Harry Kane scored another two goals against Stoke and now has more than 20 in the Premier League for a second consecutive season, something not achieved by Wayne Rooney or Michael Owen

It took quite a while for people to fully believe in Harry Kane. At the start of last season he was barely an afterthought, a squad player who might provide back-up for Roberto Soldado once he started scoring some goals (for which we are still waiting). He was little more than a homegrown youngster with plenty of goodwill, but who had displayed rather limited potential during assorted loan spells at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City. In 65 games with those clubs, he scored 16 goals – not an embarrassing total but equally not one that suggested this was the best English centre-forward since Alan Shearer.

Because that is what he is. Wayne Rooney, of course, has a decade of sporadic excellence and the England goalscoring record, but classing him as a centre-forward is a tricky business. Michael Owen was too injury-prone and in any case does not have Kane’s all-round game, Daniel Sturridge is a similar story, Jamie Vardy is catching lightning in a bottle but we’ll see what he turns out to be.

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Kane scored his 23rd and 24th league goals of the season against Stoke City on Monday night, meaning he has now scored more goals than Aston Villa this season. He is also the first Englishman to break the 20-goal mark in two consecutive seasons since Shearer, nearly 20 years ago. Les Ferdinand scored 20 league goals three times, Robbie Fowler did so twice, as has Rooney, Teddy Sheringham and Andy Cole once, and Owen not at all. He is on course to be the first Englishman to win the Golden Boot since Kevin Phillips in 2000.

All of which is perhaps made even more remarkable when his early-season form is considered. For the first few months, Kane looked like a player some feared he was: a one-season wonder, possibly tired from a summer with the England Under-21s, fumbling and lacking the certainty that made him so exceptional last term. He scored once in his first nine league games (a mis-hit rebound against Manchester City), but since a hat-trick against Bournemouth in October he has been a merciless machine, bagging the remaining 23 in 25 games.

Kane was not necessarily a player who immediately caught the eye in the way that Owen did or even now Dele Alli does, someone who pulses with the electricity of youth and looks like an obvious, instant prodigy. He does not have a single, eye-catching and identifiable brilliant quality like some of his predecessors – Owen’s pace, Shearer’s traction-engine right foot, Ferdinand’s sledgehammer forehead – but does have the rather more advantageous quality of being excellent at more or less everything.

It is probably his movement that is the most impressive, being able to find half a yard of space like Fernando Torres did in his pomp, incorporating a similar sense of anticipation that made Gary Lineker such a brilliant poacher, and that is also what makes him so perfect for this Tottenham side. Kane does not just stand up top and wait for the ball, but tends to drop deep and pull out to the left wing, which in turn lessens the effect of Christian Eriksen not being a natural wide-man. Eriksen, Alli and Érik Lamela then have space to attack and press in that relentless, faintly demented manner demanded of them by Mauricio Pochettino, and it does not even lessen the chances of Kane scoring goals: his brilliant curling shot having cut in from the flank against Stoke on Monday night was by no means an accident, given that he has done it before this season, most notably against Arsenal. In that respect Kane has similarities with Thierry Henry, scoring goals while shifting to make room for the other attacking talent behind him.

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That quartet (helped by Mousa Dembélé’s leggy and elegant forays) might not be at the level of Barcelona’s front three, but they are clearly the best attacking unit in the Premier League at the moment. Manchester City might have the better collection of individuals, and maybe even more so next season depending on who Pep Guardiola recruits to augment Sergio Agüero, Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and David Silva. Any internet poll would probably have Arsenal fans electing Mesut Özil and Alexis Sánchez among the toppest of the top, while obviously Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez have done extraordinary things with Leicester City.

But nothing beats those four from Spurs, all with their own individual capabilities that complement each other perfectly, hounding down the opposition then blowing them away. Stoke did not exactly put up a ferocious fight on Monday, but the way Spurs casually sliced through them, like an explorer making short work of some foliage with a machete, was utterly joyous. Leicester mat turn out to be the Premier League champions but even Claudio Ranieri would struggle to argue against the idea that Spurs have been the most entertaining – and probably since around November the best – team in the division.

Their defence is strong and just as important to their success, but it is the attacking four, with Kane leading them, that makes this Spurs team such a thrill to watch, both now and hopefully for some years to come.