Man Utd confusion, Kane’s Spurs future, Liverpool title fight back on – PL Talking Points

What does Harry Kane have to do to get the freedom of Tottenham? Which in his case includes the freedom to leave. Rangnick, we are told, is here to stay but even by winning he shows he still has no idea what his best team is. Romelu Lukaku has every right to be touchy about the weekend stats while the title race itself? Is it back on now? Express Sport’s Matthew Dunn looks through all the big stories in his latest Premier League talking points column.

Harry Kane’s gladiatorial display for Spurs against Manchester City needs to be recognised by a big thumbs up from Daniel Levy and his freedom.

It is hard to see what more the England captain can do for the club which he has served so loyally, even though he thought he had an agreement to leave last summer.

In Tottenham’s colours on Saturday he was enough to stop the best team in the world in its tracks. What would he be doing to teams in a City shirt?

If the offer is good enough and Kane decides he has done all he can at Spurs he should be applauded out the door with Levy leading the tributes.

Manchester United still needed Leeds to shoot themselves in the foot defensively before they could see out their win at Elland Road.

A two-goal lead was again thrown away in an instant shortly after half-time and while having Jesse Lingard’s energy in the side from the start was an obvious benefit. But just as obvious is the fact that Ralf Rangnick still has no idea what his preferred team is.

What is increasingly worrying is that the United board do not have a clue which direction the club is headed and who is the manager who is the one to lead them there.

Seven is anything but a lucky number for Romelu Lukaku.

Not only is it the new record low number of touches he recorded against Crystal Palace on Saturday, it is also the number of times since arriving from Chelsea that he has played alongside either Reece James or Ben Chilwell. Never both.

He was bought by the Champions of Europe to give them a plan B when all else was failing. In the two England international full-backs they have two of the best crossers in the game and Lukaku is the man to make the most of it.

Injuries to those key players are leading Chelsea down the line of more of plan A, the system that clearly does not suit the Belgium international’s natural tendencies.

On your marks, get set… No! Mathematicians everywhere have been scrabbling around for the proverbial fag packets now that Liverpool have closed the gap to six points with a game in hand a direct clash still to come in April.

But even if Liverpool can relentlessly put those wins on the board until the end of the season – just as they did in 2019 – City have been schooled for five years in how to do exactly the same.

And as for that head-to-head at the Etihad?

As long as Pep Guardiola doesn’t get into his Champions League mindset, Liverpool have only got the win they need in the Premier League once since 2008.