SONNY SIDE UP
BURNLEY........0 TOTTENHAM...1 T
SON HEUNG-MIN slides on his knees and roars in delight last night after his header sealed a win for Spurs that lifts Jose Mourinho’s men up into fifth place in the table.
FOR more than 75 often torturous minutes, the pair who have brought belief back to Tottenham Hotspur were players on the margins, struggling to make an imprint against a side with all of the ideas. But success in this sport comes in all shapes and sizes, and so it was that Harry Kane and Son Heung-min found their winning combination once again.
An angular header from the edge of Burnley area, navigated towards the space into which Son had quietly stolen and suddenly Jose Mourinho had a very substantial smile on his face.
Kane’s initial header, from an Erik Lamela corner which had seemed to be sailing beyond him, was the really clever part — reinforcing that sublime and e xtraordinary c apacity t he insatiable centre forward has for setting others up, too.
He was operating in the deep for a lot of the night, trying to prize t hi ngs open. He was al s o Tottenham’s best distributor by some distance.
Not that there was much competition. Though the win takes Spurs fifth a nd c o ul d see t hem entrenched into the top four if they can beat Brighton this weekend, it was another of those unconvincing performances which make it so hard to comprehend how far along the road to transition under Mourinho they actually are.
‘Burnley is Burnley and they know the way they want to play,’ said Mourinho in one of those characterisations which irritates the Lancashire club more than they care to admit. ‘They’ll try to stop us. They’ve done that for many years.’ But the Tottenham manager could not translate that experience into any intelligible or unexpected strategy t o cut through the defensive ranks.
It was an opening 45 minutes crying out for Gareth Bale, on the bench again, because Spurs were ponderous, slow and horizontal in their build-up, allowing Burnley more than enough of the time needed to organise the forest of claret which was impenetrable. The only sign of invention came from Tanguy Ndombele. That’s not the kind of statement that anyone would have expected after the Frenchman started in the Spurs side here in March.
He was hauled off and subsequently castigated by his manager. Seven months on, he was the only f i nding any early pockets of space.
Route one was Mourinho’s prime line of attack. Toby Alderweireld found the long ball beyond James Tarkowski for Kane in the game’s first five minutes, by which time Josh Brownhill had already been booked for bringing down an advancing Ndombele.
But beyond a deflected Lucas Moura shot, Nick Pope was untroubled. There was a moment of concern when the goalkeeper played a ball straight out to Son but that threat was shut down.
When they tried to exploit the flanks, Spurs lacked the quality of service from Matt Doherty and Ben Davies to trouble a highly organised defensive l i ne and Burnley began to l ook more threatening than their visitors.
Ashley Barnes was a yard offside when he turned a ball in on 20 minutes but Kevin Long drew a sharp save from Hugo Lloris from 20 yards,
Johann Berg Gudmundsson and also forced the Frenchman into action after cutting in and firing low. Dyche appeared to have been the greater source of managerial i nspiration during the break because it was Burnley who continued to mount assaults after it.
The kind of challenge Spurs’ defence was up against was symbolised by the Terry Butcher style bandages wrapped a r ound Alderweireld’s head — the product of an early aerial challenge with Ashley Barnes and a careless left elbow.
Before an hour was gone, Alderweireld had become his side’s protector in chief — sticking out a foot to divert wide a Barnes shot from a Chris Wood knockdown: that classic Burnley manoeuvre. From Westwood’s ensuing corner, Tarkowski headed over. And then the dangerous Dwight McNeil was dancing around the left side of the Burnley box, initiating the onetouch move which ended in another effort. Not so typical Burnley.
Bale sat implacably in the stand. His arrival against West Ham six days ago did not exactly enhance things for Mourinho, who brought
on Erik Lamela for the largely ineffectual Lucas Moura before the hour.
But some kind of inspiration was required for a game which actually seemed to slipping away. Yet another aerial assault saw Tarkowski’s header from Westwood’s corner cleared off the line by Kane. But class told, desperate though that will have felt for Burnley last night. A driving run at their defence from Son brought a monumental block from Long moments before the corner that brought Son’s eighth goal of the season.
It took him top of the Premier League goalscorers’ chart. His smile lit up the Lancashire night — and for very good reason.
BURNLEY (4-4-2): Pope 6.5; Lowton 7, Long 7, TARKOWSKI 8, Taylor 7; Gudmundsson 5.5 (Rodriguez 84min), Westwood 6, Brownhill 5.5, McNeil 6;
Barnes 7 (Vydra 89), Wood 6. Subs not used: Brady, Peacock-Farrell, Stephens, Dunne, Benson. Booked: Brownhill, Long. Manager: Sean Dyche 7.
TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Lloris 7.5; Doherty 6, Alderweireld 7, Dier 6, Davies 5.5; Sissoko 6, Hojbjerg 6; Moura 5.5 (Lamela 57, 6); Ndombele 7 (Lo Celso 79), Son 6.5 (Rodon 90); Kane 6.5. Subs not used: Reguilon, Bale, Hart, Vinicius. Scorer: Son 76. Booked: None. Manager: Jose Mourinho 6. Referee: Michael Oliver 6.