Burnley’s spirited attempt to take their Premier League relegation battle to the final day of the season fell short at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
For seven first-half minutes, the visiting supporters were able to dream about a victory that might have set up a final-day relegation decider against Nottingham Forest, when Jacob Bruun Larsen fired his side ahead against Tottenham.
But a Pedro Porro equaliser and a late Micky van de Ven goal broke Burnley hearts and sent Vincent Kompany’s team back down to the Championship.
It was all too much for Lorenz Assignon, who was booked in time added on after appealing for a penalty. His own team-mate, Dara O’Shea, had angrily pulled him up off the ground to try to restart the game as emotions briefly threatened to boil over.
Although they had given themselves a chance of survival going into the penultimate game of the season, albeit a slim one, the damage had already been done for Burnley before Saturday.
Too often this season, Kompany’s team shot themselves in the foot and paid the price for silly mistakes. There were some suicidal moments against Spurs that they got away with.
Kompany and the Burnley bench had celebrated wildly after Larsen beat Guglielmo Vicario in the 25th minute following superb work from Sander Berge.
Berge carried the ball through the middle of the pitch, rode a challenge from Porro and played a pass for Larsen that caught out Tottenham’s stand-in left-back Oliver Skipp. Larsen did not show any nerves as he stroked the ball past Vicario and into the net.
But the Clarets were not able to dream for long, as goalkeeper Arijanet Muric allowed Porro’s shot past him at his near post seven minutes later. Porro had been allowed to run unchallenged into the penalty area, but his powerful drive should have been kept out by Muric, who later redeemed himself with some brilliant second-half saves.
There were a couple of near misses for Kompany’s team, as Larsen immediately threatened after Tottenham’s equaliser and Wilson Odobert had a shot deflected over the bar.
But, ultimately, Burnley had left themselves too much to do going into this game and must now prepare for their instant return to the Championship.
Without striker Richarlison, who suffered a calf injury at the end of Friday’s training session that appears to have ended his season, Tottenham initially struggled to create clear-cut opportunities that were not gifted to them by Burnley.
Just after equalising, Brennan Johnson was handed a great chance by Muric but shot into the side-netting and James Maddison was denied by the Burnley goalkeeper after dribbling his way past O’Shea and through on goal.
As the game opened up late on, however, Spurs started to create chance after chance. Johnson somehow turned the ball wide at the back post from Heung-Min Son’s cross that had looked certain to end in a goal.
Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou had his head in his hands when Muric saved from Pape Matar Sarr after the goal had opened up for the midfielder.
The home side finally found the 82nd-minute winner that sealed Burnley’s fate and secured Tottenham’s first win in five, having lost the previous four games, when defender Van de Ven stepped inside and finished superbly into the bottom corner.
Van de Ven, a summer signing from Wolfsburg, had been voted Tottenham’s player of the season ahead of kick-off and the well-taken goal was his third of the campaign.
Only a couple of brilliant saves from Muric stopped Tottenham extending their advantage in the closing minutes, as Burnley were unable to set up what would have been a grandstand ending had they equalised.
Tottenham’s victory meant they can still snatch fourth place and Champions League qualification off Aston Villa with two games to play against title challengers Manchester City and relegated Sheffield United.
Postecoglou’s team are not yet guaranteed fifth place and Europa League qualification, but they needed to lift morale after four successive defeats to Newcastle United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.
“We probably should have won more comfortably, but it was always going to be a tricky one for us,” said Postecoglou. “Losing four games is always going to affect the players and Burnley had nothing to lose. Micky’s had an outstanding year, so I couldn’t be happier for him.
“We’ve still got six points to play for, that’s the key thing for us. We’ve got a big game against City on Tuesday night and that will be a big test for us. Let’s play our football and see where we end up.”