26  Phil BARDSLEY     
  5  James TARKOWSKI
  6  Ben MEE
  3  Sam TAYLOR

13  Jeff HENDRICK  (12  Robbie BRADY  80)
18  Ashley WESTWOOD
  4  Jack CORK
31  Dwight McNEIL  (  7  Johann Berg GUDMUNDSSON  80)

10  Ashley BARNES
11  Chris WOOD

Unused subs: 
20  Joe HART
  2  Matthew LOWTON
14  Ben GIBSON
15  Peter CROUCH
27  Matej VYDRA

21  Juan FOYTH       (11  Erik LAMELA  76     )
  4  Toby ALDERWEIRELD 
  5  Jan VERTONGHEN

24  Serge AURIER
  8  Harry WINKS  (18  Fernando LLORENTE  62     )
17  Moussa SISSOKO
  3  Danny ROSE

23  Christian ERIKSEN

10  Harry KANE
  7  Heung-Min SON  (27  Lucas MOURA  88)

Unused subs: 
22  Paulo GAZZANIGA
16  Kyle WALKER-PETERS
33  Ben DAVIES
12  Victor WANYAMA
 

With Liverpool meeting Manchester United on Sunday, this was the ideal opportunity to close that gape between us and the top two, but Sean Dyche's side bullied Spurs into defeat to continue their best run of results in the top flight since 1966 with a 2-1 win at Turf Moor  It wasn't helped by another arrogant performance from Mike Dean, but there was a lack of urgency in much of Tottenham's play, which was odd considering the squad had the longest break between games for a while and there was the added boost of Harry Kane's return.

The sun shone down on the Lancashire town as Brnley kicked off.  Within a couple of minutes, Lloris was brought into action when a corner swung in under his crossbar. He had to reach up and backwards to turn it over the top as he didn’t know that the whistle was going to be blown by referee Mike Dean.

Danny Rose was getting space on the left, with a cross into the six yard box that Heaton had to take on the ground, just ahead of Kane and then when Spurs switched the next move from right to left, he struck a shot that came off Bardsley and left him winded. The wind was playing a part, as McNeil put a high cross in that Lloris was under pressure from Wood, as it came down from a great height almost under the bar again, but it had already gone out for a goal-kick.

Referee Mike Dean was once more proving he isn’t a Spurs fan, when Barnes tussled with Foyth, the free-kick went in the home team’s favour despite the Argentine defender’s shirt was ripped down the front. It took a quarter of an hour to see Harry Kane with the ball at his feet in front of goal and his run across the face of the penalty area from right to left saw him shoot at goal, but it was wide of Heaton’s right-hand post.

Burnley were trying to intimidate Spurs, with physical contact after every time a Spurs player went past them. The shout of “Get into ‘em” that came from the Burnley crowd wasn’t entirely necessary in view of what was going on out on the pitch.

Son almost performed a scrunched up overhead kick from Sissoko’s cross and then was knocked down off the ball with Dean standing next to him but doing nothing. Burnley were “leaving something” on Spurs players with every challenge and this made the game scrappy with no passing moves being allowed to produce much in the penalty areas.

It took about half an hour before Spurs started getting on the ball and Eriksen struck from just outside the area, but couldn’t get a clean hit on it, allowing Heaton to save easily to his left, but straight away, Burnley attacked at the other end. Hendrick pulled a ball back from the line on the right wing and Barnes swung a boot at it, producing a first time shot that only just cleared the bar.  Son took on the home defence on the right wing and got to the line, but his ball across goal wasn’t into an area where there were any white shirts. It was kicked away, straight to Sissoko, who shot but pulled it along way wide. A deft long pass forward by Eriksen put it over Tarkowski’s head for Kane, but his first touch was showing a little rustiness and Heaton was out at his feet to take it off him in the penalty box. Harry did get an effort on target after a passing move that went across the pitch from left to right and ended with Sissoko’s cross being headed at goal, but straight at the keeper. And that was the end result when Rose’s cross was met by Serge Aurier, but the header lacked power and was right down the middle of the goal.

The match had reached a stage where the home crowd had gone strangely silent and the shouts of the players could be clearly heard. Only the odd shout of handball every time a Tottenham player kicked it broke the peace and quiet of the Lancashire afternoon. Well, that and Dean’s whistle giving Burnley bewildering free-kick decisions. The biggest cheers for the home side came when the ball was played back to Hugo Lloris !

