Burnley (away) 27.10.2021

Nuno made six changes to the feckless side who lost on Sunday and with a diamond up front, putting Lo Celso behind captain Harry Kane, flanked by Bryan and Bergwijn.  The attacking formation almost paid off three minutes in, when Lo Celso’s pass pushed Kane into the left side of the box, but he dragged his left footed effort horribly wide.  The gusty wind was making it difficult to judge passes, which ended up getting caught on the breeze or taken away by it.  Burnley’s first eye of goal came in the 15th minute, when Brownhill fired way over the goal from a corner, but with only 25 minutes played, Bryan limped off to be replaced by Lucas in a switch that changed things a little.  His direct running was going to be an issue for the Burnley players.

Royal set up Steven Bergwijn, but his missed the ball completely, before Lucas was sandwiched as he burst between Cork and Brownhill, giving Spurs a free-kick, that Gio only could hit the wall with.  The home side’s moves stemmed from Pope’s long first half kicks, which normally found Gollini rather than their intended targets.  If that wasn’t the case, Davinson Sanchez and Cristian Romero were dealing with the bombardment admirably.  So, Spurs moved forward, but without any reward, as Bergwijn hit Cork with a shot and then a pass intended for him from Lucas, after a dart into the box, was cut out.  A sloppy back-pass from Connor Roberts, who had a bit of a terrible debut, conceded a corner and when Lucas flicked it on at the near post, Harry Kane hit a falling volley too high.

No shots on target in the first 45 had produced an untidy half with Spurs having the bulk of the possession, but not making it count in testing the Burnley keeper Pope.  With the second half seeing Spurs playing towards their noisy support, they had been out early and were looking a little more keen to get on with setting about their task despite the wind now having the opposite effect having changed ends.  That suited Burnley’s longer game and they should have done better when a Pieters cross from the left wing to the far post was met by Johann Gudmundsson’s head and he put it back into the goalmouth, but behind Rodriguez, who handled it to give Spurs some relief.

Bergwijn was trying to find a way through, but another shot was blocked by Roberts and Burnley then took off their front two, replacing them with Wood and Barnes, the two battering rams, so you know what would be coming with thirty minutes left.  Spurs were keeping the ball away from their own goal and after another blocked Bergwijn shot, the Dutchman was replaced by HMS and Tanguy Ndombele came on for Skipp, who had got away with a heavy tackle on McNeil earlier.

Then it happened.  Spurs won the ball on halfway, it went to Kane, who passed to Lo Celso, finding Emerson on the right.  He took a stride forward, picked out a ball to the penalty spot and Lucas had simply to stoop forward to head it down and past Pope to give Spurs the lead with 22 minutes left.  A goal of stunning simplicity, but it turned out that was all that was needed.  In truth, Spurs should have scored a couple of minutes before the substitutions.  Sanchez won the ball, slipped it to Harry who freed Lo Celso running alongside him to his right and with only the keeper to beat, he flicked it with the outside of his left boot allowing Pope to reach to his right to push the ball aside.  A simpler right foot curled effort to the keeper’s left would have found the net.

Roberts added to a poor night with a yellow card for a bad foul on Kane, as Spurs gained control of the game and with Burnley looking to ramp things up going forward, they left space to be hit on the break.  Lucas ran straight down the middle and with no closing down, fired a shot that was a couple of feet off the ground all the way, forcing Pope to push it away to the keeper’s right and the England keeper had to be alert when Lucas set up Emerson to fire a shot from inside the box that he had to be saved.  With 15 minutes left, the emergence of Aaron Lennon from the bench brought the well-deserved ovation from both sets of fans, but the introduction of Maxwell Cornet was a little more worrying, having scored twice at the weekend. 

Balls being slung into the box were the weapon of choice by Sean Dyche and while not all got there, Davinson Sanchez and Cristian Romero made some excellent interceptions, with Sanchez preventing the ball reaching Wood at the expense of a corner, while Romero failed to be bullied by the newly-introduced physical presence.  It wasn’t just the defence who showed the resilience needed, with Lo Celso tackling back on Brownhill to win a goal-kick off him of equal importance.  Gollini’s sole save of the night came in the 84th minute, taking Barnes’ effort with ease and royal, Davies and Sanchez were all first to win throws into the area.  When the home team did have a chance, Pieters smashed a volley over from outside the box following a clearance and just in case they had any other ideas, Nuno took Gio off and brought Joe Rodon on to add some height to the already dominant back line.

In time added on, a ball forward from Moura aimed at Kane looked as though it might settle the match, but Pope just got to it first, nearer the halfway line than his goal-line, but in his hurry he over-hit the ball out for a Tottenham goal-kick.  Trying to run down time, Sonny got booked for taking time over a corner that was played short and Spurs kept the ball at the Burnley end until the final whistle.

It wasn’t a classic, but I don’t remember anyone claiming it would be and in the future, the score-line won’t tell what a let-down the first half had been or how strong Spurs had been to stave off Burnley getting close to our goal … it will just show we won and Burnley didn’t.  A valuable win but one that will be unlikely to live in the memory banks.

Keith Mandemant