Tottenham falter at Wembley once again as Burnley snatch late draw

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The fact that Tottenham were seconds away from their first Wembley win of the season, and the reassurance that they can win here, made it all the more painful that they did not. Chris Wood’s equaliser in the added time was a brutal gut-punch that silenced the stadium, sending Spurs into the international break with plenty to worry about.

Never mind the two dropped points, at least at this stage of the season. A more pressing problem is the damage this defeat could do to the belief of the players and fans here, about whether Spurs can even come close to recreating their White Hart Lane form at Wembley this season. They have dropped five points here now, in two games. Last season they dropped four all year at the Lane.

In eight games here under Mauricio Pochettino they have only won once, a Champions League dead rubber against CSKA Moscow last December. Their next visitors at Wembley are Borussia Dortmund, fairly handy themselves, and Spurs need to shake this off as quickly as possible.

Going into the third minute of added time here, it felt as if Spurs were on the brink of an important win. A win that would settle them, and remind them that they have nothing to fear at Wembley. A win that would write off the issue of the stadium altogether and allow them to get on with their football. But then Robbie Brady hit a diagonal pass through to Wood, negligently allowed to run through on goal by Toby Alderweireld. Wood stroked the ball past Hugo Lloris, Mauricio Pochettino turned away in disgust and the game finished level.

That 1-1 result is certainly at odds with the flow of possession and chances, which Spurs dominated all afternoon. But that does not mean that they were unlucky. There are other issues with this Spurs team, far removed from Wembley and psychology. Simply put, they are not playing as well as they did last season. And the dislocating effect of moving home only exacerbates those problems.

Tottenham last year played with real width from Danny Rose and Kyle Walker. Rose is still recovering from knee surgery and Walker now plays for Manchester City. The Wembley issue will be solved soon enough but this one explains more, and will take longer to fix. Ben Davies and Kieran Trippier are two hard-workers but they did not give Spurs the edge that they need today, and it is no wonder Tottenham are in the hunt for a top-level new right-back.

Because of that lack of speed out wide, first half was a slow affair. Spurs dominated but could not pick their way through, especially with Robbie Brady sticking so diligently to Trippier. Eric Dier and Harry Kane headed off target and the best chance fell to Kane, only for James Tarkowski to block.

When the breakthrough came, four minutes into the second half, it was from a set-piece. Tarkowski flicked on a corner, it fell to Alli. His first shot was blocked by Ben Mee but his second flew in and Spurs had the crucial lead.

From there the game opened up and Spurs started to create. They had more than enough chances to double their lead and seal the three points: Kane had one shot tipped wide, another one saved, Christian Eriksen had a volley tipped over. But none of them went in and Kane is left still without a Premier League goal in August, another issue that Spurs would like to solve as soon as possible.

It does not help that Spurs’ only game-changer on the bench was Moussa Sissoko, while Burnley could turn to the more effective Chris Wood. He forced Lloris into one good save and one brave tackle before the Spurs defence opened for him and he tucked away his goal. Tottenham have plenty of problems to solve.

Tottenham (4-2-3-1) Lloris; Trippier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Dembele; Eriksen, Alli, Son (Sissoko, 70); Kane

Burnley (4-4-2) Heaton; Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Ward; Gundmundsson (Wood, 57), Cork, Defour, Brady; Arfiel, Vokes (Barnes, 57)