Burnley (Home) 16.08.2025

There was almost a Thomas Frank style quick start from his Brentford days.  The ball played back to Vicario from the kick off and when the ball came out to Pedro Porro on the right, his long diagonal fell to Brennan Johnson outside the left side of the box.  His cross saw Bergvall beaten to it in the air and  was picked up by Mohammed Kudus on the far side, his cute ball into Lucas on the near corner of the six-yard box resulted in the Swede’s shot forcing a save at his near post by Dubravka within 30 seconds of the start.    

The Brentford keeper obviously didn’t get the memo about holding onto the ball for more than eight seconds, as he gathered a cross and then looked shocked when the whistle blew to hand Spurs a corner.  Not shocked enough to waste more time by throwing the ball away, but the referee didn’t regard this as a bookable offence, ironic when the original offence was aimed at preventing time-wasting !

Apart from a Hartman low ball across the area that Foster failed to get a touch on, it was Spurs who had been dictating play.  Foster handled a cross in the Spurs box and the free-kick was played out to Cristian Romero, across to Micky van de Ven and back, then right to Pedro Porro.  His long pass along the right wing on the floor aimed in the run of Mohammed Kudus was knocked away by Esteve, but only to Pape Matar Sarr, whose pass did reached Kudus.  Cullen put in a weak challenge and Mohammed regained possession, making a yard on the Burnley midfielder to pull a low cross into the box.  Richarlison had pulled back from Walker to find a position near the penalty spot to swivel onto it and direct his right foot shot into the bottom right corner of the keeper’s net.  The Brazilian striker, who has won the many of the Spurs fans hearts with his efforts in the Lilywhite shirt got the goal that his hard work deserves and he wheeled away to take the ovation form the crowd.  It wasn’t an easy finish, as the ball was bouncing up toward him, but he controlled the shot to beat Dubravka.

Burnley have a couple of annoying players in midfield, who aren’t creative but their main attribute is to try and get under the opponent’s skin.  Cullen tried to put off Guglielmo Vicario at corners, then flies into reckless challenges, which, on this day, he was fortunate enough not to make contact with and Hejbri displayed all his Man United training by resorting to shoving people in the back when he wasn’t able to be fast enough or good enough to get to them.     

Walker had already skied a shot high into the South Stand and Foster’s shot followed in just before the half hour, coming off Romero’s recovery tackle after he has sloppily passed the ball straight to just inside the Burnley half.  After some pushing and shoving, Vic punched out the corner, but when it came back in, Esteve got to it, but couldn’t get any power on his header.  Laurent then side-footed a shot wide of the far post from inside the left corner of the box, then Mejbri put a free-kick high over the bar after taking an age to line it up.  After ten minutes when Burnley were going forward, Spurs settled down into a period of possession, with a good move involving Richarlison, Bergvall and Kudus leading to Djed Spence lifting his shot way too far above the Burnley goal.  A couple of minutes before half time, Laurent had a shot from just outside the box that Bergvall threw himself at.  It took the sting out of the effort, but the ball was sent spinning high towards the spurs goal and it looked as though it should be an easy one for Vicario to take, but he didn’t want to take any chances with it, so punched it over the bar.  

With one added minute coming up, Walker played a ball across the penalty area low from the right, but it was too far ahead of Anthony.  As he moved inot the penalty area there was contact with Porro and the Burnley forward went down wanting a penalty.  It was denied by VAR, but it wasn’t entirely necessary for Pedro to put the thought into the ref’s mind.

No changes at half-time, so the same 22 took to the field for Burnley to restart the match.  Five minutes into the half, Archie picked off a couple of loose Burnley passes and played Brennan through on the second, his ball was pulled back for Richi to shoot and hit Esteve in the chest, with the ball rebounding to him, which he put across goal, with Dubravka getting a touch to it.  Kudus picked up the ball at the far side, turned back and hit a curling cross that was dangerous, but no Spurs player on hand to finish it.  Mohammed was clearly enjoying himself, as a long high ball to him from Gray was controlled with his left foot stuck out behind his standing right leg !  His ability on the ball was causing so many problems for the visitors, making a yard with ease to get crosses in. 

Today it was Lucas who was the long-throw expert and this is going to be a feature of our matches this season, although from watching other matches over the weekend, it appears a number of clubs are doing the same.  However, it was a long ball that saw Anthony gather the ball inside the Spurs half, with two team-mates up with him.  It was squared to his right for Mejbri, who looked odds on to score, but Micky got alongside him and when he checked back inside, Pape was there to make a fine tackle to avert the danger.  The ball was knocked on to Bergvall and with Tottenham four on three, his pass only found a claret shirt and the move broke down.  It was end to end (almost) when Cullen lobbed a high ball down the right and SOnne managed to keep it in, with the ball finding Taylor just to his left inside the box.  He took it to the line, cut it back for Foster to turn on it and shoot, but it was going well wide, but hit Anthony in the chest and he turned and tried to repeat Richarlison’s goal at that end, but slipped and his shot was weak which allowed Vicario to grab it as it went to his left.

