ntonio Conte says Harry Kane is only just starting to click with his Tottenham teammates after the striker broke another record in the 2-0 win over Brighton.
Kane scored his 95th Premier League away goal, more than anyone else in the competition’s history and in 104 fewer appearances than second-placed Wayne Rooney.
The England captain also moved beyond Frank Lampard to fifth on the list of all-time top Premier League scorers – on 178 goals.
Cristian Romero’s deflection put Spurs ahead at the Amex Stadium as they close the gap to fourth-placed Arsenal to three points, with a north London derby still to come.
Conte afterwards said Kane was “starting to understand” the team’s way of playing and suggested he would have ample chances to break more individual records with Spurs.
“We are very happy because Harry is scoring a lot,” Conte said. “He started this season and he struggled a bit because he didn’t score a lot. Now we are very happy because as a manager I know that I have a world class striker that in every game he can score.
“To have Harry in your team makes you stronger. Harry is starting to understand with this team, with the way we are playing, he has every game many chances to improve his record and score and to enjoy. I am seeing that he is enjoying to play with us together and with his team-mates and with this way we are playing.”
Conte immediately turned his attentions to Sunday’s game against London rivals and fellow top-four challengers West Ham, where Spurs will look to finally end their win-loss-win-loss run since the turn of the year.
“We are improving and we are trying to go in another step to try to be very close to the top of the table,” he said.
“It is right to have ambition and I put ambition to my players because it is important to have a target, a difficult target for sure because to reach the fourth place is not simple, it will be very difficult.
“At this moment we are ready to fight for every game, then sometimes it can happen that we lose the game like at United where we didn’t deserve to lose. We are showing great improvement and this is good for the present and the future.
“On Sunday we will have a crucial game against West Ham. They have the same target and we are talking about a team that in the last season they arrived before us, they are playing Europa League. To get three points on Sunday will be very important to continue to have a hope to reach fourth place.”