Jose Mourinho admits his side are so reliant on 20-goal Kane - a Spurs striker for the ages

Harry Kane underlined once more just how vital he is to the Tottenham cause as he shook off ankle injuries to make a goalscoring return.

The England striker gave Spurs the X-factor that they miss when he was not around and his 20th goal of the campaign paved the way for a comfortable 2-0 Sunday win over West Brom.

It was much needed after a trio of defeats which sent the club sliding down the table to ninth and Jose Mourinho was forced to concede they are not the same without him.

"Harry Kane is a special player in the history of the club," said the Tottenham boss.

"He is one of the best strikers in the world. The team depends a lot on him, we can't hide that.

"It's the goals he can score, the assists he can make, the link play he has, that personality that players like that can have and he is always an important influence for us."

Team-mate Son Heung-Min, who scored the second goal against Albion, said: "Harry Kane is so, so important for us. It was only a couple of games but we missed him a lot. Him coming back and scoring straight away, it's what we needed. I missed him."

Kane has now passed 20 goals in his past seven seasons and the 208 club goals places him second on the all-time list alongside Bobby Smith. Jimmy Greaves' 260 goals will be threatened if Kane remains at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Spurs were far from outstanding against a relegation-bound Albion, but did more than enough to earn a win which lifted the boss' spirits.

"I'm not used to losing three matches in a row and Tottenham is the same," he said, "so we have to admit that it was not a week where we felt very, very comfortable, but I was very positive because of what the players showed in this game. I knew that they would.

"I think we played very well but I'm speaking about the mentality the players brought to the game.

"The players are together, the players want to win, they are committed and today they went to the pitch only with one thing in their mind and that was to win the game. This was the thing that pleases me more, the way the players approached it."