Tottenham Hotspur surged to their third big win over Stoke in a row with a 4-0 drubbing at White Hart Lane on Sunday. Mark Hughes’ side were unable to compete with a wonderful first half performance from the Lilywhites with Harry Kane in particular proving that when on top form is absolutely unplayable.

Kane scored his third hat-trick in nine matches, punishing the Potters with clinical precision and ruthless finishing. Dele Alli also got himself onto the scoresheet, making sure the game was over at half-time.

The win moves Spurs up into second, although they have now played a game more than Manchester City in third.

It was an important win for Mauricio Pochettino’s team given their demoralising exit from the UEFA Europa League midweek and they can now look to challenges ahead with confidence.

For Stoke it’s simply one to forget and they must think long and hard before they play Spurs again. Losing 4-0 each time is simply not acceptable.

Here are the FIVE lessons we took from the match…

Stoke must hate playing Spurs

For three matches now Stoke simply haven’t been able to cope with Spurs, with Dele Alli or with Harry Kane. The fact they’ve suffered three consecutive 4-0 defeats must infuriate supporters, seemingly unable to even turn up when Mauricio Pochettino’s side face them.

Whether it’s simply shaping up more defensively or going for a more ambitious attacking style against Spurs, Mark Hughes must do something to reverse the trend.

Supporters will be hoping this doesn’t spark a slump. Heavy defeats often do and after the last 4-0 defeat to Spurs, Stoke didn’t win for a month.

Harry Kane is getting better all the time

Harry Kane appears to be getting better every season and it’s left many wondering about just how good he can be in a Spurs shirt. Injured for fair part of this season, he’s still managed to keep pace with his goal tallies of previous seasons and has a decent chance to score his highest ever one season total for the White Hart Lane side.

His second goal on Sunday was particularly beautiful and showed that he really can score goals of all types. Tap-ins, volleys, headers, penalties, free-kicks; he has it all.

Dele Alli has character

After his more than justified sending off in the UEFA Europa League mid-week, all eyes were on Dele Alli on Sunday to see just he would react to the dismissal and the reaction afterwards. He was much criticised following his horror tackle.

However, he didn’t let any of that get to him and put in a solid display, scoring his first goal for almost a month and being a constant threat to Stoke’s backline, especially in the first half.

Eriksen is returning to his best form

After a five match spell of no direct goal contributions, Christian Eriksen has really stepped up his game recently in the wake of criticism from supporters.

In his last three matches he has five assists and a goal, putting in man of the match performances against both Fulham and Gent.

If not for Harry Kane’s hat-trick, he would have undoubtedly won that accolade against Stoke. He was superb throughout, a constant danger in the final third and also providing two assists across the 90 minutes.

His uptick in form is a massive boost to Spurs’ chances of finishing second in the table and even having a go at the FA Cup.

Pochettino’s man management is superb

Name the exact same XI to the side that crashed out of the UEFA Europa League mid-week sent the message to the squad that Mauricio Pochettino wanted to see a reaction from them. He certainly got that with Spurs putting in one of their finest halves of the entire season.

It was classy and effective man management and showed he knows exactly how the mentality of his squad works and how to subsequently get the best out of them.

Though they played their football at the opposite ends of the pitch, you would be hard pressed to find two Premier League players as highly-regarded as Alan Shearer and Peter Schmeichel.

Famed for his impressive shot stopping ability, Schmeichel was arguably the greatest goalkeeper of his generation, whilst Alan Shearer’s Premier League goalscoring record remains on a pedestal despite the fact that he retired over 10 years ago.

Both players optimised the hard work and dedication necessary to reach the highest totem pole in the Premier League, with the pair enjoying success throughout their storied careers.

Certainly, Alan Shearer may think that he has the edge over his Danish rival, with his memorable goal against Aston Villa in 2001 not an easy one to forget. But Peter Schmeichel might just get his chance to get his own back on Shearer this summer, with the pair facing off at Icons of Football 2017 event, hosted at The Belfry.

Team captains Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke will be hoping that the historic duo will be half as good with a club in their hands as they were with a ball at their feet, with both the English team and the Rest of the World team looking to secure victory at the end of June.

But just how well do they stack up against each other? Leading the way with trophies is, of course, Peter Schmeichel – with his tenure at Man Utd proving fruitful when it came to silverware. Schmeichel also leads the way with international caps, with 126 a tough number to beat.

Alan Shearer certainly has nothing to be ashamed of, though, with the striker making an astonishing 441 Premier League appearances during his career – not to mention the 260 goals that he picked up along the way.

Significantly, it is also Shearer that leads the way on the golf course, with his impressive handicap of 6 beating out Schmiechel’s 10 – which could be absolutely vital in June.

