Mon 26 October 2020, 08:19
Tottenham HotspurWe're back on the road in the Premier League tonight (Monday 26 October, 8pm) as we head to Burnley.
Ahead of the clash at Turf Moor, we take a look back at our previous outings against the Clarets before analysing all the game’s key information and statistics, as well as the pre-match view from our opposition.
Burnley v Spurs – Then
We have faced off against Burnley exactly 100 times in the league since 1908 with half of those meetings coming at Turf Moor – a stadium which hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for us in our history as we have been victorious in just nine of our visits over the last 111 years.
It was on our first ever league visit to the home of the Clarets – a ground which they've played at since 1883 - that we earned our first win there. Making the visit to Lancashire in April, 1909, for a Division Two encounter, we took maximum points with a brace from double-Olympic gold medal-winning forward Vivian Woodward helping us to a 2-1 win.
Despite our disappointing historical record against Burnley though, our visits to Turf Moor in the Premier League era have been much more fruitful. On six occasions we have made the trip and have picked up points in four of those visits – including victories on two occasions.
The most recent of those wins came in December, 2017, as a hat-trick from Harry Kane sealed all three points for us in the north west. That victory also made it back-to-back league wins at Turf Moor for the first time since 1925, as we had also earned a 2-0 triumph there just eight months earlier, thanks to goals from Heung-Min Son and Eric Dier.
Our latest trip to Lancashire was our last Premier League outing before the 2019/20 season was suspended back in March, following the onset of the Coronavirus outbreak. Forward Chris Wood opened the scoring for our in-from hosts - only Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal had picked up more points than them in the league in 2020 before our meeting - just 13 minutes in, but we rallied after the break and levelled the scores up through Dele as he fired home from the spot – the 50th Premier League goal of his career – to earn us a 1-1 draw.
Here are our most recent results against Burnley...
7 March, 2020 – Burnley 1-1 Spurs – Premier League
7 December, 2019 - Spurs 5-0 Burnley - Premier League
23 February, 2019 - Burnley 2-1 Spurs - Premier League
15 December, 2018 - Spurs 1-0 Burnley - Premier League
23 December, 2017 - Burnley 0-3 Spurs - Premier League
Burnley v Spurs – Now
It has been a testing start to the season for Burnley. Four games into their campaign and they have picked up just one point. That came in their last outing as they drew 0-0 away to West Brom to end a run of three back-to-back defeats in the league. In that period, they scored three goals while conceding eight – including four away to Leicester and three on the road at Newcastle. This is Burnley’s worst start to a season since they were last relegated from the top flight in 2014/15.
However, just one of their games so far has come at Turf Moor – that being a narrow 1-0 defeat to an in-form Southampton. In total, 43 of their 66 all-time Premier League victories have come at home.
A major issue for the Clarets this season has been injuries and ahead of our meeting tonight, while some of his players are beginning to return to training, Burnley boss Sean Dyche still has a number of his squad unavailable for selection.
“It is kind of one in one out at the moment, which is unfortunate, but in the bigger picture we are now getting people fit,” Dyche discussed. "Jay (Rodriguez) should be okay, Ashley (Barnes) is playing again and getting fitter, and James (Tarkowski) is getting fitter after his toe injury, along with Johann and Robbie Brady. I don’t mean general fitness, I mean that sharpness and match fitness. They are beginning to come back to us and obviously we want that to continue.
“Erik Pieters managed to get through the game (at West Brom) but he has got a minor calf injury, so he is a doubt - certainly touch and go, I think. Ben (Mee) is getting better. He is not there yet and he will need a bit of an extended period because he has been out quite a long period of time, so we will have to look after that side of things.”
It is kind of one in one out at the moment, which is unfortunate, but in the bigger picture we are now getting people fit.
On the other hand, we’ll be looking to continue our impressive away showings this evening. So far on the road in the Premier League this season, we have not dropped a single point. Meanwhile, we have also scored 11 goals in just two games.
Against Burnley, we have lost just one of our last 12 meetings – that defeat coming in the 2018/19 season as we fell to a 2-1 loss at Turf Moor in February, 2019. Yet, we have also only won three of our last 12 visits to Burnley.
Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, has only faced Swansea City (10) more often without losing than Burnley (9 – W5, D4) and has been victorious on four of his five away visits to Turf Moor. For our Head Coach, Premier League trips to Burnley are unique.
“It’s a special game, you don’t get many like (games against) Burnley in the Premier League anymore. When you go there, or even at home, you know what you will get,” Jose explained.
“Everybody knows the way they play, everybody knows the way they defend, everybody knows the way they attack – it is very difficult to play against them in every side of the pitch, we know that.”
