Vincent Kompany spoke defiantly about taking Burnley’s fate to the final game of the season, but in reality their relegation could be sealed in the next 48 hours.
The result of Nottingham Forest’s appeal against their four-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s spending rules is due on Monday and if successful they could get two points back.
That would mean the Clarets — already five points adrift of 17th-placed Forest with two games to play — are doomed before their trip to Tottenham on Saturday.
But Kompany will not allow that prospect to distract his focus before a game that he describes as the ‘final’. Even if Forest don’t get any points back, Burnley will go down if they fail to beat Spurs — regardless of the outcome in their last fixture against Forest at Turf Moor.
After a chastening home defeat by Newcastle, Kompany said: ‘We have to look at Spurs as the final game of the season now. If we win and the other teams around us lose then all of a sudden we get the “bonus” of a last game against Forest and we have a different discussion. That’s how we have to look at it.’
The defeat summed up Burnley’s season. If they had capitalised on a flying start it might have been different. Jacob Bruun Larsen had an early chance saved by Martin Dubravka while Lorenz Assignon had legitimate appeals for a penalty rejected by referee Anthony Taylor after he had been bundled over by Bruno Guimaraes.
But once Callum Wilson put Newcastle ahead from their first attack in the 19th minute, Eddie Howe’s Europa League-chasing team took control. Sean Longstaff and Guimaraes produced clinical finishes to give them a 3-0 lead at the break.
And, moments after seeing his penalty saved by Arijanet Muric, Alexander Isak made amends by scoring the fourth to become the first Newcastle player since Alan Shearer in 2003-04 to notch 20 Premier League goals in a season.
By the time Dara O’Shea scored an 86th-minute consolation, many Burnley fans had left for home, already resigned to a quick return to the Championship next season.
Kompany’s job is safe, however. Burnley’s American owners have long since made it clear he will be given the chance to bring a young and inexperienced squad back up.