Burnley fightback ends Spurs´ hopes of third place

Tottenham were frustrated in their bid for a third-place Premier League finish as they threw away a two-goal lead to lose 4-2 at already-relegated Burnley on Sunday.

Victory for Arsenal over Fulham meant Spurs would have finished behind their north London rivals whatever the result at Turf Moor and this result couldn’t take the gloss off a superb campaign for Harry Redknapp’s side.

Reaching the Champions League qualification round thanks to the fourth place they secured with a midweek win at Manchester City is more than enough to keep everyone at Tottenham happy throughout the close-season.

Tottenham looked to be cruising to an 11th win in 13 Premier League games thanks to early goals from Gareth Bale and Luka Modric. But Wade Elliott gave Burnley hope by pulling a goal back before the break.

Second-half goals from Jack Cork, Martin Paterson and substitute Steven Thompson pulled off an unlikely comeback as the hosts rounded off a miserable campaign with only a second win in nine games.

The opening goal arrived as early as the third minute.

Bale arrived unmarked at the far post to beat Brian Jensen with a confident left-foot drive after Aaron Lennon easily out-paced Danny Fox to deliver an inviting low pull-back from the visitors’ right.

Bale was heavily involved as the visitors doubled their advantage shortly after the half-hour mark.

His intelligent ball in from the left found Modric on the edge of the box. There was still plenty for the Croatian to do, but in one fluid movement, the midfielder ghosted past Steve Caldwell before firing a powerful shot into the top corner past Jensen.

However, Tottenham, 5-0 victors over Burnley at White Hart Lane earlier this season, were made to pay for not further exploiting their early dominance.

Ben Alnwick, making his Spurs Premier League debut almost three-and-a-half years since joining from Sunderland, had little to do for the first third of the contest, so it came as a surprise that the keeper’s first real contribution was to fish the ball out of his net two minutes before the interval.

After good work by Graham Alexander and Fox, Steven Fletcher’s sublime flick put Elliott through on goal.

The midfielder made no mistake from a dozen yards, although Alnwick was unfortunate after getting what looked like a decent block on the ball, only for it to find its way into the net.

Lennon struck the foot of a post with a low angled drive, but Burnley were a different proposition after the break.

Alnwick was forced into saves by Paterson and Cork, before Fletcher, stretching, fired over from five yards.

An unmarked Cork headed Burnley level from Paterson’s cross from the right 10 minutes into the second-half, and only a last-gasp challenge from Ledley King denied Fletcher.

Paterson capped the come-back 18 minutes from time, heading into an empty net from Fletcher’s inch-perfect cross as the Tottenham defence went AWOL.

King headed against the bar late on, but a leveller for Spurs at that point would have been harsh on the hosts, and substitute Thompson put the icing on the cake for the hosts when, shortly after coming on, he diverted home a shot from Elliott two minutes from the end.