BURNLEY 0, TOTTENHAM 1
Battling Burnley blunted Tottenham’s cutting edge, but it was still not enough to pick up points in their battle to climb out of the Premier League’s relegation places.
A late goal from South Korea’s Son Heung-Min was enough to secure victory which lifted previously prolific goalscoring Spurs into fifth place.
But it was an almighty struggle for Jose Mourinho’s side which had to dig deep to grind out a hard-earned victory against the Clarets who have picked up only one point from their first five league matches.
It was cruel for the hosts as Sean Dyche’s side which had the clearest chances of the game and came agonisingly close to preventing Spurs from failing to score for only the second time in 15 matches.
Embed from Getty ImagesUpbeat Burnley boss Sean Dyche said: “It was a very good performance, a very thorough performance.
“We are getting players back to true match fitness, there’s a lot of good things.
“If you perform like we did against West Brom and tonight enough times, you start looking after yourself. We got done a little bit by a soft goal, but we quelled a lot of good attacks.”
It was a night when Spurs were aiming to score three goals or more in a fifth successive match which they last achieved in 2007.
Spurs had scored a remarkable 19 goals in those four games but had to rely on Son’s solitary strike at Turf Moor.
Indeed, Spurs had found the net 16 times in their four away games this season, an impressive statistic.
Mourinho said: “6-1 or 1-0, three points so I am happy as I was at Manchester United at Old Trafford.
“I said before the game this was not the game for beautiful football or the game to score many goals – Sean Dyche knows how to organise a team and to stop the better teams from playing through it.
“I’m very happy, this is the typical match where you can easily leave two points behind.”
Spurs made seven changes from the side that started the 3-0 home win against LASK in the Europa League.
Harry Kane and Son, who were substitutes, were reunited up front as Gareth Bale was on the bench as he waits for a first start following his return.
Burnley made one change from the side that was involved in a goalless draw at West Brom last time out as Matt Lowton replaced the injured Erik Pieters.
In an uneventful opening, the only incident was Spurs defender Toby Alderweireld being caught by a flaying arm from Ashley Barnes.
Alderweireld sustained a cut above his eye which needed lengthy treatment as he had the wound dealt with and his head bandaged.
Barnes had the ball in the net after 20 minutes, but the goal was ruled out for a clear offside as he ran on to a long diagonal pass from the left.
It took 38 minutes before either goalkeeper was called into action when a 30-yard drive from Ashley Westwood brought a diving save from Hugo Lloris.
And the Frenchman was summoned into action again on the stroke of half time to keep out Johannn Gudmundsson’s shot from distance.
Lethargic Spurs were caught playing the ball out of defence, but Josh Brownhill pulled his shot disappointingly wide from 25 yards.
Burnley came within inches of taking a 71st minute lead with the clearest chance of the match.
James Tarkowski header from Westwood’s corner beat Lloris but, of all people, hot-shot Kane was on the defensive line to head clear with the Clarets unsuccessfully claiming a goal.
But four minutes later, Spurs took the lead with their first on-target goal attempt of the game.
Kane flicked Lamela’s corner towards goal and Son found the net with a diving header from inside the six-yard box, his 10th goal of the campaign.