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After a disappointing performance that saw them lose 2-1 to Manchester United on Wednesday, Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur bounced back in style today by thumping Burnley 5-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Goals in the first ten minutes from Harry Kane and Lucas Moura gave Spurs a healthy lead, and after Moussa Sissoko hit the post, Heung-Min Son delivered one of the best goals in recent memory to essentially put the game beyond Sean Dyche’s Clarets.
The second half saw Burnley attempt to make a fightback, but they always looked outgunned and their defensive frailties caught up with them again, as Kane and Sissoko added Spurs’ fourth and fifth goals.
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Here are 5 talking points from Tottenham’s 5-0 win over Burnley.
#1 Has Son sewn up the Goal of the Season award already?
We might be just approaching the halfway point of the 2019/20 Premier League season, but after today, it feels like any player attempting to secure the Goal of the Season award is probably wasting their time.
Not only was Heung-Min Son’s goal the best of the current season thus far, but it was clearly the best scored in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to date and it was certainly an all-time great Premier League goal, too.
Collecting the ball on the edge of his own box, Son set off on a mazy, slaloming run that caught practically the entire Burnley team unawares. A simple flick took him past five Claret shirts, another took him past Erik Pieters, and suddenly he was bearing down on goal and comfortably slotting past Nick Pope to score.
The goal has already been compared to past works of similar genius by the likes of Diego Maradona and George Weah, and Son himself has stated that it’s the best goal he’s ever scored. The South Korean probably knows that he’ll never score another as good, too. Simply put, this was a jaw-dropping moment that any self-respecting fan of football needs to see now.
#2 Tottenham bounce back in style
After their defeat to Manchester United, Dele Alli admitted that Tottenham may have taken Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side lightly – but it was clear from the off today that they weren’t about to make the same mistake with Sean Dyche’s Burnley.
Literally from the opening seconds, Spurs came at their opponents with menace and plenty of attacking verve, and they could easily have been five up at half-time.
This looked like a return to Tottenham at their very best – they pressed Burnley hard from the opening whistle, attacked at pace and most importantly, never stopped coming even after scoring those opening two goals. The fact that they took 13 shots on goal says a lot, particularly when you consider that 7 of them were on target.
Performances like this used to be the norm under Mauricio Pochettino, but this season only the 4-0 win over Crystal Palace in September comes close to what Jose Mourinho’s team produced today. For Spurs fans, this was a much welcome return to form – and hopefully it’s not the exception to the norm as that Palace win was.
#3 Is Burnley’s defensive frailty going to land them in trouble?
For as good as Tottenham were today, it must be said that Burnley’s defence was pretty awful, and Sean Dyche’s side made it very easy for Spurs to score at least three of their goals. Little could be done about Heung-Min Son’s stunner, but the Clarets’ backline was definitely at fault for both goals from Harry Kane as well as Moussa Sissoko’s strike.
The problem appeared to be that a formerly strong defence of Matthew Lowton, James Tarkowski, Ben Mee and Erik Pieters seemed all too willing to simply back away from Tottenham’s attackers as they came at them, rather than attempting to close them down. Had they pressed harder, they could certainly have prevented Kane’s opener, for starters.
Worryingly for Sean Dyche, this isn’t the first time that Burnley’s defence has looked hugely vulnerable this season; they conceded 3 against Sheffield United, 4 against Chelsea and 3 against Liverpool in earlier games. Right now they’re 13th in the Premier League table, but with 18 points they’re only 3 above 18th placed Southampton – and if they don’t tighten their backline up, they could easily be sucked into trouble.
#4 Tottenham finally register a clean sheet
It’s been a long time coming – eleven matches to be exact – but today saw Tottenham finally register a clean sheet, their first under new boss Jose Mourinho. The fact that they were able to avoid letting in sloppy goals – as they did in their recent wins over West Ham and Bournemouth – should probably be as heartening to Spurs fans as today’s five-goal haul was.
Was today a perfect defensive performance from the home side? Well, not exactly; a first-half header from Chris Wood struck the bar, and had it gone in, the game would’ve been 2-1 and the momentum could well have swung towards the Clarets. Striker Jay Rodriguez also missed a couple of good chances.
But realistically, Spurs reduced Burnley to just 7 shots on goal, with only one hitting the target. That was a huge improvement on their previous two league games – and may suggest that a more defensive midfield pairing, utilising Eric Dier alongside one of Harry Winks, Tanguy Ndombele or Moussa Sissoko may be the way forward for Mourinho’s side.
#5 Can Kane get back to the top of the scoring charts?
After finding the net in just one of Tottenham’s last five matches, Harry Kane was back with a vengeance today, absolutely smashing his two goals past goalkeeper Nick Pope. His first in particular was a powerful, phenomenal finish that no keeper in the world would’ve stopped – and it’s unfortunate that it ended up being overshadowed by Heung-Min Son’s work of genius minutes later.
Kane has often been a peripheral figure this season; it was clear from his goals against Leicester, Liverpool and Southampton that he hasn’t lost his touch, but too often he’s been starved of service and that’s forced him to drop deeper and move away from the areas in which he’s most dangerous.
Today though, he looked as deadly as ever, and with Mourinho’s gameplan seemingly involving him linking up primarily with Dele Alli again – as he did in his most productive seasons – there’s every chance that he could quickly find himself back at the top of the scoring charts. He’s just 5 goals away from current leader Jamie Vardy, after all.
