Burnley Shocks Spurs; They're Playing for Something, Too

Don't think this match wasn't huge for Burnley, too.

Tottenham may be chasing the Premiership title as well as a place in the Champions League next season, but the Clarets have got a shot at Europe, too.

More on that in a moment.

Right now, it's enough to say dudes were ready for Spurs and it showed in a 2-1 triumph that included Mauricio Pochettino making a fool out of himself.

 

This was Harry Kane's early return after a long time off the pitch due to an ankle injury in mid-January. He even scored, but it wasn't enough. 

Spurs did dominate in the early stages, as Kane was a constant threat to Burnley. Goalkeeper Tom Heaton was well prepared, though, as he secured a clean sheet for  the hosts in the first half.

After the break, Burnley seemed to be more comfortable with the idea of playing offensive football, ultimately opening the scoring in the 57th minute, through Chris Wood. When Dwight McNeil's corner found him, it became a simple matter to head home a looper:

 

 

Yes. Yes, it was.

What the clip didn't show -- and the VAR-free replay did -- was that a goal kick shoulda been awarded instead of a corner. Ergo, no corner, no score.

 

Really, if Tottenham ever tightened their defense for an entire match, situations like that wouldn't arise in the first place.

Pochettino was still making his point when Spurs responded through Kane only nine minutes later.

Danny Rose assisted via a throw-in:

 

This time, it was Clarets' manager Sean Dyche who had a beef. Rose was 'waaay forward from where the throw-in shoulda been. His pleas also fell on deaf ears.

From that point, Spurs were all-in on pushing forward, but Burnley made certain it was not to be.

The clincher came in the 83rd, which is when substitute Jóhann Berg Gudmundsson -- the ð letter is unique to Icelandic, harking back to Viking days -- created space down the left and fed Ashley Barnes, who fired home from close-range past Hugo Lloris:

 

And that was that.

Afterward, Pochettino demonstrated why the term hot-blooded often accompanies Argentine when he got into veteran referee Mike Dean's face about the corner and anything else in the match that crossed his mind:

 

Not cool in the perspective of proper English culture.

It'll no doubt cost Pochettino a bitta dosh and possibly a game or two, and it definitely underscores what was on the line here.

Tottenham remains in third place, essentially two games behind table-topper Liverpool with 11 matches to play. It's not an enviable position but doable. Dudes have one match each to play with both the Reds and Manchester City, each serving as six-pointers that they've gotta win.

 

As to the Clarets, look at this:

• Whether Manchester City or Chelsea won the Carabao Cup, either way
• That'll push the number of English clubs eligible for inclusion in the Europa League to three.

If they get hot, they've got a lotta teams to jump, but they're just over three games outta seventh place:

As it stands, virtually every mid-table side has got to think it's season still has a bitta spice left in it.

The knock-on effect for both the Premiership title and the relegation zone just raised the intensity factor a notch or two.