With the move to a new ground for this season, the media and other fans are keen to build up this "Wembley hoodoo" thing, which is nonsense.  We played well enough last week against Chelsea, but got hit by two sucker punches.  Playing that way in most of our games will see us right, but it will be tougher than playing at the Lane, where we had a great record last season.  The other pressure for Spurs is the Champions League draw.  Having been in Pot 3 and now facing a tough set of games, we need to make sure that we are up there at the end of the season to qualify through a league placing. 

Burnley have been having a bit of a summer clear out with 12 players leaving the club, while they have brought in Leeds United striker Chris Wood and his team-mate Charlie Taylor, Jonathan Walters from Stoke City and Birmingham City keeper Adam Legzdins.  The losses of major players in defender Michael Keane and striker Andre Gray are going to be felt the most, with Gray the top scorer and Keane a mainstay of their defence.  With Kightly, Barton and Boyd leaving too, it looks like they are trying to upgrade and will hope to do some more business before the end of the transfer window.

The signing of Wood is a bonus, as a lot of clubs were after him and he is a strong, old-fashioned centre forward.  He did score a fair few goals in the Championship, but his step up to the Prem will have to involve a change in his game coming up against better defences.  Taylor is a highly rated young full back and he has speed and an attacking instinct, but, like Wood, the way he adapts to the top flight will be key to the impact he has on Burnley's team,  Looking at Sam Byram, who left Leeds for West Ham United London last season, he had an indifferent season, so Taylor will need to hit the ground running. 

The back line has experience in Bardsley, Lowton, Mee and Ward, but Tarkowski and Long have not been fully tested at this level.  With the way Eriksen can open up a defence, it may be that the Burnley defence get a test this afternoon, with Harry Kane looking not break another jinx in the fact that he has never scored an August goal in the Premier League.  Tom Heaton is a keeper who has worked his way up the ladder and has England caps now, but he does get plenty of action in goal for Burnley, so, as Spurs found last week, they need to finish the chances they make and make sure Heaton doesn't get a chance to make headlines.

In midfield, Dean Marney is still there, reaching the veteran stage of his career now, but a tough tackler and a willing worker, as are Jack Cork, Scott Arfield, Ashley Westwood and Jeff Hendrick.  Steven Defour was a star of the Belgian national side a few seasons ago, but has not had a regular place in the Burnley line-up.  He has quality, but maybe not the legs of a few years back.  There are a couple of Scandinavian midfielders in Ulvstad and Gudmundsson, but this is an area where Burnley might need to strengthen in terms of creativity, as they need to carve out chances for their front men. 

They will be strong in the air up top with Wood, Vokes and .Barnes all tall and strong, but they now have Walters to provide crosses for them to attack, while he is also good from set-pieces.  Daniel Agyei came through the ranks at AFC Wimbledon, without playing a first team game before signing for Burnley, but spent the bulk of last season on loan at Coventry City, so is one to bring through rather than push into the first team too soon.

Tottenham should be able to take the three points and resolve some of the media's concerns, but Burnley are always well set-up under Dyche and have given us a few worrying moments in the last few seasons.  With Walters likely to be missing, it may stem their attacking threat, unless they go long, but I think there will be a happy outcome for Spurs.
 

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Internet :
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  2  Kieran TRIPPIER
  4  Toby ALDERWEIRELD
  5  Jan VERTONGHEN
33  Ben DAVIES

15  Eric DIER
19  Mousa DEMBELE  (  6  Davinson SANCHEZ 90+3)

23  Christian ERIKSEN  (29  Harry WINKS 88)
20  DELE Alli 
  7  Heung-Min SON  (17  Moussa SISSOKO 70)

10  Harry KANE

Unused subs: 
13  Michel VORM
37  Kyle WALKER-PETERS
46  Tashan OAKLEY-BOOTHE
  9  Vincent JANSSEN

  2  Matthew LOWTON
  5  James TARKOWSKI
  6  Ben MEE (c)
23  Stephen WARD

12  Robbie BRADY
17  Jonathan Berg GUDMUNSSON  (11  Chris WOOD  57)
  4  Jack CORK
16  Steven DEFOUR  (18  Ashley WESTWOOD 81)
37  Scott ARFIELD

  9  Sam VOKES  (10  Ashley BARNES  57)

Unused subs: 
29  Nick POPE
26  Phil BARDSLEY
  3  Charlie TAYLOR
28  Kevin LONG
 

A late goal by Burnley earned them a point in a game that ebbed and flowed, but saw Tottenham lose concentration at a vital stage after dele Alli had put the team ahead at Wembley.

