Spurs continued their rise up the table with a 1-0 win over Sunderland during the weekend, but it came at the cost of Harry Kane’s injury. Manager Pochettino says that the club cannot put a time frame on the return of the player, but he is expected to be out for two months with a ligament damage.

Tottenham’s struggles in front of goal this season has been quite a surprise. The club do not seem to have properly recovered from the disappointment of losing a runners-up spot last season. A return of eight goals in five appearances has to be improved significantly if Spurs are to be challenging consistently at the top of the table. Harry Kane has been a real enigma in their pursuit of goals. The England striker has gone through periods of goal droughts and abundance quite regularly.

After a poor start to last season, Kane ended up getting 25 league goals in 38 appearances. A key towards the goal return was manager Mauricio Pochettino; not losing faith in Kane even when he was not scoring. The striker has once again made a slow start to the season. He has two in five league appearances so far, but both goals have come since the international break. A goal against strugglers Sunderland and Stoke City do not seem to suggest a deadly marksman, but as last season showed, Kane is someone who can become extremely dangerous once he gets going.

Now, Pochettino has to contend with the loss of a top forward just when it seemed that Spurs were finding form. Kane’s absence means that summer signing Vincent Janssen has to step up a lot. Last season’s top scorer in the Dutch league, Janssen has found the Premier League to be a whole new level and he is yet to score for Spurs. More importantly, he will have to play two games week – due to the Champions League commitments – until Kane arrives and this may not be the ideal settling in for a new player.

Janssen has been making about 1.6 shots per game, which is significantly lower than the 2.4 shots per game achieved by Kane. Lesser attempts at goal is not necessarily a bad thing for midfielders, but a striker sometimes needs to keep firing in order to break the duck.

Kane’s goalscoring exploits have got the headlines, but he has also been integral to the club’s style of football with his ability to act as a number 10. Kane makes twice the number of key passes (1.6 vs 0.8) per game.

Will Spurs struggle without him? Yes, but it remains to be seen if Janssen can step up and lessen the discomfort.