The start of the second half contrasted with the first, with Tottenham pressing from the kick off and crossing into the box, but not finding a target. Harry took it upon himself to try from outside the box – a long way outside the box – forcing Heaton to make a flying save to push his 30-yarder wide as it was heading into the top right hand corner of his goal.

A corner which was contested when Vertonghen seemed to play the ball off It was played in and Wood dropped behind Foyth to head in off the underside of the bar. Another goal conceded form a set-piece and you know Burnley are going to try and make the most of them when they get forward. Having got the first goal, would Burnley now sit back on their lead ?

Pochettino looked to meet the physical challenge that Burnley were putting in, with Wood elbowing Aurier in the chest and Son being cleaned out in front of the referee. Bringing on Llorente for Winks meant a change of style and Spurs needed to adapt quickly, with just over half an hour left. And that they did ! Danny Rose took a quick throw-in down the line for Kane and he ran away, shrugging off Mee’s challenge in the area before slipping the ball past Heaton from a narrow angle. The home crowd were irate because Rose took the throw from a few yards from where it went off and Dyche ranted at the fourth official too. Shame he didn’t show so much annoyance about the corner that was awarded and they scored from.

Burnley were playing the tactic of leaving a man offside and then bringing them back into the game when the opposition have touched the ball. That was what got  Foyth booked for a high challenge on Wood, who had been standing offside before trying to get to a loose header by the Argentine. Of course, because the linesman cannot flag until a player becomes active, you never quite know when someone is off or not.  With the crowd baying for Foyth to be sent off, it was odd they didn’t do the same when Bardsley took Rose out with a higher tackle a couple of minutes later. Dean only deemed it a yellow and missed the chance to record his 100th Premier League sending off.

Hendrick drove a shot across Lloris and wide of the far post from their right and then Vertonghen blocked a shot with 15 minutes remaining. Hugo had to be in the right place when a shot was blocked and went to McNeil, who struck a shot from the left of centre in the area, forcing Lloris into a block with his leg from 12 yards out.  Then, seven minutes from time, it happened. Wood tried to cut in from the left by lifting the ball over Aurier’s head, but Serge cleared the bouncing ball to about 30 yards out. Cork touched it to substitute Bergmundsson, who moved forward and shot at goal. The effort would have gone well wide, as he dragged it with a scuffed shot, but it ran kindly for Burnley, right in front of Barnes, just five yards out and all he had to do was put it into the net in front of him. It wasn’t the ideal situation for Spurs, but Burnley had been pressing and you have to give some credit to Dyche for making two attacking substitutions rather than just trying to sit on a point, which is what they tried to do at Wembley from the kick off.

They kept trying to move forward and Spurs only had one real chance, when a cleared cross dropped to Eriksen right on the top of the D, but he smashed it high over the bar. Banging high balls into the box didn’t serve Spurs well, as Burnley were well-versed at dealing with that and when a cross did find a Tottenham head, it was Lamela’s. His header was on target, but lacked much conviction and was straight at Heaton.

The game petered out with Burnley trying to keep the ball in the corners, unsuccessfully, but it prevented Spurs getting the ball upfield.  During the match, Spurs got plenty of crosses into the box, but very few found a white shirt on the end of them and it went a long a long way to explaining why we didn't threaten the Burnley goal too much.  Kane did force a flying stop by Heaton, but the other efforts on goal by the team didn't over-stretch him.  Unfortunately, on the day, there were too many Spurs players who were below par to push Burnley harder.

The usual shouts about Spurs bottling will be coming thick and fast, but with the next ten days' games against Chelsea, Arsenal and Dortmund are ones which have attained even more importance now.  Talking about Tottenham’s run-in with a work colleague, he had listened to Adrian Durham on TalkSport and the Peterborough supporting presenter reckoned we would be lifting the Premier League trophy at our new Stadium come May. Obviously, when the man who has known little success with his team says these things on the radio, it is to build our team up, only to knock them down later. When I said that we had a lot of catching up to do, the response from my friend was that we have a lot of winnable games apart for those against the top six. I agreed they are all winnable, but they still have to be won.

I think this result proves that point.

Sparky Marky