Burnley (Away) 02.09.2023

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worn with white socks

The sun unusually shone down on the Lancashire hills beyond the main stand and when the game got underway, in the fourth minute, Burnley worked the ball out from their left back position across the pitch to the left wing, where Luca Koleosho went past Pedro Porro.  He got to the line and pulled a pass back to the near edge of the six-yard box, where Lyle Foster slotted the ball home across Guglielmo Vicario with his left foot.  It was an example of how Vincent Kompany wants his side to play and how they played to get out of the Championship, but from Ange’s point of view, he will not be happy at the ease that they had in finding their players as the ball moved from right to left.

There was a little nervousness after the goal when we were playing the ball out from the back, but within a couple of minutes, the Tottenham side had settled down and started to link their passes.  Pape Matar Sarr slipped a pass to James Maddison on the right and he made a neat turn between two defenders, breaking into the box before being baulked by an arm across him by Jordan Beyer.  Manor Solomon won the ball off Al Dakhil on the Spurs left and darted into the box, choosing to shoot at the near post rather than pick out Heung-Min Son in the area.

Burnley’s defenders were puffing after 15 minutes and were left gasping as Spurs played Burnley at their old game.  Porro hit a long pass over the head of O’Shea for Sonny to run onto.  He was joined by Solomon to his left and played the ball to him before it was returned to him in space, with two defenders drawn to the Israeli and when O’Shea and goalkeeper Trafford tried to close him down, he lifted a deliciously delicate dink over them both to find the net from the right hand corner of the six-yard box as the clock was reaching 16 minutes.  What made his finish even better was the fact that his first touch didn’t kill the ball and it was running away from him, but he still manager to perform a perfect finish.

Koleosho had a clear header when Bissouma was dispossessed by Gudmundsson, but got it all wrong and put it well wide and then Amdouni put a shot wide of Vicario’s right post from a central position 20 yards out.  The Spurs goal had put paid to the jollity among the home fans and Turf Moor was mainly quiet save for the singing from our fans.  The Burnley supporters got a bit excited when Koleosho wriggled across the 18 yard line, with the ball ending up with Taylor in front of goal, but Vicario made a good stop with his foot, although an offside flag later went up.  Burnley were taking a very hands-on approach, while the referee was obviously employing a light touch approach by not penalising the holding and pulling.  He did when Sarr made a foul on halfway and then booked him for dropping the ball away from a Burnley player.

Depending on playing the ball out, Burnley were looking increasingly poor at doing it.  Getting closed by Son, Trafford hit the ball straight at Dejan Kulusevski and when the ball came across, it was worked to Son, whose shot was blocked, then Sarr’s effort was too before O’Shea got his back onto Maddison’s effort, which spun the ball away from the keeper, but not far enough away from him to cause him much concern.  From this period around half an hour in, Tottenham were dominant.   Maddison played a great one-two with Pape and struck the ball first time from inside the left corner of the box with some bend on it, but Trafford did well to dive to his left to push the ball away.  Porro then dragged a shot across the goal and wide of the post coming onto the ball from the right, with Son furious that the ball wasn’t played through to him, but the move had opened up Burnley, moving it across the width of the pitch. 

With 45 minutes on the clock, Sander Berge ran into Solomon in the centre circle and Manor took the ball off him.  Spurs moved it forward and three players were fighting over it, as Son shot from 22 yards out, deflecting away off O’Shea’s head.  The corner caused a lot of confusion, when it came back in after being cleared.  Kulusevski got it on the far side from where Maddison had taken it on the left, mis-controlled it and made a tackle in the box, Sarr crashed into a tackle as he looked to fire the loose ball goal-wards and it came out to Cristian Romero, on the right join of the D to fire an unstoppable shot into the keeper’s top right-hand corner with a minute and thirteen seconds of added time played.  Of course, VAR took all the joy out of what a spectacular strike.  First they looked at offside for Maddison’s part in the play when he crossed it and then to see if Sarr’s tackle was a foul, but two minutes later the Spurs fans could rejoice as the referee eventually pointed to the centre spot.

Almost immediately after the restart, Maddison was released onto the Burnley defence, when he went down after apparent contact just outside the area, but the referee was as disinterested as he had been for the majority of the first half.

Burnley made a couple of changes at half-time, but it didn’t make a lot of difference as Son almost got on the end of a pass beyond the home back four, but Trafford raced out to beat him to it.  A move across the box gave our skipper another opportunity, but he was closed down quickly and his shot was blocked, then Maddison cleverly sold Al Dakhil with a smart turn in the area but could only bring a save out of the keeper at his near post with players waiting in the middle.  Brownhill had a pop from 25 yards, with a dipping shot that went a couple of feet over the bar, but the weakness in being able to play through Spurs from the keeper brought Tottenham’s third.  53 minutes on the clock and Al Dakhil lost the ball in a challenge with Destiny Udogie on the Spurs left, playing inside to Maddison.   The England midfielder took a touch to move the ball out of his feet and struck a right foot drive from 22 yards way out of the goalkeeper’s reach, curling just inside his left-hand post.  It showed the grit and the grace to create and score the goal.  

