Burnley (Home) 05.01.2024

A decent crowd turned out for a late Friday evening kick-off and there was some early action.   The first nervy moment for Burnley came when their keeper Muric came out of his box to collect a long ball, but had to dribble it back just in time to get inside the area to pick it up.  Zaroury, who had turned up as a Grealish look-a-like (but not play-a-like) drove an early shot over the bar, but when Spurs played the ball around on the left wing, Destiny Udogie went down under a challenge in the box, with the ball running loose to Brennan Johnson, who was also brought down inside the area.  Play continued until the ball went off for a Spurs goal-kick and then we had the ritual of VAR looking at the incidents, when, from the other end of the pitch, neither looked like penalties in the first place.  That was followed by Odobert firing one in on goal from outside the box to the left, but Vicario took no chances by palming the ball well wide.

Spurs were playing some nice one-touch football with one move setting Richarlison in on the left side of the D, but he dragged the ball wide of the goal on the other side and then another set of passes put Johnson one on one with Vitinho, who Ange seems to have targeted, bending a shot that the keeper pushed out to the left for a corner.  While that didn’t come to anything, Spurs were penning Burnley in their own defensive third, but their rigid 4-4-2 formation got back behind the ball as soon as we had possession, but the visitors still messed up their clearances in their own box leading to a couple of Spurs attempts that were blocked.  Kulusevski cut in from the right to shoot, but the ball looped up into the air off a defender and Johnson had a free header, but couldn’t get much power on it. 

Pressing high up the field, Tottenham were winning the ball and were giving the Burnley defence a lot of problems to deal with.  They managed to cope with most of them, but being under such pressure they were starting to get anxious.  Cullen dived in to catch Lo Celso’s ankle with his studs and when play went on Rodrigo Bentancur made a nasty looking tackle on Zaroury.  Cullen was showed a yellow card, while the screen showed that there was a VAR review for a possible red card.  There were some among the Spurs fans who cheered, but it looked a little worrying that the review might have been for the tackle by Bentancur.   That was halfway through the half, with much of the play having been taking place in the Burnley half, with play a little compressed with both sides playing high lines.  Skippy won the ball when Muric tried to play it short, with a rushed clearance going off on the other side of the pitch for a corner.

It was becoming increasingly difficult for the Clarets to play the ball out of defence, but they broke forward in the 28th minute, as Zaroury scooped the ball over the Spurs defensive line and Amdouni took it down, but got the ball stuck behind him, although he turned to shoot.  He was onside, but couldn’t control his shot that went over the bar as Vicario came out to him.  Meanwhile, Gio Lo Celso was taking a bit of a kicking, being clattered by Vitinho and then having his leg stood on by Ramsey.  He spread the ball wide to the right for Porro to put in a deep cross.  It found Johnson coming in around the back, but it looked as though he hadn’t expected the ball to reach him and volleyed wide.  

Captaining the team for the first time, Rodrigo Bentancur was at the heart of the passing game Ange wants to play.  His awareness of where his team-mates are and his crisp first time passing kept Spurs moving forward.  I’m not sure how he does it, but he knocks the ball out of his feet to give himself time to lay it off and when he is in tight situations, with players around him, he more often than not appears with the ball at his feet, with opponents looking bewildered behind him.

Vitinho committed his latest foul but taking out Udogie, giving Spurs a free-kick 25 yards out on the left, but as many crosses before, it landed straight into the hands of the tall keeper Muric.  As the game approached the 45 minute mark Zaroury fired a shot way over from 20 yards out and two minutes added time was played without too much goalmouth action.

Spurs kicked off the second half, playing towards the South Stand and looked sharp straight away.  Lo Celso pulled a full-length diving fist away by Muric with a left-footed shot from outside the box, but an offside flag had gone up, then five minutes into the half, Kulusevski curled a left foot effort just over the far angle of crossbar and post.  Johnson then hit a rising shot that Muric fielded quite comfortably,  then the former Forest striker struck a volley into the ground after Porro had picked him out at the far post.  The Spurs defenders were not over-worked during this period, mainly staying up near the halfway line, but in attack the final ball was just short of finding their targets.