With the sun out on a Bank Holiday weekend, Tottenham looked to consolidate after losing to Chelsea last week.  Their opponents, the victors over Chelsea on the opening day of the season, Burnley were also looking to bounce back after losing 0-1 to WBA. With the game kicking off on a warm afternoon in front of a less than full Wembley, 

Perhaps we should have realised from the first minute that it wasn't going to be Tottenham's day.  When Kane's shot was blocked in the first attack, Son got the rebound but miscued horribly and put the ball very high and very wide.  After six minutes, Hugo Lloris was called into action (not for the first time today), as he back-pedalled very quickly to push a curling cross (or was it a shot ?) over the bar as it looked like it was going in.  The Clarets were always going to be dangerous from set-pieces and Mee had a good chance from a corner, but headed wide, while Spurs got their fire shot on goal when Kane and Eriksen linked with the ball running into Christian's path to striker from outside the box, but it hit a defender and went wide with the keeper going the wrong way.  Dele then had a shot blocked and when Eriksen was bundled off the ball on the edge of their box, the referee waved play on (perhaps unsurprisingly when compared to the rest of his bizarre decisions).  When we did get a free-kick (it would have been hard not to award it really), Davies' ball in was met by Kane rising at the far post, but he put the header wide. 

The speed that Burnley got their players back behind the ball made it hard for Spurs top break them down, especially when we weren't playing with the tempo to trouble them unduly.  Despite the August hoodoo Harry Kane suffers, he wasn't shot shy and took an early one on the turn that just flicked off a defender to take the ball over the bar.   The same fate arose from Dier's header from a free-kick and also at the other end for Tarkowski, who should have headed back across goal instead of trying to beat Lloris at the far post from a narrow angle.

Jan looked good going forward today and also had a pop at goal from a cleared corner, but another block ballooned the ball up for Heaton to just keep in, wide of the goal.  Kane and Dele had efforts blocked, as did Toby Alderweireld, when a corner came out to him.  The best chance came when Davies got to the dead-ball line and pulled the ball back for Kane, but the ball was slightly behind him and it got stuck under his feet, but he still got his shot off and it was deflected wide.  Twice Mason pulled play back for a foul when we were breaking away in possession.  The worst was when Lowton brought down Dele and the ball went out left to Eriksen and the referee stopped the game, as Lowton had injured himself in committing the foul !!

Just before half-time, after having been pegged back in their half for a while, Burnley broke, releasing Gudmundsson on the right corner of the area and he fired in a shot at goal, but going for the tight side, he shot too high, instead of going across Hugo.

The half-time whistle brought murmurs of discontent which were boos at the end of the second half.  It hadn't been that bad, just difficult to get past the massed ranks of claret and blue shirts and it wasn't a whole lot different to what Chelsea did and we will have to get used to teams coming here and playing like that.  And find a way around it.

Burnley kicked off the second half, after a brief interview with Micky Hazard and the Spurs Under-9s in the interval, but Tottenham were soon knocking the ball about at the back.  They built a move that saw Dele's cross cleared out for a corner by Lowton and from it, the ball was flicked on at the near post by Eric Dier and it was met by Dele about five yards out, central in front of goal.  His shot was blocked by either Tarkowski or Dembele, but he got a second chance and side-footed home past the Burnley defenders in front of him.  It was similar to Dier's goal at Turf Moor last season and had finally managed to breach the Clarets' defence, just two minutes after the break.

