area, but this time was able to fire the ball under the Canaries ‘keeper to get his 22nd goal of the season. His teammates celebrated it more than any of the three previous strikes, as did the thousands of travelling supporters.

In fact, they were the ones who made their team aware that Salah had come on against Wolves and scored the goal to put Liverpool ahead at Anfield. Son, realising what he had to do, picked up a poorly cleared free-kick outside of the box, before cutting inside and rifling a stunning strike into the back of the net to take his tally to 23.

This is even more staggering when you consider that Son has become the first player to win the Golden Boot without scoring a single penalty. He’s also the first Asian player to win the award, albeit that he ultimately had to share it with Salah.

It was the crowning moment in an incredible few weeks for Spurs. Although Son had previously claimed that he didn’t care about finishing as top scorer, the way that his teammates gathered around to lift him up in front of a jubilant away end to celebrate his second goal of the afternoon said otherwise.

Conte heaped praise onto Son after the game, but also credited his teammates for helping him to win the Golden Boot and guide Spurs back to the Champions League.

“First, we needed to get a place in the Champions League. Then, if there is the possibility to have Son to become top scorer in the league, we’re very happy. He scored twice, and I think he could’ve scored more. But at the same time, I want to underline the big effort that the team put in for him.

“I really appreciated the will and the desire for all his teammates to help him become top scorer. It means that there’s a great atmosphere in the dressing room and it means that the players are really good people, not only good players. It was good to match these two targets: to get a place in the Champions League, and then to allow Son to win the Golden Boot.”

Given that Conte arrived at Tottenham in November 2021, he admitted that he considered the achievement of qualifying for the Champions League at the same level of winning a trophy. This is quite a bold statement for a manager who’s won four Serie A titles and one Premier League in his career so far.

However, he refused to clarify whether or not he would look to stay at the club, only emphasising that he’s still under contract until the end of next season and would have discussions with the board at the end of next week about how to move forward.

The reality is that Spurs’ project can only continue with him at the helm. It’s clear that his methods have finally been drilled into the players, having lost just one of their last 11 league games. They also did the double over eventual champions Manchester City and took two points off second-place Liverpool. It shows that the North Londoners are not a million miles away from challenging at the very top of the table.

Fabio Paratici is still Spurs’ Director of Football, and his long-term friendship with Conte will be key in keeping him at the club and building for the future. However, it also relies on the pair being backed financially by the board in order to bring in top-tier players to compete across four competitions next season. This is something that has regularly let the club down in recent seasons and halted their progression since reaching the 2018/19 Champions League Final.

If this changes, Conte’s domestic pedigree should see Spurs become a genuine threat in the Premier League for the first time in five years. But the priority will be to end the club’s trophy drought that has lasted since 24th February 2008. Once they get that metaphorical monkey off their back, there is no limit as to what they can achieve with the right structure in place.

As for Sunday’s opponents Norwich, the hammering against Spurs came as no surprise. There were countless rows of empty seats at Carrow Road, albeit fewer than in recent weeks, and the five goals were met with boos and chants demanding that Sporting Director Stuart Webber and owner Delia Smith leave the club. Like the 4-0 defeat at home to West Ham at the start of May – this result epitomised Norwich City this season.

Once again, they finish the campaign at the foot of the Premier League table. They mustered just five wins and 22 points across their 38 games this season, conceding an astonishing 84 goals in that time. Somehow, despite scoring less and conceding more, the Canaries finished with a point more than in their previous top-flight campaign. Ultimately, it shows that no progression has been made at all.

Most fans think that Norwich will bounce straight back up from the second tier next season, and while that is a possibility, it will likely be much harder than in previous campaigns. They no longer have Daniel Farke, who guided them to two Championship titles in three years, and their squad is arguably in its worst state since 2017/18.

Valuable assets like 22-year-old right-back Max Aarons will probably be sold, while there will once again be a heavy reliance on striker Teemu Pukki. At the moment, Norwich’s squad isn’t Dean Smith’s, and a lot of work will need to be done over the summer in order to change this. If it doesn’t happen, it’s unlikely that we’ll see the Canaries back in the Premier League any time soon.

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