DAY THE SPURS DREAM DIED?
THE eruption will earn him a summons and rightly so. Whatever injustice was eating away at Mauricio Pochettino, he should not have engaged in a confrontation with Mike Dean.
How the FA choose to deal with Tottenham’s manager will become clear after they have read the referee’s report and the story will develop over the next few days.
Pochettino knows he crossed the line at Turf Moor and has admitted his error, though that will not prevent him being punished.
But there was another story that accompanied his reaction. With Pochettino stood in front of Dean, eyes blazing and barking ‘you know very well’ as he raged over contentious decisions, the body language of his players was equally significant in those raw first moments after the final whistle.
As Burnley’s players exchanged high fives and wrapped each other in bear hugs after extending their unbeaten run to an eighth game with their best performance of the season, full of relentless aggression and desire, the team they had beaten 2-1 appeared broken.
Jan Vertonghen dropped to the floor and buried his head in his hands. Christian Eriksen stood alone, hands on hips, and occasionally shook his head, while Harry Kane had not looked this crestfallen since last summer in Russia. The reactions were like this for a reason: this was the day a dream had died. Tottenham have had a brilliant season and to suggest otherwise is disingenuous. Grit, tenacity and no amount of skill have kept them in the title conversation for longer than anyone could have imagined and defeat at Burnley had nothing to do with them ‘bottling it’.
This loss, though, was one too many and you could see they knew it. Pochettino and his assistant Jesus Perez would not have engaged with Dean had they not been in such an extreme emotional state — a state that comes when something huge is on the line.
‘It was a great chance for us to get another three points and get that little bit closer,’ said Kane, who scored his 15th goal of the season on his return from injury. ‘It’s a shame because when we needed to find another gear, we didn’t have it in the locker.
‘It was flat in the dressing room because nobody likes to lose but we’ve still got a lot to play for, two big Premier League games coming up, London derbies. You can get up for those because the fans will put the pressure on — and a Champions League tie too.’
Kane did his best to offer context and provide solace but, privately, he and his team-mates will recognise defeat number seven has extinguished the prospect of them becoming champions.
When they want to put a hand on the shoulders of Manchester City and Liverpool, they fall short. ‘That would be their opinion,’ Kane replied when asked if this was now a two-team race. ‘People have talked about us not being in it, then we win a few games. All we can do is take care of ourselves.’ BURNLEY (4-4-2): Heaton 8; Bardsley 7, TARKOWSKI 8.5, Mee 7.5, Taylor 7; Hendrick 7 (Brady 80min), Cork 7, Westwood 7, McNeil 7 (Gudmundsson 80); Wood 8, Barnes 8. Subs not used: Hart, Lowton, Crouch, Vydra. Scorers: Wood 57, Barnes 83. Booked: Bardsley. Manager: Sean Dyche 7.5. TOTTENHAM (3-4-2-1) Lloris 7; Alderweireld 6, Vertonghen 7, Foyth 5.5 (Lamela 76); Aurier 5, Winks 5 (Llorente 62, 5), Sissoko 6, Rose 7; Eriksen 6, Son 5 (Moura 88); Kane 7. Subs not used: Gazzaniga, Wanyama, Walker-Peters, Davies. Scorer: Kane 65. Booked: Llorente, Foyth. Manager: Mauricio Pochettino 5.5. Referee: Mike Dean 5. Attendance: 21,338.