Bryan Gil came on for Lo Celso in the 58th minute, while Burnley also made changes with the Tottenham sub going out to the left, Johnson right and Kulusevski switching to the middle of the attacking three midfielders.  Skipp got away with a late challenge on the foot of Amdouni that could have been worth a booking, but it was while Taylor was off the field after a self-inflicted problem that Spurs had a very good opportunity.  A good pass by Gil allowed Udogie to go down the left wing and his ball across was met by Johnson on the volley, which hit the ground and bounced up nicely for the keeper to push aside.  Johnson was involved again when Skipp’s ball in saw Brownhill challenge him, but after a quick review nothing was given.  Another review denied Tottenham a penalty when Davies’ fine pass sent Kulusevski into the box.  The pass was long and was going off, but Muric raised a hand into the Swede’s face, but that was OK apparently.  The referee also failed to take any action when Vicario caught a corner and rolled it out quickly to Udogie.  The Italian played the ball inside to Richarlison, who ran off with Amdouni trying a cynical foul, but missing, so our forward played the ball outside to his left, where Destiny had continued his run, but could only win a corner off a defender.

After a long period of possession, a Spurs move broke down, but was retrieved by Bentancur, with his pass over the top running through to Muric, who was getting a bit cocky.  Having previously perfected a Cruyff turn to take the ball away form Richarlison as he was closed down, he later flicked the ball up into his hands off the floor.  As Skipp made way for Hojbjerg, as a free-kick was conceded 35 yards out on the left wing, but it was headed out once and when it came back in Bryan headed it away !  Udogie chested it down, and Pierre played it forward to Kulusevski, who ran right and crossed, Richarlison missed his header at the near post and the ball ran through to Hojbjerg, who had continued his run, but diving in, he could only chest the ball back into the middle of the box.  Richarlison went to get the loose ball, but with his back to goal and Muric right behind him, he couldn’t gather it, but the keeper did.  Thinking he could start a break, he threw the ball up the Burnley left to Amdouni, who was dispossessed by Porro.  With claret shirts retreating in front of him, he powered a shot from 22 yards that left the goalie standing as it rattled into the net at pace to put Tottenham ahead with a fantastic goal.  The ball flew sweetly off his right foot and dipped after it had gone across the keeper to record the Spaniard’s first goal of the season.

Ange decided to ring more changes, with Bentancur going off after 83 minutes, with Richarlison and Johnson joining him on the bench.  Jamie Donley, Dane Scarlett with his loan at Ipswich cut short and the surprise appearance of Ryan Sessegnon were the ones to replace them.  Sessegnon’s return got him a few minutes on the pitch, but another returning player from injury was even more welcome, even though he didn’t come onto the pitch.  The sight of Micky van de Ven warming up was enough to get the Spurs crowd excited and chanting his name, as he will be needed during Cristian Romero’s absence and with the news after the game that ben Davies has a hamstring problem, even more so if the Welshman is side-lined after playing so well in the middle of the defence.

Muric almost compounded his earlier error when a Spurs move saw Scarlett play the ball inside the box for Sessegnon, but he couldn’t gather it in, with a defender playing the ball back to his keeper.  Trying to move it out first time, he only managed to put it straight to Bryan Gil 20 yards out and although he couldn’t get a shot off, with a number of players in front of him, he played it to Ryan inside the box on the left, switching feet to try to bend one in with his right foot, but Muric stretched to push it wide for a corner.  The ball was being won high up the pitch and Scarlett was darting into the box to fire a shot at goal that was only stopped by the side of Delcroix’s head.  

Burnley did a bit of pressing of their own with a pass to Porro picked off before Brownhill skewed a shot well wide with two minutes to go.  Tresor was booked for a late tackle on Porro as we entered seven added minutes.  Losing the ball from a short throw-in by our corner flag, Spurs had to concede a corner, with Muric coming forward for it.  It was well cleared, but we could not make the most of their goalkeeper being in the wrong penalty box.  Davies had to come to the rescue as Hojbjerg played a loose pass in midfield, which is when he might have stretched his hamstring, but he played on.  With Burnley suddenly making frenzied efforts to form attacks, with the referee allowing fouls on our players that they had been penalised for when it was the other way around, Delcroix looked to have a great chance when Tresor played a square ball to him 14 yards out, but Hojbjerg threw in a block that took the ball away for a corner as the game was nearly up.

There was just time to take the corner which Muric came up for and won this time, flicking it on to the far post where Al Dakhil volleyed it wide to Vicario’s left with nobody between him and the goal other than the goalkeeper.  He was only four yards out and could have earned Burnley an undeserved replay, as they did most of their offensive work in the final ten minutes of the match.

As it was, like the previous two seasons, a narrow Third Round win at home that puts us in the hat for the next round.  There have been more eventful and convincing performances this season, but it proves that the team are developing the ability to win when not at their best.  A lot of the team played well, but the much maligned Emerson Royal had an outstanding match, but with his defensive covering but also with his distribution.  It was useful to give some of the fringe players minutes on the pitch, as there are few games to use them, but it is now nine days until we go to Old Trafford and a chance to bring in some new faces to help fill some gaps in the squad.

Burton Coggles

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