Tottenham's van de Ven sends Burnley down as Maddison gives Arsenal hope: We won't down tools against Man City

By Alessandro Schiavone at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Burnley

Goals: Larsen (B), Porro (TH), van de Ven (TH)

Micky van de Ven scored a goal Der Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer would have been proud of to help Tottenham Hotspur see off Burnley 2-1 and send the visitors back to the Championship.

By doing so they kept their slim chances of Champions League football alive.

The odds were always firmly stacked against Burnley who hadn't won at Tottenham in the league since a 3-2 victory at White Hart Lane in 1974.

Far from being overwrought given what was at stake and the magnitude of the task, the Lancashire outfit fancied their chances. All they needed was a win coupled with a Chelsea three points at Nottingham Forest to set up a blockbuster finale at home against Nuno Espirito Santo's men next week.

Hence a confident start to the game saw Vincent Kompany's men take a 1-0 lead when Jacob Bruun Larsen, picked out by fellow Scandinavian Sander Berge, slotted past Guglielmo Vicario after 25 minutes.

But Tottenham love a comeback when they need one and equalized through Pedro Porro who blasted in at the near post after a rampaging run forward.

But the wheels came off Burnley at the worst possible time. And Dutchman Van de Ven opened up his body to curl home the winner with eight minutes to go.

It could have been worse for Burnley had the outstanding Arijanet Muric not produced a hat-trick of outstanding stops to repel James Maddison, Christian Romero and Pape Matar Sarr in the second-half. The worldie reflex save to keep out the Argentine's header from range will probably be a contestant for Save of the Season.

Punters betting on over 2.5 goals in the first-half could have triumphed less than seven minutes into the game. Because the start to the game was nor for the faint-hearted.

Maddison had a goal-bound shot blocked by a last-gasp Charlie Taylor tackle while Vicario magnificently clawed away Vitinho's bullet header before Kosovan Muric dived to his left in Nelson Dida-esque style against Ajax in 2003 to beat away Brennan Johnson's strike.

That it wasn't the ex-Nottingham Forest man's day became obvious when he also failed to apply the finishing touch at the far-post despite Son's excellent delivery.

Tottenham can still hope of sneaking into the top-four and now put their eggs into the Liverpool basket at Aston Villa on Monday.

But to do that they'd have to beat Manchester City which in all likelihood would hand bitter rivals Arsenal the crown.

Asked if they are giving their all to win on Tuesday, ex-Leicester star Maddison told Capital Football: "Of course, we're professionals.

"The only way we can qualify for the Champions League is if we win all the games.

"That's one for the fans to talk about but not as professional players."

All you can do is give him the benefit of the doubt.