Sunday, 15 May, 14:00 – Elland Road: Leeds United 1-1 Brighton & Hove Albion They make it in the end, just about, but no Tottenham fan leaves the stadium that afternoon with a feeling of anything other than exhaustion and relief. It would be a very different half-time if they did not.Įven though Spurs are clearly the better team, the last 30 minutes are still a deeply unpleasant experience for the crowd, the fear of failure looming far bigger than the prospect of winning the three points. Have Spurs missed their chance? Would Burnley catch them on the break? It takes a VAR handball penalty at the end of the first half for Spurs to score. Tottenham start well enough but fail to score early. That much is clear just five minutes in when Davinson Sanchez - forced into the team by an injury to Cristian Romero - dallies on the ball and is met with anxious groans from the crowd. The fans are doing their best to get behind the team, but they can’t hide their desperation for Spurs to not blow their advantage. It was the loudest the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has ever been, and after a difficult start, the Spurs players rode that wave of sound to keep themselves in the hunt for fourth.īut Sunday against Burnley is a different, quieter, tenser occasion: a midday kick-off against a team from the opposite end of the table. When Tottenham beat Arsenal the previous Thursday, it was a night of noise and passion and emotion and momentum.
Sunday, 15 May, 12:00 – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Burnley
The Athletic was there on the front line at every game to witness every drastic twist, season-defining goal, and emotionally-fraught pitch invasion.įirst, as a reminder - because it seems a long time ago now - here’s how things looked on the morning of Sunday, May 15…
The final week promised to be sensational, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Last weekend, Leeds, Everton and Burnley were all battling relegation, Spurs and Arsenal were neck and neck for a Champions League spot, and Liverpool and Manchester City were once again fighting tooth and nail for the title. It’s not often that a Premier League season enters its final week with so much on the line.