newly promoted relegation fodder.
It was a struggle but Spurs managed their first win in five games as newly promoted and now newly relegated Burnley coughed up a lead to lose to a couple of crackers from the defenders.
Lad, it’s Burnley. Well, the East Lanc’s monkeys had a chance to stay up, I mean… lads, it’s Tottenham. And they did take the lead. After all Ange was helpful to them.
With Richarlison again injured and Kulusevski again being accommodated and no actual left-back, Ange went predictable with his line up, knowing that Son up front doesn’t work, while Kulusevski anywhere doesn’t work. The Swede was surprisingly on the left, which meant Johnson wasn’t displaced from his natural side and plonked on the left where he really doesn’t work.
So you’d think Kulu couldn’t stop play by cutting inside, well he could but here he tried a new trick. Turning outside when already wide. Yes, what a fabulous idea, turn into the sideline then you only have one option, the option of passing the ball about. That’s of course when you’re not just losing the ball then doing a pathetic belly flop on the player that’s easily dispossessed you.
It’s no surprise with Skipp at left-back, that the Burnley opener came from that Spurs’ left. They’d already had a good chance from a cross from that side, which again Vicario had to be the hero for. Though it did start through the middle, as the Spurs midfield disappeared. Skipp was floundering while Kulusevski was never gonna be any help, as Vicario was left to face a shot that he didn’t know which way it was going.
The lead didn’t last long but should be a fullback that’s getting the equaliser? Son up the middle does not work Ange, how many times do you need to see it not working? As I tweeted, could it be any worse with some kid up front and Son on the left. No, it couldn’t. It wouldn’t have been any worse with Alejo Veliz up front but no they were desperate to send him out on load, a loan that hasn’t worked as he’s played very few minutes, while going into a season with one centre forward, who is a bit injury prone.
The equaliser came from a Porro piledriver. He’d had a an earlier sighter, amazingly it came from a Kulusevski cross with his left foot, I know but then it was a cross that didn’t find a Spurs player in the box but was cleared. This time it was all on the right and the shot was from inside the box and gave the big Burnley lump in goal no hope.
What followed for the next 40 plus minutes was it not working again Ange. It was 75 minutes in when Ange finally figured out what everyone had figured out weeks ago. Skipp made way for Dragusin, which moved Micky van de Ven to left-back, while Dane Scarlett replaced Kulusevski, going up front, Son now was on the left. Bentancur also replaced Bissouma.
It paid off just 7 minutes later when again it took a fullback to show the forwards how to do it. While Burnley kept gifting Spurs chances, Spurs kept spurning them with weak finishes. Then Bentancur played the ball forward to Maddison who played it on forward to Micky van de Ven who about the third most advanced Spurs player, cutting into the middle, he then twisted his body to take a shot in the near post with his left a brilliant finish, showing the rest how to do it.
Two cracking goals, very little else, against a team that never looked likely to stay up, from the moment they came up and were now relegated after this latest loss.
So now we have the situation of being four points behind Villa, after the same number of games, needing to win the final two games and hoping Villa slip up in theirs to gain that Champions League spot, a scenario which would probably hand the league title to the Woolwich Wanderers.
Oh how very… very… Spursy…