Tottenham's Harry Kane has point to prove as he faces former suitors Manchester City

Since the England striker's transfer saga, the clubs' fortunes have gone in opposite directions

Tottenham striker Harry Kane during their recent Premier League defeat at home to Wolves. PA

The last Harry Kane "derby" took place without the man himself. “Are you watching, Harry Kane?” crowed the Tottenham fans as Nuno Espirito Santo’s side launched the falsest of false dawns by defeating the champions.

Minus Kane, Son Heung-min resumed a familiar role as a tormentor of Manchester City. Lacking the striker they had hoped to sign, Pep Guardiola’s team failed to score.

It was an illustration that a game can be deceptive but a season rarely is. When City and Spurs reconvene on Saturday, it is with different experiences. City can feel the winners of a saga in which they did not get what they wanted, Tottenham the losers over the transfer that wasn’t, which they supposedly won by keeping Kane out of Guardiola’s grasp.

Kane has shown glimpses of his best of late. He was outstanding in the remarkable victory at Leicester, as he was, barring a wretched tackle on Andy Robertson, in December’s draw with Liverpool. He scored twice in the FA Cup win against Brighton.

Yet the fact is that Tottenham are eighth and have lost their last three league games. He was supposed to spearhead a charge back to the Champions League, not a descent into mid-table.

Daniel Levy may yet be vindicated if Tottenham emerge from the pack to win the race of the stumbling contenders for fourth, but the eventual verdict might be that he refused to sell Kane out of stubbornness, rather than expert strategising.

Kane was not alone in looking underwhelmed by Nuno, but he scored a solitary league goal for the Portuguese. Even with an upturn in form, he still only has five.

Since his breakthrough season of 2013-14, he has never finished a Premier League campaign with fewer than 17 goals. A consequence is that Tottenham are the second lowest scorers of the top eight; only the famously frugal Wolves have fewer goals.

Perhaps Kane served a purpose in providing the pulling power to attract Antonio Conte; maybe a manager who has already been critical of much else at Spurs would have had too many reservations about accepting the job without him.

It would have been intriguing, however, if Levy had replaced Kane with Lautaro Martinez, who helped fire Conte’s Inter to the scudetto last season. But as Kane turns 29 this summer, he will never be in a place to demand £150 million for him again; he is unlikely to get an offer that reaches £100 million.

Spurs 0 v Wolves 2: player ratings

For City, however, the debate has receded. Every early-season setback came laced with the suggestion that it would have been different with Kane. They failed to score in six of their first 16 games in all competitions, veering between boom and bust, appearing to underline the argument they needed a striker to get the scruffy goals.

Not since: City have scored in all subsequent 21 matches. On 16 occasions, they have got at least two goals. A total of 61 gives them an average of almost three per game.

They have specialised in sharing them around. Raheem Sterling’s hat-trick against Norwich took him to 10 in the league.

Before that, there was a four-way share of the lead on seven, while Phil Foden now has six. Guardiola has prospered by picking his most predatory wingers. Whereas Sterling and Riyad Mahrez spent some of the autumn understudying Jack Grealish and Gabriel Jesus, City’s winning run has come when they have started more frequently.

They have taken on the scoring duties Kane might have had; indeed, the Algerian has been clinical from the penalty spot, as Kane could have been.

Sterling and Mahrez have had far higher chance conversion rates than any of Grealish, Jesus and Kane this season.

It has been a very Guardiola-esque solution to render a striker redundant by making two wingers more prolific.

But as he faces the club he famously once called ‘the Harry Kane team,’ City look fine without Kane in their side and Spurs flawed even with him in theirs.