Tottenham can keep engine ticking, hold onto second in Kane's absence

Of course, it is foolish to underestimate anyone. Sunday's visitors, Southampton, were the last guests to win at White Hart Lane in May 2016, and teams with relegation concerns tend to fight that much harder as the season approaches its climax.
However, such challenges are preferable to a succession of crucial clashes against top-six rivals like the ones that lie in wait at the end of next month and in May, when Tottenham face Chelsea in the FA Cup semifinal and then Arsenal and Manchester United in the Premier League.
Those are the games when Kane will be needed most, and his race for fitness has begun. In the meantime, his teammates must keep the engine ticking over and hold onto second place -- and they have a good chance of doing so over the coming weeks.
While Tottenham have a run of relatively benign, if awkward, fixtures, their biggest rivals will be colliding and taking points off each other. Manchester City are about to embark on a series of back-to-back league matches against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea. Liverpool also have a Merseyside derby to contend with on April 1, while Manchester United take on Everton a few days later before facing Chelsea on April 16.
Far from falling away without Kane, Tottenham could actually take forward strides and strengthen their position if they can maintain the momentum they have built up recently.
The north Londoners had a mini slump earlier in 2017, including a goalless stalemate at Sunderland at the end of January and then back-to-back defeats in Liverpool and Gent. But since then, they have won four out of five matches. The odd one out -- the 2-2 draw against Gent at Wembley -- was commendable in itself, since Mauricio Pochettino's side played for 50 minutes with 10 men. In those five games, Spurs have scored 18 goals and conceded only four.

Harry Kane's injury is a huge loss, but Tottenham still have cause to be positive about their prospects for the next month.

The return to a 3-4-2-1 formation has been key, but just as important has been Tottenham's rapid starts. They were desperately slow out of the blocks in the losses against Liverpool and Gent. Indeed, following the trip to Belgium, Pochettino admitted he knew after 50 seconds that there was a problem. But useful meetings took place after that, and there has been a notable transformation.
Spurs went ahead in the 16th minute at Fulham en route to their 3-0 FA Cup triumph and then broke the deadlock in the 10th minute against Gent at Wembley. Three days later they took a 14th-minute lead against Stoke, going on to score four times in the first half, and they went 1-0 up against Everton in the 20th minute. The opener took a little longer to arrive vs. Millwall on Sunday, but Spurs were still ahead in the 31st minute and 2-0 up at the break.
Sides who aim to sit back and frustrate Tottenham are having to rip up their plans before half-time, chasing a goal far earlier than they would like and leaving themselves open to further setbacks. The problem, of course, is that Kane has been a key man through it all. Indeed, he has been responsible for many of those vital initial incisions.
Kane got the breakthroughs against Fulham, Stoke and Everton, and his openers in those last two games in particular were clinical strikes that seemed to come out of nowhere. The concern is that, without that single-minded eye for goal and deadly finishing, Spurs may dominate without really hurting their opponents.
Yet Tottenham go into this period with a number of in-form attacking players. Christian Eriksen has also provided the breakthrough in two of the last five games, against Gent and Millwall, and his strike on Sunday was a little reminiscent of Kane's opener against Stoke -- an instinctive, low finish in a packed penalty box.
Meanwhile, Dele Alli has scored in each of his last three games and Son Heung-Min's first of three goals against Millwall came from outside the box -- just the kind of ambition and technique he might need to produce again if Spurs are struggling to get in behind their opponents in the coming weeks.
Kane is undoubtedly a huge loss. But given their fixture schedule compared to their rivals' and the form of their other attacking talents, Tottenham still have cause to be positive about their prospects for the next month.