Harry Kane believes he is on track to become one of the world's top strikers after drawing level with Jamie Vardy at the top of the Premier League scoring charts.

The Tottenham forward has 19 goals in the league this season - two shy of last season’s total - and 22 in all competitions.

Kane's double in Spurs' 2-0 win at Aston Villa on Sunday took his team to within two points of the summit, although leaders Leicester face Newcastle on Monday night.

After a slow start to this campaign, some doubted whether Kane could repeat last term's efforts, but he has proved those people wrong.

"There was a lot of talk at the start of the season but the top players in the world find a way to get around [challenges] and score 20 or 30 goals, season after season," said Kane. "That's what I want to be.

"I want to be one of the top strikers and I know I have to find ways to score goals that are different from last season because there is probably more attention than there was last year.

"Defenders get tighter this year. Whenever I get in a position to shoot, there are two or three people trying to block the shot.

"That's one of the little things I've noticed and I definitely see little differences from last season. But that's what it is like. "If you want to be a player scoring goals every year in the Premier League, you have to be able to cope with that.

"There are still quite a few games to go, so hopefully I can keep scoring and see how many I get between now and the end of the season."

Kane has been available for all but one of Tottenham's 44 competitive games this season but was left on the bench for last week's 3-0 defeat at Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League.

His performance at Villa Park partly justified Mauricio Pochettino's selection. With Kane leading the line, Spurs looked far more menacing - although this was the perfect fixture for them, against a side heading for relegation.

Kane's goals either side of half-time produced Spurs' first win in four matches, while Erik Lamela, Kyle Walker and Toby Alderweireld were all impressive.

It will be interesting, however, to see whether Kane is involved in the second leg against Dortmund at White Hart Lane on Thursday. Against such an accomplished team, it will require Spurs' best performance for many seasons to overturn the deficit and reach the quarter-finals.

Should Kane be removed from the starting XI again, with Sunday's home game against Bournemouth in mind, Tottenham will surely struggle to trouble the Germans.

But the 22-year-old insisted: "It is a big mountain to climb but there is no reason we can't do it. Our performance was disappointing last week but we've got nothing to lose now.

"We have to admit we could have been better in Germany and people are expecting us to go out of the competition, but we've got to play good football, get a couple of early goals and put the pressure on them."

Meanwhile, South Korea have asked Spurs if they can select Heung-Min Son for the Olympic football tournament in Rio de Janeiro this summer, in exchange for leaving him out of their squad for fixtures later this month.

Coach Uli Stielike said: "We've asked Tottenham to make Son available for the Olympics. They are in a battle for the Premier League title and they have Europa League matches remaining. But since our association is being considerate of the club, we hope they will give us a positive response."

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