Another defeat leaves us back in the bottom three - but our fate is in our hands.
Robbed
I’m not even angry about what happened at Spurs on Sunday. This is what happens to teams like us. We played really well and had a deserved point stolen by a big decision.
The timing in particular was a real sucker punch. Spurs had seemingly already run out of ideas, with Nick Pope not having had all that much to do despite their pressure.
We can argue all day about whether it should or should not be a penalty. The key thing for me is that I think the chances we would get a decision like that are zero.
By the letter of the law, it probably has to be a penalty. But the handball rule is a mess.
Ashley Barnes’ arm is out and the ball brushes against it. Sure, a handball in the box is a penalty with the laws as they are. But he didn’t block a shot. He didn’t stop the ball from going to a Spurs player. No goal or even a chance was prevented. The ball was hit against Barnes from inches away. His arm was actually out as he had just been pushed.
For once, Barnes was trying to stay on his feet rather than hitting the deck for a foul. I’m really not sure what else he is supposed to be doing with his arm in that moment.
With the law as it is, I’m surprised we don’t see attackers blasting balls at the arms of defenders as VAR will intervene and award dumb penalties that should never be given.
One of the big problems with VAR - and there are many - is how the slow-mo replays strip incidents of all context. The officials in the VAR room watched a second or so of the ball brushing Barnes’ arm on repeat, convincing themselves with each repeated replay that it was worthy of a penalty. They didn’t seem to pay any attention to the fact it happened amid a chaotic passage of play with the ball bouncing and ricocheting all over the place, with Barnes having been nudged into being off-balance at the time.
Only one Spurs player seemed to appeal and play continued for a while, with Harry Kane missing an absolute sitter, before VAR saw fit to intervene and decide the game.
You only have to see the reaction from across football to see it was a nonsense. Even many Spurs fans, as happy as they were to be gifted a penalty, disagreed with the call.
Alan Shearer also said it is a “rubbish” law and it is impossible to argue with that.
Leaving aside the result, there was a lot to like about the Burnley performance. It was night and day from the Villa game, with the change to a back five working very well.
Barnes did reasonably well filling in for the (rightly) dropped Wout Weghorst and he was a bit unlucky not to score with a shot that struck the outside of the woodwork.
Pope was again magnificent, as was the incredibly impressive Nathan Collins. Playing in the middle of the back three/five clearly suited him, with Collins able to bring the ball out from defence to dangerous effect on a number of occasions. Collins’ passing seems to get better by the week and he created our best chance with a lovely ball through for Maxwel Cornet, who rather snatched at the shot and saw it blocked.
When he first got into the team, Collins’ passing was one of the areas I had small reservations about. But he is obviously very confident on the ball - just like James Tarkowski - and perhaps the odd loose pass is just a sign of casualness at times.
Collins might only be 21 - how?!? - but he certainly looks like captain material. In the event of Ben Mee leaving the club in the summer, he is probably the obvious successor.
Mike Jackson was without eight players due to injury at the weekend, which made our performance even more impressive. With probably four or five of the missing lads being in our strongest team, it left us down to the bare bones. You had to laugh at the state of our bench, with Weghorst and Aaron Lennon joined by a bunch of kids.
Hopefully there will be better news on the injury front this week. If Tarkowski and Jay Rodriguez are available for the last two games, that will give us a huge morale boost.
While Leeds getting a late leveller was a blow, it didn’t change our own task all that much. We still know four points from the two games this week would be enough.
Simply unacceptable
As downhearted as I was by the results on Sunday, it was nothing compared to the shame some idiots yet again brought on our club.
Two men were arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence.
There is video footage posted on social media of one “fan” making a Nazi salute.
Unfortunately, we cannot sit back and say that these people are not Burnley fans.
They are. These are part of the same fanbase that continues to boo the pre-match taking of the knee - an obviously racist act that happens at every single home game - and paid for the ridiculous “white lives matter” banner away to Manchester City.
It isn’t just a Burnley problem. Brentford players Rico Henry and Ivan Toney said their families received racist abuse at Everton this weekend. It’s a society problem.
But it is up to all of us to stand up to this nonsense. Watch the clip of the moron doing the Nazi salute. There are Burnley fans around him who seem to think it’s hilarious.
It’s unacceptable and we should all feel ashamed to share the club with these morons.
Podcasts and quiz questions
The answer to this week’s teaser will be in the preview show for the Villa game:
Which Burnley player is the club's all-time top scorer in away games against Spurs in league and cup competitions?
I’m also on this week’s EPL Round Table show, talking all things Premier League.
Birthdays and anniversaries
Birthdays are thin on the ground this week. David Edgar, who was a part of the first promotion season under Sean Dyche, will celebrate his 35th birthday on Thursday.
Naturally, not much to look back at #OnThisDay given it is later than many seasons finish. We drew 0-0 at home to Stoke in 2015 and that’s about it for modern times.
Letters
Here’s Mark with his thoughts on Sunday’s game at Spurs:
First of all we're didn't turn up for the first 20 minutes, but we started to settle down and finally start to make ago of it - yes we defended well for those first 20 minutes. Then the penalty given in added time was scandalous, nowhere near a penalty, Kevin Friend screwing us yet again - he should be hauled over hot coals for that decision. Thought we were the better team second half, not one player had a bad game, even Kevin Long surprised me, as you know I'm not Brownhill’s biggest supporter but he played well. How Barnes’ shot didn't go in - that would have give us the confidence we needed and could have gone on and won it. I'm annoyed right now with the bad referring I just hope we can get something Thursday.
Certainly going to be huge pressure on the Villa game - a point would be an OK result.
If you’re lucky, I’ll send out a newsletter on Friday. Otherwise, catch you next week…