Harry Kane said his performance in Saturday's 2-1 win at Brighton was the first he has been truly happy with this season.

Kane was under the spotlight after going five games without a goal for club and country.

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But he scored a first-half penalty and was twice denied by Brighton goalkeeper Mat Ryan late on, nearly putting Tottenham 3-0 up before Anthony Knockaert broke away to make it 2-1 in the end.

"I would 100 percent rather have the focus [on me] than not have it," Kane said. "I've scored three goals this season, which is not terrible.

"When you set standards in other seasons and other games, people will talk if you don't reach them, and I'm the first to analyse my game and see what I could do better.

"Of course I feel I could have done better in most games this season. This was probably the first game where I was truly happy with my all-round performance.

"It's the life of the striker. You'll get chances, miss chances, feel you can hold it up better. All you can do is look forward and try to improve.

"We could have been a bit more clinical. That includes myself and a couple of the other players.

"We had good chances, their keeper made a couple of good saves and it's disappointing not to get the clean sheet. I thought we deserved that -- the defenders and keeper were strong all game.

"But in the Premier League if you don't put teams away they will find a way to get back. Thankfully we held out."

Kane was one of nine Tottenham players in action until the end of the World Cup and, when the north Londoners suffered their third successive defeat on Tuesday against Inter Milan, those exertions in Russia looked to be a contributing factor to their poor form.

"It was important, as a team, that we were all better [against Brighton] and all had more energy," Kane said. "A lot of us played in the World Cup and a lot of people have been talking about that but we all feel fit and sharp. It's important we proved that.

"It was an important game and I thought we played really well. The energy was there, everyone was working hard and we were pressing.

"Through these spells we said we had to work harder. It's the only way to come through it and I thought that's what we did. It's about mentality.

"We were all pressing and this is when we're at our best. That's when we wear teams down and then we create space.

"We all talk around the training ground but there wasn't an official meeting. We're in a tough spell but that's football. The only way to get through that is to work harder, whether that's on the training pitch or during games."

Meanwhile, Danny Rose has called on Tottenham to embark on a winning run and ignite a challenge at the top of the Premier League after being told by manager Mauricio Pochettino they have not been good enough this season.

"We've not been up to standard, we're well aware of that," Rose said. "If I look back over the last few years we don't start great. We normally pick up momentum around October and November, and we always have a strong Christmas period.

"It's something that's not good enough but it's not something we're worried about just yet, and Saturday was a great start in hopefully picking up some momentum.

"We've got good fixtures now on paper. I'd like to think we're going to get full points in all our games before we go away for the international break. That's the plan.

"It's evident and it's true that we've not played well. The manager's made us well aware of it. We beat Newcastle, Fulham, even Manchester United, but we've not played well.

"We obviously didn't want to lose against Watford and Liverpool but he [the manager] sees it as a wake-up call and a bit of a reality check for us all. Hopefully we're back on track now."