It was inevitable wasn’t it? As soon as Adrian Durham went to TalkSport last week telling his listeners that if Spurs beat Burnley at the weekend and Liverpool beat Man United, Spurs could be champions of the Premier League.
Mathematically that was true, Spurs still have to go to the Etihad and Anfield with the hopes that getting results in those games will no doubt offer a huge advantage in reaching the top of the table come May. Saturday came and as always seems to be the case for Tottenham, the expectation seemed a bit too much for them and Burnley grinded out a result winning 2-1 in very fortunate circumstances.
Their first goal came from a corner that should never have been. Referee Mike Dean indicated a corner kick with the ball coming off Jan Vertonghen according to him, replays showed it should have been a goal kick, the resulting corner was headed in by Chris Wood to open the scoring.
Ironically the talk since Harry Kane’s injury against Manchester United was that Spurs would suffer in his absence. That could not be further than the truth with Tottenham winning every league game without the World Cup Golden Boot winner including Champions League win by beating Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund. He started the game against Burnley and managed to score (again in controversial circumstances after a throw in was taken 10 yards away from where it should have been taken) but the emergence of Heung Min Son during his absence wasn’t there to see at Turf Moor yesterday.
While Harry Kane was in recovery during the last few weeks Son became Tottenham’s talisman scoring in every league game for Spurs and massively improving their chances of a title challenge. Now, although not impossible, it will be really hard for Mauricio Pochettino to win this season’s Premier League. It will take a lot of luck not only in winning their games remaining but they will also need help from the rest of league for Man City or Liverpool to drop a good amount of points.
Spurs have had games rescheduled and allows them a three-week period in March for rest and recovery. You would think that would be a good thing given how hectic their schedule has been since Christmas taking time off might disrupt momentum. On the other hand, it will allow those players who has been struggling for fitness or come back from injury time to return to the squad. Eric Dier and Dele Alli should be available again after long injury layoffs once that three weeks’ period is done and who will they be facing on 31st March, well Liverpool of course.