Burnley looked like they might hit back straight away, as Forster was played through and looked as though it had got past Romero, but he got back at him to get something on the ball, which made Vicario’s save more difficult, as he almost had to adjust in mid-air to tip the ball over the bar when it looked like it might go just over him.  A long ball up the right saw van de Ven shrug off two fouls on him to collect the ball from Solomon, then play it to Udogie, who knocked it inside to Manor, who raced down the line, with the Burnley defenders trailing.  He looked up and played a composed pass into the box for Heung-Min Son to run onto and without breaking stride, he struck it with his right foot wide of the keeper’s dive to his left to make it 4-1 with 63 minutes gone.  And gone was what a lot of the home supporters were, as they flooded for the exit.  It was a fine strike and again, showed the effort that the players were putting in to pay off with the goal.  Working hard all over the pitch, they were clinical in reaping their rewards.  

It only took a couple of minutes for Son to complete his hat-trick, as Kulusevski was pulled down off the ball by the desperate Roberts, taking the focus away from Porro, who played a superb pass bent behind the defence to allow Son to take a touch with the outside of his right foot and then slide it past Trafford at his near post with his left.  Another well-worked goal and another masterful finish to make it 5-1.

Beyer got booked for pulling Perisic back minutes after Foster did the same to Bissouma, having committed a number of earlier fouls too.  Vicario had to be alert when a cross was deflected by Porro to punch away at his near post, then he was left rooted as a Brownhill effort came off van de Ven and went just a yard wide.  The heat, the score-line and the number of substitutions slowed the pace of the game, but Bissouma’s pass into the box for Pierre Hojbjerg’s run was halted when Roberts knocked him to the floor, but the referee’s empathy was with the home side, as he wasn’t in any way concerned about reviewing it. 

With the home stands emptying faster than players in the Premier League heading for Saudi Arabia, the Spurs fans were in full voice and the only noise was groans from the home sections.  They were given something to cheer four minutes into added time when Cullen slipped Brownhill into the area on the left, just outside the six-yard box and he got there just before Micky van de Ven came across and his shot just found the net inside the far post with Vicario unable to reach it.  I say cheer, it was more an ironic exhalation of relief that it made the score-line a little more palatable.  It made little difference to the outcome other than affecting the goal-difference of both sides.

You have to give a lot of credit to Burnley manager Vincent Kompany for sticking to his beliefs to play an open style with patient build-up, but he might find that the fans are not a patient as all that. as witnessed by the mass exodus and comments posted on social media after the match.  He has already alluded to the massive gap between the Championship and the Premier League, with his nest step being how to work out how to close that gap and quickly, because losing three games and already having a mjor negative goal-difference, any more results like this and chances of staying up will disappear into the distance where other clubs are heading. 

As for us, it was a performance full of desire and togetherness that was based on hard work.  Our last two managers preached the sermon of fitness and pressing, but to what end ?  The odd match would see the team click, but this side under Postecoglou, even in these early days, looks like they are working together and pushing each other to improve further.  And most of all they look as if they are enjoying their football.  While there will be days when it all works, like today, there will also be days when it doesn’t and that is when supporting the team will be more important than ever.

We have what is essentially a young team with a sprinkling of experience.  Vicario did very well in goal, making a couple of important saves, van de Ven looks classy alongside the World Cup winner Romero, who Ange has got focussed.  Porro doesn’t always execute his passes to perfection, but when he does, like the one for Son’s hat-trick, they are spot on and on the other side, Destiny looks a strong and pacy presence that we have been missing for some time and despite only being 20, he looks as though he has been a fixture for much longer than that.  The pairing of Sarr and Bissouma in the defensive midfield area is a very good blend, with ground coverage and good ability on and good use of the ball.  James Maddison is one of the key signings that unlock the opposition for the forwards to do their stuff, with Kulusevski’s trickery on the ball and Solomon’s first start showed glimpses of promise as he set-up two goals and with a bit of composure could have played in Maddison and Son, causing more havoc in the Burnley defence.  And Sonny was the deadly marksman that killed off the Clarets.

With some players having left on loan, the new signings have fleshed out the squad with quality and Johnson will have to fight to get into the starting eleven.

This Spurs side is far from the finished article, but as a work in progress, it is going very well so far.

Pete Stachio

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