When he got up and played the ball out, little did he know that 16 passes later the ball would be buried in the Burnley net.  A move that went right to left to right involving all the Spurs players, was devastatingly effective.  When Sarr kept the ball in after a touch from Kudus, he knocked the ball for Porro to return it to Mohammed.  Shifting the ball towards the dead-ball line with his left foot, he mesmerised Hartman and put in a perfect right-foot cross for Richarlison to throw himself into a scissors kick that sent the ball fizzing past Dubravka.  It should have had flames trailing after it like in cartoons, it was hit with such venom.  And after all the injury and off-field stuff he has been through, it was great to see a smile across his face.  The replays on the big screen drew gaps every time it was shown and the crowd were buzzing.

Being 0-2 down was a new feeling for Burnley after their stout defending last season, so Scott Parker made two subs, but they were like-for-like, so there was no changing things up to be more attack-minded.  Indeed, it was Spurs who looked more threatening, with Porro stepping forward to let fly, hoping it was like his FA Cup goal against them a couple of seasons ago but he dragged it tamely and wildly wide.  However, when the ball was played up to Richi in the centre circle, Esteve tried to muscle in on him, but went down holding his face when he took a hand in the chest.  Cullen then bundled Richarlison over, but Pape concentrate don the ball moving it to his left before delivering a perfect pass through for Brennan Johnson to run onto.  With Ekdal chasing, it looked as though his touch might have been too heavy, allowing Dubravka to come out to meet him, but the Welsh striker deft flicked the ball with the outside of his right boot past the keeper and it went in to bring out the “Johnson Again” song !  Claims for a foul on Esteve were waved away and it was 3-0.

Burnley should have pulled a goal back straight away, with Foster and substitute Ugoshukwu exchanging passes on the edge of the Tottenham area, before the former Chelsea midfielder was in between two Spurs player on the 18 yard line, centrally placed, but with the whole goal to aim at and only Vicario to stop him, he surprisingly lifted his shot high over the bar.  A Cullen corner was pulled out to the edge of the area and it was hit on the volley by Anthony, but it hit a team-mate in the chest and Spurs defended the second phase well.  Subs for Spurs saw Solanke replace Richarlison and Rodrigo Bentancur come on for Archie Gray and with 75 minutes gone, Solanke took a fiercely hit cross from Porro down well, shimmied one way, selling Ekdal quite easily, before turning to shoot the other way, but his shot with his left foot went a few feet wide of the near post.

.Pape Matar Sarr was still showing great energy, making a urn form halfway, but he didn’t get far with three Burnley players trying to foul him before he was eventually stopped.  Two more changes relieved Bergvall and Johnson while Joao Palhinha made his home debut with Wilson Odobert joining him off the bench.  Wilson slipped a pass down the inside of Walker in the left side of the area for Djed to run onto it.,  He shopped it back, sending Tchaoune sliding off the pitch, but chose to try to bear the keeper at his near post, with Kudus wanting the ball played back to him as he was unmarked in the middle of the six yard box.  Mohammed did get a shooting chance when the corner was worked to him outside the area, but his curled effort went wide.

Five minutes were left when Frank brought on Mathys Tel for Mohammed Kudus with both players getting ovations, one for his performance to that point and one the support of true fans who were willing to show that the racists will not win.  At the same time Marcus (“Mini-Messi”) Edwards came on for Anthony, but in truth I couldn’t remember him having a touch of the ball after the substitution.  There was little more action before the final whistle and Spurs ran out easy 3-0 winners.

Rightly praised for their defensive solidity last season, Burnley might also be rightly criticised for their lack of potency up front.  To be fair, a few of the openings they had were due to poor passes out of the back by Romero, who needs to be more attentive to avoid causing us to be put under pressure.  Their one good chance came late in the second half when Anthony could only bump a shot harmlessly into the ground and into Vic’s arms, but, on this showing,  the Burnley attack will not score enough goals to outdo the ones they let in.  Admittedly, all three Tottenham goals were well created and finished, but the pressure that built on their goal as they shaped up with a huge disconnect between the defence and the forward line meant there were acres of space to play into.

For Spurs, the youthful midfield looked head and shoulders above that of Burnley.  Pape was outstanding and while Richi will be lauded for his brace of goals, the amount of grass covered by the Senegalese man was phenomenal.  Alongside him, Bergvall was confident in possession and busy out of possession ,always looking to make an angle to receive the ball and Archie Gray must have been pleased to be playing in central mid, putting in a good performance that will stand him in good stead.  The one thing that stood out from a team point of view was the quick release of the ball from the goalkeeper to get things moving while Burnley weren’t set.  Quick free-kicks were also tried to be taken, although the ref often stopped these because they were in the wrong place or the ball was rolling.  With players in the side now who can move quickly with the ball, these sort of restarts have been analysed by Andreas Georgeson and pinpointed as something that can give Tottenham an edge.

A satisfactory afternoon’s work that showed that Spurs might not finish in 17th place this season, while, for Burnley, it could be a long season.  It’s only one game, but there seems to be a plan in place and with any new additions, it might give Tottenham a squad capable of challenging on all fronts.

• Martin Dubravka became the first Premier League goalkeeper to be penalised for holding onto the ball for more than eight seconds under the new interpretation of the law, thus giving Spurs a corner.
• Tottenham inflicted Burnley’s first defeat in a league match since November 2024, when they lost to Millwall.
• The score-line was the first involving more than one goal against Burnley for some time, after going 46 league matches with no more than one goal conceded all of last season.
• There were Burnley debuts for Martin Dubravka, Kyle Walker, Quilindschy Hartman, Lesley Ugochukwu, Jacob Brunn Larsen and Loum Tchauone.