This should have led to Tottenham going on to dominate the game.  They enjoyed  lots of possession and created some chances, but once again failed to finish off the opposition.  They weren't helped by some original refereeing by Mason, who let the Burnley players got through the back of Tottenham's without a caution and when Vokes bundled Alderweireld off the pitch after the ball had gone out, he failed to even talk to the forward about the assault he had perpetrated.  Moving the ball better and a bit quicker, Spurs opened up the visitors' defence with Eriksen and Dele linking before setting up Kane with a shooting opportunity just left of the goal about 12 yards out.  Trying to curl it past Heaton, Harry got too much on it and the ball went just wide. 

Burnley were getting the ball down their left in wide positions and won a corner that brought a header at the far post be Defour back to Ward, who sliced his shot high into the crowd way behind the goal.  The game got bogged down a bit, as both sides made substitutions and Wood, Burnley's record signing looked to get on the end of a right wing Brady cross, but couldn't reach it at the far post.  They started to go long, looking for Wood's head, but too often the ball was too long or Wood was offside.  When they did use the ball on the floor, Brady got a yard of space inside the right hand corner of the box and drove a rising shot at goal that Lloris had to be alert to and he pushed it wide when it looked like it would creep inside his near post.  Tottenham hit back with a break down the left by Davies, who pulled a low pass back to Kane, whose first time shot was scrambled wide of the post by Heaton's full length dive to his right.  It looked as though Spurs might take the game away from Burnley, as Dembele's shot from the corner went off a defender for another and when that came over Kane got on the end of it and Defour was stationed on the line to kick the ball clear.  Sissoko played it back in to the far post, where Christian showed great control and then stung Heaton's hands with a shot that was heading for the top corner from a tight angle.

Eriksen should really have finished the game off when Kane nudged a ball to Sissoko inside his own half and then the French midfielder went on a run down the right, crossing an inch perfect ball to the Dane in front of  goal ten yards out.  Perhaps caught in two minds between shooting and controlling the ball, it got away from him and the keeper grabbed it.  Heaton then denied Kane with a close range shot before being in the right place to beat out Dele's shot, after Trippier had fed the ball into the area and Eriksen had pulled the ball across to him from the right.  While possession and territorial dominance was Tottenham's, they were unable to force the issue and gain a second goal, then they needed an intervention from Lloris to thwart Burnley.  A through ball found Wood running onto the ball and Hugo had to dash out of his area and make a perfectly timed tackle on the forward.  There was so much that could have gone wrong then, but it was a fine challenge that won the ball cleanly. 

It was a sign of things to come and a low ball across the box from Arfield on the left saw it travel a long way before Vertonghen cleared it.  Wood had a weak header from close range that went straight at  Lloris and then the striker got to Arfield's cross on the stretch, but could control his volley that squirted off his foot and went wide.   Sub Ashley Barnes had a headed chance when Winks inadvertently flicked on a  long throw and left the Burnley striker a couple of yards out, but he put it weakly at Lloris.  Jan had already dealt with one intended ball through our back line, but the one that did the damage saw Wood get in behind Trippier, who seemed unaware that he was behind him and Toby couldn't get across in time to block his shot.

Two minutes into four of added time, whereas there was one in the first half when the physios had been on the pitch more and Spurs had let their win slip away.  Last season there had been good game management and seeing close games out, but this had proved a struggle.  Firstly to get the lead, which Dele didn't seem keen on celebrating and then holding onto it, looking tired going into the last five minutes.  The bigger pitch seems to be playing havoc with our game and while it is not the hoodoo that is the problem, accustoming themselves to the new pitch seems to be leaving more space for opposition players to exploit.  It was the opposite in the first half, where Burnley made the pitch very small by packing nine outfield players behind the ball very quickly.  Not great watching, but effective and Spurs lacked the ingenuity to break through it.   

One way of looking at it is they beat Chelsea, we didn't and got a draw against Burnley, so was it a good result ?  Probably not in the way it happened, but a point is better than nothing and while not the win we had against them at home last season, it isn't another defeat.  It's now three weeks to our next home league game with a trip to Everton in between.  The squad could be different by then if Pochettino and Levy have their ways, so it might be a period of transition at the wring time for us.  As for Burnley, they were worth their draw, as we didn't close the game down and they didn't rely on the long ball for the entire time Wood was on the pitch.  Plan B might be something we need to cultivate.
 

Stanford Rivers