Brighton & Hove Albion (Away) 20.09.2025

Spurs started rapidly, with Destiny Udogie’s cross just not falling for Mohammed Kudus, then another was just knocked away from the goalmouth before Lucas Bergvall could get there.  Seven minutes into the game, Minteh won the ball on the edge of his own box, he played it to Rutter and his return ball was taken on the halfway line to go on to round Vicario to slide the ball into the net with a VAR giving the goal that was against the run of play.  It was half a short sleeve of Cristian Romero’s shirt that kept Minteh onside.

A ball in to Bergvall was just behind him and then Brighton looked to hit on the break again, with Minteh foiled by Vicario, who played the sweeper role to clear.  Porro’s pass form halfway put Richarlison in to the left of the D, which he controlled well and shot, but into the side-netting.  Running at the Spurs defence, Brighton were getting some joy with Vicario forced to save from Gruda, getting his body behind it and letting it bounce off it and then in the pay that followed, the same player hit a shot that rose over the top.  Porro got into a crossing position and when it was headed out, Wilson Odobert sliced across his volley that took it well wide (almost going off for a throw-in !).  Minteh was almost in again, with a ball through, but Vicario had to wait for the ball to come into the box before he could take it in his hands.  Minteh slowed his run as he was holding his back, so the referee stopped the match, but when Richarlison went down holding his back when van Hecke kneed him there, the ref just played on … and it led to a goal.  When Bergvall’s poor clearance went to Ayari, he hit a shot from wide on the left that swerved viciously past Vicario to give the home side a 2-0 lead on 30 minutes.

Veltman was another who tried to wind-up Richarlison when he pushed him when floored by a foul and then tried to stamp on his foot.  Both teams went through a two-minute spell of handing the ball to the opposition, until Rodrigo Bentancur and Joao Palhinha won tackles just inside the Brighton half, with the ball worked to Kudus on the right.  His pass picked out Bentancur, who had made a great forward run and he played it left to Wilson, who returned the pass into the middle of the area.  Rodrigo than steadied himself, looked to his right, where Kudus was and Mo had a shot that hit Richarlison, stuck at his feet and as he fell to the ground in the six-yard box, he scooped the ball past Dunk  and the keeper, who go a hand to it, but couldn’t stop it going over the line.  There were claims from the Brighton players that Richi was offside, when Dunk was clearly playing him on, so the goal stood and coming on 42 minutes it changed the half-time team-talk for Thomas Frank.

There was still time for Tottenham to go forward and when Bentancur went for a bouncing ball in the Brighton area, the wind-up merchant van Hecke went down holding his head when a) it wasn’t that high a foot an b) Rodri didn’t make any contact with the cheating defender.  Kavanagh, as he had done for all the first half, had given yet another non-sensical decision.

Shortly after the kick-off for the second half, Bentancur made a great run into the Brighton box and looked as though he get onto Romero’s lofted free-kick, but van Hecke just got a touch with his head to take the ball away for a corner, knocking it past his keeper and lucky to see it go wide.  Odobert then put in a low ball that Lucas ran onto and Dunk just got to it first, which led to Brighton breaking three on three and Rutter wasted the break with an over-hit ball that Cristian Romero easily cut out.  Spurs then broke to win a corner, then another, which was their seventh, but made nothing from it.

Another poor decision by Kavanagh gave Brighton on halfway, when Porro used his strength to win the ball from Gruda, but he gave a foul and Dunk looked to take it quickly to fire a shot over Vicario from long distance, but he hit it too high.  Brighton were failing to effectively break forward, as their passes were over-hit and that prevented any threat down the flanks.  Then Kadioglou went down holding his throat when he challenged for a high ball and ran into Richarlison’s shoulder and the players, staff and fans of the home team were baying for a red card.  The referee was really losing it (if he ever had it), subsequently letting Kadioglou pushing Kudus two hands in the back without any punishment.

Rutter hassled the ball off Micky on the dead-ball line and pulled it back for Ayari 20 yards out, but he couldn’t repeat his first half shot and it skewed off his boot to go wide.  Every decision was contested by Hurzeler, who spent most of his time out of his technical area and sometimes almost on the pitch.  A great pass by Xavi looking to find a runner into the box found Bergvall, whose touch was heavy and took it through to Verbruggen when Richarlison was to his right and in a better positions should Lucas had left it.  Destiny Udogie was having a fantastic game, shutting down any threat from Minteh down the right wing.

Xavi was lively and brought out a low stop by Verbruggen as he aimed a shot inside the keeper’s left hand post, then Kudus and Bergvall created an opening for Simons on the edge of the box, but he scuffed his effort wide.  As Spurs looked to move forward for an equaliser, they almost got caught on the counter-attack.  Udogie was dispossessed and Gomez tried a shot from all of 45 yards, but shanked it horribly a long, long way wide.  Tottenham allowed Kitoma with space twice, but he lost the opportunity to create something by loose control letting Romero get back at him on the first occasion.  The Japanese winger did better with a low ball across the face of the goal, but Kadioglou couldn’t get his foot around it beyond the far post. 

Simons made a darting run into the Brighton half, but his pass to Richi brought a poor attempt that Verbruggen saved easily.  Spurs were dominating possession and Xavi stretched play wide to Mohammed Kudus, who played a dangerous ball into the box, helped on by Palhinha’s head, which sent the ball off van Hecke’s knees to go into his own net, with some rich irony that it was his antics that were aimed at getting the home side a victory and he was the player to floor Richi before their second goal was scored.  Lovely to see Romero celebrating in his face when the ball went in.

Just after the goal, the rain started pouring down.  Porro made a great sliding block to get in the way of Welbeck’s shot and then Tottenham got Simons into the box with Coppola’s challenge bringing him down, but VAR confirmed the on-field decision.  A corner came for Brighton after Palhinha had headed the ball out with five minutes left, but it was dealt with well.  Archie Gray started a move that brought a shot from Kudus that took a deflection off Dunk and went off for a corner, when it could have gone anywhere as it looked like it might end up in the top corner of his own net.  The last minute of added time had brought our tenth corner, but the corner wasn’t great and then Johnson nudged the ball off for a goal-kick.

The match ended in farce with Milner in possession, but when he went to kick the ball, Richarlison had nicked it away from him and the veteran midfielder missed it, falling over and getting a free-kick.  It summed up the referee’s performance in a nutshell and while Spurs got a point, it could have been much more with the greater possession and greater territorial dominance, but the second half defending of the Seagulls’ speed on the break made it a good fight-back draw.

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