Tickets for Icons of Football 2017 are available now at icons-series.com

Arsenal avoided any embarrassing slip-ups in the FA Cup on Saturday with a comfortable 5-0 thrashing of non-league Lincoln City at the Emirates.The win ended Lincoln’s romantic journey through the rounds of the competition, one of the footballing stories of the season, but Arsene Wenger’s men only care about winning trophies and did the job necessary to book their place in the semi-finals.The visitors impressively held out until just before half-time when Theo Walcott opened the scoring and ensured the Gunners had the platform to go on and score a few more in the second half.Those goals in the second 45 minutes came from Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey, an own goal and predictably Alexis Sanchez.Sanchez kept up his incredible direct goal contribution this season with yet another goal. As this stat from Squawka shows, his average of a goal contribution every single match makes him completely indispensable to this Arsenal side.

It’s frightening to think where Arsenal would be without the Chilean attacker this season. Whether playing through the middle or on the left flank, he’s pops up with the big performances necessary to help the Gunners cause.

Supporters must be hoping that the contract stalemate with the player comes to an end soon. Life without Sanchez isn’t doesn’t bear thinking about.

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Speaking exclusively to The Evening Times, Ronny Deila has made a bold claim about new Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha’s reign at Ibrox.

What’s the story?

Ronny Deila left Celtic last year after supporters grew tired with his Celtic team underperforming in Europe and in the domestic cup competitions, most notably losing against Rangers in last season’s semi-final of the Scottish Cup.

Despite having the biggest budget in Scotland by a distance, Celtic suffered some poor results under the Norwegian manager, even letting Aberdeen get closer than fans would have liked in the league.

As Pedro Caixinha embarks on a new experience for him in British football, Deila reckons that the Portuguese has it a lot easier than he did when he arrived in Scotland.

As quoted by The Evening Times, Deila said:

It is of course a totally different thing to come in when the club is No 3 or No 4 in the SPFL. When I came in, Neil Lennon had won three or four leagues so the expectation was much higher. I think it is much easier for Pedro to come in to these circumstances. But at the same time I don’t know what kind of money he will get to change the team around.

While admitting himself the difficulty of the task at hand also depends on what budget Caixinha has to play with, it’s an interesting take on the challenge facing the Rangers manager.

How difficult is Caixinha’s job?

Pedro Caixinha is coming into a club that, while currently 3rd in the Scottish Premiership, has a fanbase that expect them to be competing at the very top of Scottish football both in the leagues and in the domestic cups.

That makes the task at hand extraordinary difficult. If the perception of success to Rangers supporters is different to reality then it’s almost impossible to make people happy.

Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic have streaked ahead in the league this season, not losing a single game and closing that gap is both the priority and extremely difficult at the same time.

Deila did come into a pressure cooker situation himself and winning every match is tough regardless of your budget but was it harder than Caixinha’s job? We’re not so sure.

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Aston Villa owner Tony Xia has received backing from fans on Twitter after publicly hitting back at rumours surrounding the future of Jonathan Kodjia.

A report in The Mirror newspaper recently suggested that Everton and Stoke City are tracking the 27-year-old.

Kodjia has been in positive form this season, scoring 19 goals in 33 Championship appearances.

Naturally, players in his situation are going to get linked to so-called bigger clubs because his current one is unlikely to challenge for a playoff spot as they sit 11th in the table, 11 points adrift of the top six.

Kodjia is only in his first season with the Villans following his switch from Bristol City last summer.

Xia has attempted to quash the speculation by drawing attention to the rumours on Twitter – a platform he regularly uses to interact with the fans.

The Chinese businessman hit out at football agents and media outlets for fuelling the speculation, and the fans have echoed his sentiments.

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Newcastle might be wobbling at the minute in the Championship and are on course to lose the overall crown Brighton – who clinched promotion on the weekend – but it’s hard to see them missing out on a return to the top tier at the first time of asking with just three games to play and a six-point advantage over Reading (as well a vastly superior goal difference).

So, the Magpies should be working with top-level football in mind as they prepare for the off-season and the club cannot afford to repeat previous mistakes. While it would be naïve to suggest that signing players from abroad would be unwise – a state of affairs that hit hard for the club ahead of 2015/16 – maybe getting in some seasoned Premier League talent would be wise and they don’t come much more seasoned than John Terry.

The Chelsea idol will be a free agent in a few months’ time and while there are obvious weaknesses in his game nowadays, his nous and experience may be of use to a Newcastle team that will need to battle hard for safety.

So, should they gamble on Terry? Have your say below…

Had Real Madrid’s fax machine been working in the latter stages of the 2015 summer transfer window, there is every chance that David de Gea would currently be turning out in the white of the Spanish giants.

Manchester United ultimately managed to keep hold of the Spanish goalkeeper before handing him a new four-year contract, but that was never likely to be the end of the story due to Real Madrid’s long-standing interest in the stopper.

