A tale of two games for Burnley as Vincent Kompany shares optimism following slender Tottenham FA Cup defeat

The Clarets, who were beaten 5-2 by Spurs in the league earlier in the season, pushed Ange Postecoglu’s men all the way in their third round tie, only to lose 1-0.

The visitors wasted big chances before and after Pedro Porro’s stunning long-range winner, which saw Burnley bow out of the cup at the first hurdle.

“There was a first game against Tottenham earlier in the season and how that looked like and then there was this game,” Kompany said.

“It was a battle for 97 minutes, right until the end of the game and for us that’s a clear sign of improvement.

“The game we played against Spurs at Turf Moor was probably the story of the first 10 games of our season and the game we played today was probably the story of our last 12 games, counting cup games as well.

“Every game has undeniably been a performance with effort, moments and chances but in key moments you can get undone – and that’s how we level up, that’s how we get results, that’s how we make the next step.”

What was most frustrating for Burnley is that Tottenham’s winning goal was self-inflicted, with Porro gifted the ball high up the pitch after Zeki Amdouni had been caught on the ball from Arijanet Muric’s throw out.

“I’ll be completely honest, if you look at the phase, it’s our best player with acres of space and a real opportunity to set up a counter for ourselves,” Kompany added.

“It’s a mindset thing. You can turn it down or…it’s not like sometimes you can say play then don’t play. It was a moment for us.

“Our best player was in a lot of space and technically there’s probably something that goes wrong, but it’s the type of goal he scores as well. At some point you have to say these moments have happened in the game for both teams. If you put it in the top corner like this…

“But the frustration for me happens on the free-kick, because it’s a free-kick for us and our strength normally is to be really aggressive on second balls and make sure we turn these moments into an attack for us.

“There was a moment where a couple of players backed off because they think ‘we want to be safe, there’s a lot of space behind me’ and that creates the opposite of what we want to achieve, which is a long counter.”