Tottenham endured another frustrating day at Wembley as they struggle to adapt to life away from White Hart Lane. It looked like they were on for the victory until Chris Wood equalised in the 92nd minute on his debut for Burnley.
Tottenham’s frustration could be summed up in Harry Kane. Another successive August with no goals in the Premier League despite having a host of chances today.
Sean Dyche’s team look a completely different outfit to last season. The pragmatic, efficient brand of football they used to play appears to be gone and in its place, is a much more free-flowing entertaining game.
Burnley started the game strongly with a couple of corners early on and applying good pressure to the opposition. There was more of the now-familiar link-up play between Dele Alli and Kane but both sides seemed fairly evenly matched.
Spurs eventually settled into a more comfortable rhythm and started to take control of the game. Kane had a headed opportunity he should have done better with and Son had a good chance for which he was wrongly called offside.
Burnley however, were compact and well drilled in their defensive duties, not allowing Spurs enough space to fully utilise their potent attacking threat. Matt Lowton in particular having a good game going up against Ben Davies.
The breakthrough for Spurs finally came in the 48th minute when Dele Alli managed to get the ball in the net after a poor clearance from Ben Mee and ensuing goalmouth scramble.
The goal managed to inject some life in Spurs and Wembley Stadium and if it had not been for Harry Kane’s fear of August they probably would have scored more.
Not long after the goal Dyche introduced Chris Wood and Ashley Barnes into the fray. The pair ensured that for the majority of the second half Eriksen and Dier were restricted in their movement and could not give the likes of Kane and Alli the supply that they are so used to.
Wood repeatedly found himself in offside positions but eventually in the 92nd minute Brady sent a great ball in to the box and Wood calmly slotted past Lloris.
A point is probably no more or less than these two teams deserve based on their performance today. Burnley, owe it to Tom Heaton that they only conceded the one goal. The captain had another stellar performance, one which ensures that Sean Dyche will be the happier of the managers tonight.
For Spurs however serious questions are starting to be asked. Is the ‘Wembley curse’ really affecting them? 1 win in their last 12 games there would suggest so. Pochettino needs to break this hoodoo as quickly as possible- 4 points from their opening three games will not be what he was expecting. The next time Spurs play in the league will be in September so Harry Kane should hopefully be back up and running again, ready to score the goals that have got them so close to the title in the past seasons.
Written by Dom Clarke.