After producing a shut-out in Man United’s 2-0 win over Chelsea on Sunday afternoon, De Gea became the goalkeeper with more Premier League clean sheets (27) than any other stopper since the start of last season.

There is little doubting that the 26-year-old is one of the finest goalkeepers in the world, although it is understood that his head has been turned once again, with Real Madrid flirting ahead of this summer’s transfer window as they prepare to replace Keylor Navas.

Man United might well decide to cash-in on De Gea this summer, although that is not a transfer that would go down well with the club’s supporters, who have consistently backed their goalkeeper, even during his early struggles at Old Trafford.

Number two Sergio Romero is expected to be back between the sticks for Thursday’s Europa League quarter-final second leg with Anderlecht, although there is little doubting who the Man United fans see as their undisputed number one…

According to reports in The Sun, Premier League duo West Ham United and Bournemouth are ready to go head-to-head in the race to sign £2m-rated Reading winger Paolo Hurtado this summer.

Following the departure of the unsettled Dimitri Payet during the January transfer window, Robert Snodgrass failing to impress after his arrival from Hull City during the same month and Michail Antonio’s future looking to be in doubt as new contract talks continue to stall, Irons manager Slaven Bilic is looking to strengthen in wide areas at the end of the campaign.

Even though the wide man, who can also play in the centre, has made just six appearances in all competitions for the Royals after moving to the Madejski Stadium from Pacos de Ferreira in August 2015, the Croatian is said to have been impressed with his performances during a loan spell with Portuguese outfit Vitoria Guimaraes this term.

Here are three things West Ham fans need to know about the 26-year-old…

He has enjoyed an impressive season

After initially joining Vitoria Guimaraes on a six-month loan deal in January 2016, the Portuguese club were impressed and decided to take him on loan for the full 2016/17 campaign too.

The winger has scored an impressive nine goals in 35 appearances in all competitions, as well as providing a further three assists, and the side looks set to secure a Europa League football for next season as they currently sit fourth in the Primeira Liga standings.

His strengths

According to WhoScored.com Hurtado, who has often been deployed as a central attacking midfielder by Vitora Guimaraes this season despite being able to play on either wing, has many strengths to his game.

These include his finishing – shown by the nine goals he has in 35 appearances in all competitions this term – his crossing, his ability to hold on to the ball and the key passes he is able to make.

These are attributes that are sure to have caught the attention of Irons boss Slaven Bilic, and he could make his move this summer.

He is a Peru international

Hurtado is a Peru international and has scored two goals in 28 appearances for his country.

He helped keep his nation’s chances of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia alive when he came on as a half-time substitute in the 2-1 win against Luis Suarez’s Uruguay in March, but they still look set to miss out as they lie five points behind an automatic qualification spot and four behind the play-off spot that Argentina currently occupy.

If he did move to the London Stadium, he would become just the fifth Peruvian player to feature in the Premier League.

Do you agree, Irons fans? Let us know below.

According to reports from Marca, Liverpool have seen a €75million (£64.48million) transfer bid for Kylian Mbappe rejected by Monaco.

The prodigious forward is coming to the end of a sensational season that has seen him net 24 times across all competitions to fire Monaco to the Ligue 1 title and the semi-finals of the Champions League at just 18 years of age.

Accordingly, Mbappe will enter the summer transfer window as European football’s most in-demand teenager and Marca believe the Reds have already tabled a club-record offer – albeit, one that has been rejected by the French champions.

Indeed, the Spanish publication further claim Monaco value Mbappe at in excess of €100million (£85.97million), which would be some outlay for a player with just 18 months of senior football under his belt.

So, Liverpool fans, should your club give up their pursuit of the France international, or should they up the ante to meet Monaco’s valuation? Let us know by voting below…

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger lead his beloved club to a 13th FA Cup win under the arch at Wembley yesterday, more than any club in the history of the competition, and a seventh under his stewardship, making the Frenchman the most successful manager in FA Cup history.

The win was a silver lining in what has otherwise been a season of chaos and uncertainty with fans split over where the club is going and who should be in charge.

The loudest of fans on social media and in the stands will always be those who are discontent with the way things stand at the club and in north London their numbers have swelled substantially over the last season. The ‘Wenger Out Brigade, have made banners, protested and even hired planes and vans to get their message across.

However, whilst they bemoan the results on the pitch, the Gunners have picked up a third FA Cup in four years and, having been poor earlier in the season, have beaten Manchester City and Chelsea on the way to doing so.

That was a sentiment not lost on the Daily Mail’s Oliver Holt who, from Wembley, sent out this rather tongue in cheek Tweet…

And, as you can imagine, it didn’t go down too well with many Arsenal fans…