Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane wants to emulate Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi by hitting a half-century of goals for the calendar year following his brace against Liverpool

Kane took his tally in 2017 to 45 goals in competitive 40 games for club and country, netting a goal in either half as Spurs ran out emphatic 4-1 winners against the Reds at Wembley Stadium.

His impressive two-goal display, also adding an assist, was enough to make him the Premier League's outright top goalscorer after nine games, having claimed the Golden Boot for the past two successive seasons.

The England international's excellent all-rounded performances have seen him go up yet another level this year, hitting six hat-tricks and earning a nomination for the Ballon d'Or.

And Kane still has his sights firmly set on becoming the best of the best.

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Kane aiming to set the goalscoring standard

He revealed afterwards: "[To reach] 50 would be nice. We'll see. There's plenty of games to go, a lot of tough games coming up. 

"I don't like to think about it too much but we'll see at the end of the year where I'm at. I feel good, I've said before I'm feeling confident.

"Scoring early in a game like that of course helps. We've just got to keep going and we've got plenty of tough games that we've got to play like that in.

"Of course I'm proud of myself. I'm proud of the team. A lot of hard work goes into it.

"To be up there in numbers with those players, hopefully I can keep it going and let's see how far it can go and how high I can get.

"I want to be, at some stage, the best player in the world so to do that you have to be up there with these players. They set the standards, Ronaldo and Messi, so for the rest of us it's about trying to catch them and get up there.

"Like we've said, the numbers are good. For me, it's more important to be winning these sorts of games against big teams.

"It shows that we're coming together as a team and getting better and better as a team.

"That's the most important thing, we'll see where we finish at the end of the year, but it's always my aim to be up there with the best."

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Prolific striker hails "fantastic" performance 

Mauricio Pochettino's men took advantage of defensive errors for all four of their goals with Heung-min Son doubling the Lilywhites' advantage on 12 minutes.

After Liverpool enjoyed a brighter spell upon pulling one back through Mohamed Salah's strike, Dele Alli's volley on the verge of half-time essentially ended their fightback.

Kane netted another before the hour mark as Spurs appeared a class above the visitors with a well-organised defensive display and sublime counter-attacking football.

"It's fantastic," the 24-year-old said of Spurs' display. "We started very well, very fast and that was the game-plan. We got ahead early and scored two good goals.

"From then on, we were good. Dele's goal before half-time helped us settle and the second-half we were fantastic. A fantastic result and one that will help the confidence."

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Kane relishing Old Trafford trip

Spurs have a mouthwatering trip to second-placed Manchester United - who they moved level on points with after beating Liverpool - next weekend to look forward to.

Kane continued: "United dropping points gives us the chance to catch them up.

"Next week's a massive game and we're looking forward to that. We've got a lot of tough games coming up so we've just got to recover well, keep going and performances like this will only help.

"I think people always have this little doubt about us until we probably start winning things.

"It doesn't bother us, we don't think about it too much. It's a big game again next weekend.

"Of course [Manchester] City are out in front at the minute but the top six are all so strong so performances like this, winning games like this, is something we maybe didn't do well last year so if we can continue that this year, it'll be good."

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About the author
Charlie Malam
Digital Sports Writer at the Daily Express. First-class Staffordshire University Sports Journalism graduate. Formerly VAVEL UK's Liverpool FC editor and Deputy Editor-in-Chief. Contributor since June 2014.