Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has joked that he should start Son Heung-min on the bench more often following the South Korean's remarkable hat-trick in Saturday's 6-2 win over Leicester City.
The 30-year-old had failed to find the back of the net in Spurs' first eight games of the new season after taking a share of the Golden Boot with 23 league strikes last season.
Conte had retained his faith in Son up until Saturday's game, with Dejan Kulusevski previously sacrificed to accommodate the arrival and form of Richarlison.
However, Son was named as a substitute for the visit of the 20th-placed Foxes, who took the lead at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium through Youri Tielemans's retaken penalty.
Harry Kane, Eric Dier and James Maddison also struck in a jam-packed first half, but Spurs regained their lead early in the second half through Rodrigo Bentancur.
Son was brought off the bench with half an hour left on the clock, and the 30-year-old ended his goal drought with a delightful curling effort beyond the reach of Danny Ward in the 73rd minute.
It took Son just 13 minutes to complete a marvellous hat-trick as Tottenham ran out 6-2 winners, which temporarily saw them rise above North London rivals Arsenal in the Premier League table.
Following Son's three-goal haul off the bench, Conte has joked that he should bring on the ex-Bayer Leverkusen man as a substitute more often, telling Sky Sports News: "He didn't score at the start of the season. Today in 13 minutes, he scores three goals.
"I said to him: 'If you score every three goals in 13 minutes every time, maybe we can repeat this experiment.' I was joking!"
Lavishing further praise on Son during his post-game press conference, Conte added: "For me Sonny will never be a problem, never, never, never. Because we are talking about a really good guy, an amazing, outstanding player, one of the two best players in my team with Harry [Kane].
"I am pleased for Sonny, for sure because we can speak, we can try to give explanation if a player doesn't score especially when he is a striker but at the end the striker has to score because if the striker doesn't score, the confidence goes down.
"For sure in the last seven games he had a lot of chances to score but he was unlucky. For him to score three today in only 13 minutes, I think it was a record for me, the first time to score three as a substitute in this time.
"To change the game as a substitute in this way. I am happy for him but especially I am happy for the team because we needed this. To see Sonny with the ball after the hat-trick, then also the trophy for the best player of the game was great. It was amazing for me, for the teammates because we needed this."
Tottenham remain unbeaten in the 2022-23 Premier League season and have now risen to second in the table after seven matches - only behind Manchester City on goal difference.
However, Arsenal could return to the summit if they get the better of Brentford in Sunday lunchtime's London derby. body check tags ::
