Burnley vs Tottenham: Spurs followed up their win over Manchester City with a 1-0 defeat at Turf Moor on Wednesday, as the Clarets made another giant step toward surviving relegation.
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Ben Mee scored the game’s only goal in the 71st minute, and they were unfortunate to have left it that late after creating and narrowly missing a handful of high-quality chances up until that point. Tottenham were slow out of the starting blocks and lacked the final-third ruthless they displayed over the weekend.
The defeat leaves Spurs 8th in the Premier League table, seven points back of 4th-place Manchester United, now with just two games in hand.
Burnley vs Tottenham final score, stats, results
Final score: Burnley 1, Tottenham 0
Goal scorers: Burnley (Mee 71'), Tottenham (None)
Shots: Burnley 15, Tottenham 12
Shots on target: Burnley 4, Tottenham 2
Possession: Burnley 34%, Tottenham 66%
3 things we learned - Burnley vs Tottenham
1. Spurs playing to their competition, or struggling with style: On the weekend, Tottenham looked every bit Manchester City’s equals, with a carefully crafted, cautious approach that saw them soak up pressure very well and spring dangerous counter-attacks whenever they won the ball back. Against Burnley, though, the onus to possess the ball and break down the deep-defending side was squarely on Tottenham, and there wasn’t a player in white (save for Harry Kane) who didn’t shrink in the face of that challenge in the first half. Burnley pressed and feverishly battled for the ball just as Spurs did on Saturday, and they were the dominant side for 45 minutes.
2. Second half wide open, even until Burnley score: Tottenham were massively improved in Burnley’s half of the field to begin the second half, with Kane pulling the strings upon dropping into midfield and Dejan Kulusevski operating in the right channel (as Burnley smartly ushered all Tottenham possession out wide and forced cross after cross into the box, a Burnley center back’s dream), but they remained just as poor and chaotic defensively as they were before the break. Spurs conceded twice in the win over Manchester City, after conceding eight goals in the three previous games (all defeats, to Chelsea, Southampton and Wolves) — a disappointing development in Conte’s eyes, no doubt.
3. Burnley doing their typical Burnley thing: Every year, someone says, “This is the year Burnley go down,” and every yea Burnley remind everyone how silly it was — same as it was the year before, and the year before, and so on. Only, this year was really going to be the year after winning just one of their first 21 games in the Premier League and selling star striker Chris Wood to relegation rivals Newcastle. Then, they battered Brighton on Saturday and deservedly beat Tottenham on Wednesday. Suddenly, the Clarets have 20 points, are up to 18th in the table and trail the Magpies by just two points (with a game still in hand). There’s still plenty of work to be done, but if there’s one thing at which Sean Dyche sides excel, it is hard work.
Man of the Match: Ben Mee and James Tarkowski - If there’s one thing Burnley center backs love to do, it’s head the ball again and again and again. Credit to everyone else who made that the assignment for the big men in the middle, but they were dominant in the air.
