Brighton & Hove Albion (home) 16.04.2022

The means don’t have to justify the result, with it down to Tottenham to overcome the tactics employed to thwart them.  On the day, which is one best forgotten, Spurs were not up to doing that and suffered the ignominy of losing to a club who don’t score many goals and draw most of their matches.  However, a disgraceful performance by the referee aided an abetted them in their aim, with Pawson at one stage slapping hands with Bissouma after he had fouled a Spurs player without a free-kick being given.  The time wasting started around the second minute and combined with the time the green shirts laid down on the green grass, I don’t really think there was much value for money going on.  No doubt the Brighton fans will disagree and the referee was equally crap for both sides.  Dejan Kulusevski could have been sent off for swinging an elbow after Cucurella had hit him in the back and Mwepu got away with kicking Ben Davies in the head when he went for a low header after already being booked.  Bissouma had got away with a lot before he finally received a yellow card, so his punishment could have been worse.

With all this going on, there wasn’t a lot of time for any football to be played.  Brighton were intent on closing and destroying, while Spurs were frustrated in trying to build from the back and the home fans were frustrated by the lack of urgency in humping the ball forward.  Not that it would have helped things, as the Spurs front three were just not on it today.  There were few runs to pull the opposition defence apart and the supply was not forthcoming, with passes misplaced or cut out.  There was a lot of passing around our own area when we had goal-kicks, with the crowd getting anxious, but this is the way we have been playing since Conte had implemented his ideas in the players’ minds.  It has worked against some of our recent opponents and today it didn’t.  There was not enough options for the ball to be played out from the back and Hojbjerg showed his exasperation on more than one occasion, while the crowd got on the back of the player unable to complete the pass, but it there was nobody making an angle to receive it, that does make it a little difficult.

It looked like Spurs were going to be the sharper of the two teams in the early stages, with Kane having a shooting opportunity in the first minute from outside the box, but while his eyes might have lit up to see the goal in front of him, his connection was less clear and the ball bobbled through to the keeper.  It was another minute into the game when the Brighton physios, the hardest working members of the South Coast club on the day, were called upon.  They sprinted on, but by the middle of the second half they were slower getting off the pitch than the “injured” players they had been tending to.

MacAllister flung himself to the ground in the area after Romer had taken the ball off him in a shameful attempt to con the ref.  Dunk went down when he ran in front of Harry to prevent him closing down the Brighton keeper, wanting Kane sent off, but Spurs still tried to play through this gamesmanship and won four quick corners, with one seeing Sanchez come hopelessly for the ball and getting a weak punch on it, but Spurs were unable to make anything of it while another saw the keeper block a shot from Romero at close range.  Every goal-kick or clearance by the keeper took an age for him to take, but the referee showed no inclination to hurry him up.

When Spurs had the ball at the back, it was played up to Kulusevski on our right wing and Cucurella came in behind him aggressively, with Dejan throwing an arm that didn’t seemed to connect with the Spaniard’s chest, although he went away holding his face in an attempt to deceive the referee.  It was a yellow card and it allowed Brighton to go forward and win a corner that was crossed into the near post, but everyone missed it and MacAllister seemed to run past the ball as it went to the back post with a good chance if he had made contact with it, although a late offside flag would have ruled it out anyway.  Kane then blocked a shot from Veltman on the edge of the six-yard box and to relieve the pressure, Mwepu, who had already been guilty of a bad tackle from behind, got a yellow for the same challenge on Reguilon with 26 minutes gone.  Rodrigo Bentancur also got booked when he dived into a challenge on Bissouma, although Veltman twice went through Son from behind without getting his name taken and then Mwepu stuck his boot up when Davies went for the ball and it would have been a yellow card if he hadn’t already picked one up earlier.  The Brighton striker then got the only shot on target of the first half, with a long range effort that went straight into Lloris’ hands.

The second half was barely much better.  Mwepu was taken off at the break before he got sent off.  Five minutes after the restart, Son had his first shot of the match.  Harry Kane’s quick throw in from in front of the East Stand bounced in the area, with three Brighton defenders unable to sort themselves out to clear it, leaving Sonny to control the ball and get a shot away, but it lacked much power and was easily blocked by Veltman.  Another blocked Son shot came out to Bentancur, who struck it just wide of the right hand post.  Bissouma got booked for him umpteenth foul and the play went longer from both sides, with little sticking when it was played forward.  Brighton were getting the bounce of the ball and when it fell for Welbeck, but his shot ended up as a throw-in on the far side of the pitch, which summed up much of this match.

After Lloris was quick out to grab the ball before Caicedo reached Trossard’s through-ball, Hojbjerg did great work on the right to beat two men and fire across the face of goal, with Reguilon unable to get there at the far post.  Lucas had come on for Kulusevski, while Winks replaced Bentancur, who hadn’t had his best game for Spurs, but the visitors were building moves, with Welbeck heading a good chance way over the bar.  Dunk had a clear header from a corner, but it went down to Hugo’s right at a comfortable pace for him to save and then in their next attack, Trossard poked an effort wide of the goal into the side-netting.

With a minute of normal time remaining, Welbeck’s pass on the left wing was intercepted by Romero, but the Seagulls got the rub of the green again as the ball dropped to Trossard in the box.  He cut the ball to his left, Dier was caught off balance and the Belgian striker stroked it across Lloris with the outside of his right foot.  It was a goal that was out of keeping with the match and left Spurs little time to recover.  The five added minutes were taken up by the Brighton side returning to their own half, their players getting “injured” and the referee chatting to Dunk.  The only bit of football came when a long ball forward was headed on by Kane to put late substitute Steven Bergwijn in unmarked in the box, but he hit a weak volley that went wide to the six yard box on the right of Sanchez’s goal when a better contact might have made things more interesting.

A disappointing result for sure, but one that wasn’t entirely undeserved.  In a poor game, they put together some better moves than Spurs and without a shot on target, it was unlikely that Tottenham would be getting all the points and the lack of movement by the Spurs players made moving the ball forward more tricky than in recent matches, so when the team come out against Brentford, they need to be alert from the very start of the game.  

For all the anger on the terraces, the later games ended in a loss for the Gooners and a win for United, so another week and another winner with the way the results went, it just wasn’t us this week.  There are still going to be bends in the road to the end of the season, so let’s see where we end up.

Sid E. Netting