Burnley (Away) 24.01.2026

From the kick off Spurs moved the ball down the right and some loose Burnley defending allowed a long ball into the box to run to Djed Spence, who got in behind Walker, who mis-controlled it and cut it back across goal with Dominic Solanke just unable to reach it.  15 seconds and Tottenham could have been ahead.  Spurs were pressing to control the game from the early stages and Djed Spence hit a shot from inside the left hand corner of the area that brought a straightforward save from Dubravka. 

Pires poked the ball in the net but he was obviously offside when the ball was headed on to him standing in the six yard box well beyond the last defender.  There was little coherent play form either side, with both sides unable to string a number of passes together to create chances and when Pedro Porro played a loose pass, the ball was moved to former Spurs midfielder Marcus Edwards on the 18 yard line, where Cristian Romero caught his foot.  Burnley wanted a penalty, as it looked to be a foul, but the linesman had raised his flag and after a reasonably quick VAR, that decision was confirmed.

Just after 20 minutes, Simons ran at the Burnley defence, only to be brought down right on the edge of the box by Marcus Edwards, with the free-kick being taken by Pedro Porro, who missed by a couple of feet after getting it over the wall, hitting the side-netting.  Four minutes later, there was another foul on Xavi, this time a poor tackle from Florentino conceding another free-kick just outside the area and this time Pedro got it on target with Dubravka pushing it away to his right before it was cleared to safety.  With 35 minutes gone, Wilson Odobert ran through the Burnley half, coming in off the right wing and tried a curler that the keeper had to go full-length to push the shot away.  Dubravka punched the corner away, made another fine save as Odobert smashed the ball back at goal and when there was a scramble, he was down at his near post when Conor Gallagher fired at goal from inside the six yard box.  From this corner, it was worked short and Djed lofted a high cross to the far post.  Burnley failed to deal with it convincingly, poking the ball away when it dropped only to Micky van de Ven who found the net, smashing it back on target with his left foot into the bottom left corner of the keeper’s net as he was falling about 13 yards out to give Spurs the lead.

Wilson was then put in by a neat touch from Xavi, but his shot was straight at the keeper and you feel that a yard either side and it would have been 2-0.  Conor Gallagher was taking a bit of a kicking, with former team-mate Broja taking out retribution for a crunching tackle on him by Romero and then another ex-Chelsea reject Ugochukwu going through him from behind, which I thought normally resulted in a booking, but the referee didn’t think so.  He should watch some of the bookings (or worse) we get for the same sort of tackle.  Some loose play when Vicario put a pass out to Cristian Romero who failed to control it as the ball went off for a throw.  The throw from Kyle Walker was taken short, but when the ball went out in more or less the same place, this time it was played back to the former Spurs defender whose cross gave Tuanzebe the opportunity to put the ball into the Tottenham net from just outside the six yard box on the volley right on half-time.  Nobody picked up the defender’s run and the home side were level having had only this shot on target.

Frank replaced Porro with Destiny Udogie at half-time, coming in on the left with Djed switching to the right wing back position.  At the start of the second half, the ref failed to give a decision when players from both sides were knocked to the ground in a phase of play before finally deciding Gallagher had been fouled.  Micky made a vital interception as Broja fired an effort on goal after Anthony slipped him through in the left side of the area, but Spurs responded with a cross that just cleared Xavi’s head, although Destiny Udogie kept it in and played it in for Dom to get between two defenders to have his close range header saved by the keeper. 

When Spence went on a run and put his arm out to ward off Florentino, he went down holding his head.  Play was stopped and it is interesting that play is halted for a head injury for a stray arm, but when that happens to a goalkeeper, it rarely is.  Another Tottenham attack that left Djed on the floor in the Burnley area saw play being allowed to continue and the home side broke away with Broja going through and forcing Vicario to a save, but he was offside and the flag went up too late to prevent Vicario getting a kick on the arm having to make a double save. 

Djed forced Dubravka to a good stop with a 20 yard shot, pushing the ball wide to the right and then Burnley had a bit more control of the ball having been more offensive after the break, but even then Spurs had a lot of possession in the Burnley half.  When a ball was played through the Spurs defence, Foster was found by Anthony and Vic saved the sub’s shot, but despite the best attempts of the keeper and Udogie, they could not prevent Foster’s second attempt the ball trickling in to turn the game around in Burnley’s favour.  With the side sitting deep, it was almost inviting Burnley on and they obliged with the Tottenham defence missing in action as there were three claret shirts around the ball when it was played through by Anthony.

Immediately, Danso was taken off with Tel coming on and Archie Gray replacing Yves Bissouma, who had played very well, winning the ball and looking confident in control it.  Quite why play was held up when Pires smashed the ball into the crowd after it had gone off for a Spurs throw, hitting one of the ambulance staff and then launching himself into the stand to apologise. 

Seven minutes from the end Spence battle to win the ball off Pires before put the ball into the middle and substitute Mathys Tel got to it, but Dubravka touched the shot wide, as the ball headed towards the top right corner of his goal.  From the corner, the ball came out to Odobert and he smashed a shot high into the crowd. 

Edwards exited with Mejbri taking his place, while Spurs made an attacking change, with Dane Scarlett leaving the bench with Gallagher going off.  Udogie made a run into the box that saw Walker make an ill-judged connection on him, but Destiny stayed on his feet.  Into the last minute of the game and the woodwork came to Burnley’s assistance with Odobert tricking his way past Pires and pulling the ball back to the back of the six yard box that gave Simons the chance to fire a fierce shot against the crossbar.  Cleared to the halfway line, Gray took a throw in, Tottenham worked the ball from right to left and then back right to Wilson, whose cross saw Romero get on the end of it to power home a header to make it 2-2 before the board went up signifying five added minutes were to be played.  Burnley had all their players back in the defensive third, but failed to pick up the Spurs skipper’s determined run to meet the cross sweetly.

With Spurs wanting to get on with the game, Mejbri went down wanting a free-kick, so he grabbed the ball with both hands and then prevented Tottenham getting on with the free-kick by trapping the ball between his legs and the weak referee let him off with a talking to.  I can’t imagine Romero getting the same outcome if he did that.

This was a match between a side struggling at the bottom of the table and a side struggling to find a style of play that will bring results.  Having battled to a few draws in their last few games, perhaps it wasn’t surprising that this would end all square.  Looking at the game, it wasn’t a bad performance by Tottenham although large numbers of the fans in the away end failed to share that opinion.  To get the wins they expect Spurs have to do a couple of things that might seem quite basic.  One is to make more of the chances we create and the second is to concentrate at the back.  Basic that may be but fans also have to realise that there are eleven players out there trying to stop us playing and wanting the win too, so things don’t always go the way you want them.

There was more determination about the team this afternoon, with a greater willingness to take shots on, finding Dubravka in good form to keep them out.  Yes, we were playing a team who hadn’t won for 10 games, but then that was the same as our matches against West Ham United London and Bournemouth and look what happened there.  This time it was Spurs getting the last minute goal and picking up a point on a ground where we have failed to in the past and probably with better teams than this one.

Our situation isn’t great, but a point maintains our decent away record and sees us go two games unbeaten, so hopefully, that can be transferred to our home league form against Mancashter City next week.  But before that we travel to Frankfurt for our last league phase match in the Champions League, where a win will guarantee a top eight place that avoids two extra play-off matches.

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