Heung-min Son’s sensational 14-minute hat-trick sealed Saturday’s 6-2 thrashing of Leicester.
Son was dropped to the bench after failing to score in any of Spurs’ opening eight matches but kick-started his campaign with a magical cameo from the bench following his introduction on the hour, firing in two trademark long-range strikes before slotting his third past the hapless Danny Ward.
First-half headers from Harry Kane and Eric Dier and Rodrigo Bentancur’s first Spurs goal had seen Antonio Conte’s side bounce back from Youri Tielemans’ sixth-minute, retaken penalty and James Maddison’s magical hooked finish to lead 3-2 early in the second half.
But Son upstaged all that had come before as his memorable treble extended Tottenham’s unbeaten start to seven games and lifted Conte’s side above rivals Arsenal up to second in the table, level on points with Premier League leaders Manchester City.
“To have a player of this level on the bench it means in one moment I can change the game,” Conte said. “Today the rotation was for Son, but in the next round when we have 12 games in a row, other players will be involved. If you want to play massive games in the Premier League and Champions League, they have to start to understand rotation is very important.”
Winless Leicester’s nightmare start to the campaign continued as a heavy sixth-consecutive defeat left the Foxes rooted to the foot of the table with just a single point after seven games as the pressure mounted on manager Brendan Rodgers.
