Brighton & Hove Albion (Away) 06.10.2024

Tottenham were on it from the start.  Having won the ball from Brighton who kicked off, Timo Werner was sent away down the left wing, but his ball across the box was just too far ahead of Brennan Johnson coming in off the opposite wing.  A better ball would have given Spurs a great chance of taking a first minute lead.  It required a block from a retreating Dunk a minute later to deflect Dejan Kulusevski’s shot over the bar.  Inside five minutes, Cristian Romero lofted a ball over the Brighton defence for James Maddison to find a lot of space in the area and his shot was blocked for another corner.

The Seagulls got a brief bit of relief when Webster tweaked his hamstring playing a long ball forward, as he needed treatment before being replaced by Igor.  That all took three minutes.

The ball seemed to be dragging across the turf, slowing the passes and making the ball get stuck under players’ feet.  It was not helping the game flow and neither was the referee, who was giving every tackle as a foul.  Spurs did get the ball in the net, when Werner headed Porro’s cross at goal, the keeper fumbled it and Maddison knocked it towards goal with the referee signalling it had gone over the line before the linesman flagged for offside.  It took a while for VAR to look at it and the goal was wiped out.

When Tottenham did get the ball in the net without any dispute, it was that man Brennan Johnson who did it again.  Maddison and took it off Rutter, slipped it forward to Dominic Solanke, who sent a pass beyond the defence for Brennan to run on and fire the ball low past Verbruggen to the keeper’s right hand.  It was a well-made goal, with Johnson’s run well-timed to expose the home back line and to put a goal to Tottenham’s dominance in the match.

Veltman showed what a weak player he is when he made contact with Maddisons in the box, claimed the Spurs man had dived and then tried to drag him up.  James responded by pushing him off and the Brighton defender went to ground so slowly that it match the power with which he was fended off.  Trying to get an opponent sent off is an offence, but the referee only chose to speak to both players.  Veltman showed himself up soon after by taking a throw-in that didn’t even make it onto the pitch.

On the half-hour, Brighton created a good chance.  The ball was switched to their left wing and Mitoma played a ball across the middle of the area with the outside of his right foot and coming onto it, Welbeck slid in to steer the ball wide of the goal from five yards out.  When Brighton won a corner, it ended with a free-kick to Spurs when Veltman showed his lack of footballing intelligence by pushing Maddison two handed into Vicario.  Surprisingly, having been spoke to, the referee decided not to take any further action.  He did pull out the yellow card for a monstrously mis-timed tackle on Kulusevski by Igor though.

Tottenham went further into the lead when Werner received the ball from Solanke and held it up until James Maddison made a run into space outside the box and stroked it with his right foot to the keeper’s left and Verbruggen could only throw a weak wrist at it as he dived full-length and the ball nestled in the bottom corner of his net.  It was a back to front goal that again showed how the way Tottenham play can have rich rewards.

Welbeck flashed a header past the far post from Kadioglu’s cross six minutes before the break and four minutes later another neat play out from defence with some neat one-touch football produced a chance for Johnson when Kulusevski put him one on one with Kadioglu. The Welsh striker’s pace took him into the box and he got a shoulder from the Brighton defender, causing him to fire over the bar as he came in from the right of the goal.

It was a controlled performance from Tottenham who went through the first half without too many scares, but you would expect Brighton to come out strongly in the second half.  Well, Baleba did, committing his fourth foul of the game on Maddison.  James took the free-kick that brought a shot from Porro that bounced into the ground and Romero got a header to it, but it was way over the bar.

Mitoma put in a left wing cross that took a flick on its way that caused Udogie to miss his clearance and it came through to the far post for Minteh to fire low in at the post.  It was an untidy goal to concede and any threat from Brighton was likely to come from the Japanese winger.  Coming only two and a half minutes into the half, it put Brighton right back in the game.

Veltman was soon at it again, barging into Destiny before going down saying he had hurt his knee.  He is trying to be the king of gamesmanship but he just makes himself look like a spoiled little kid.  Vicario was called into action when he had to tip a deflected cross over the bar and then he dived low to his right to push away a Mitoma shot.  It was Mitoma again who caused Spurs problems when he played the ball between the Spurs central defenders and he took it to his left to drill a low shot back across the keeper to make it 2-2.  Brighton had been a bit sharper to the ball since the break and Spurs were not being as accurate with their passing.

Tottenham’s press was not fully consistent and it allowed Brighton to ease the ball out from the back, but it was a ball into the Spurs box following a throw-in, the ball was trying to be shepherded out by Bentancur, but Georginio hooked it across and Welbeck headed in from close range to turn the game around.  The creator of the goal had wriggled past three Spurs players on the corner of the area, but still managed to get to it when it looked like it should have been dealt with.

Kulusevksi squeezed a pass through to Udogie on the edge of the box, from his low shot was saved on the stretch by the goalie.  When Minteh broke into the Spurs box and substitute Yves Bissouma dived in to tackle, it looked like it might be a penalty, but he didn’t make contact but Udogie blocked it for a corner.

Brighton could have made it worse, breaking five on one from a Tottenham corner, but Gruda tried to be too clever when he was on the ball in the box and the move fizzled out.  And that was what happened to the end of the game, even though Mikey Moore had come on, but looked his age against Brighton’s physical defenders.

It was the failure to respond to any of the three Brighton goals that was most disappointing.  Solanke got little service all match and all the goals were preventable and the lack of urgency and poor second half passing meant that a reaction to going behind was not going to overturn the lead Brighton had.  Failure to calm the game and manage the home team’s response to going 0-2 behind was something that the team will need to learn quickly.

Falmer is a most depressing place to have a football ground, as it has no parking nearby and they seem to choose Tottenham matches for making sure the trains are cancelled.  So, when you want to get away from their chippy fans, who don’t have too much to celebrate other than little victories, it becomes even more desolate.

Amongst other things I found annoying about today’s match was how referees fail to understand the game.  A number of niggly fouls that prevent players breaking forward seem to be deemed less serious than one foul that does the same.  Coote failed to control the match and failed to be consistent in his decisions.  He booked Kulusevski when Mitoma had already launched himself into mid-air to collide with Dejan as he came in to challenge.  There were plenty of examples when Brighton players were guilty of fouls that equally deserved the same punishment.

But the only people to blame for the defeat was ourselves.  Having bossed the first half so confidently, it was shocking that we let the game slip away so simply and having been on a good run with the five straight wins, makes it even more galling that we have lost that run to Brighton, who specialise in drawing matches.  After all the hope of the United match, this has gone a long way in the other direction.  There’s now an international break, which gives Ange time, but not all the players to work on it.  

Chris, Aylesbury

• A minute’s applause was held for former Brighton player and manager Barry Lloyd.