Spurs fall straight back into rut with 1-0 loss to Burnley

Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung-min in action with Burnley's Connor during a match at Turf Moor in Burnley, England on Wednesday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Despite beating the Premier League's top-ranked club over the weekend, Tottenham Hotspur were unable to score a single goal in a 1-0 loss to 18th-place Burnley at Turf Moor on Wednesday.

Spurs turned inefficiency into an artform in the midweek fixture, failing to capitalize on 66 percent of the possession and 12 shots, with only two of them actually threatening the goalkeeper. For Burnley, it took just a single well-placed header from Ben Mee in the 71st minute to give the Lancashire side their third win of the season after 23 games.

The loss was another missed opportunity for Korean forward Son Heung-min and playmaking partner Harry Kane, who are now just a single goal away from becoming the highest scoring partnership ever to play in the Premier League. The pair hit 36 goals together over the weekend, when Son picked up two assists, one of them with Kane, to tie with Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard as the highest goal-scoring partnership ever.

One more goal together will put the two on top of that particular table, a record they're likely to hold for some time.

But on other tables the news isn't so good. Wednesday's loss leaves Spurs in eighth place in the Premier League, now seven points behind Manchester United in first place. With seventh-place Wolves and sixth-place Arsenal set to face each other on Thursday night as of press time, the gap between Spurs and the teams immediately above is also likely to get bigger.

Wednesday's loss also marked a bitter milestone for Spurs boss Antonio Conte. The London club have now lost four of their last five games in the Premier League, as many as Conte had lost in his previous 21 games in the competition. While it had looked like Saturday's 3-2 win over Manchester City had snapped that bad run, the loss to Burnley clearly shows that there are bigger issues at play at Tottenham.

Spurs will be back in action on Saturday as they take on Leeds United at Elland Road in Leeds, England.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]