22  Martin MONTOYA
  5  Lewis DUNK (c)
  6  Shane DUFFY
  2  Gaetan BONG

11  Anthony KNOCKAERT  
  6  Dale STEPHENS  (  7  Biram KAYAL  21     )
  8  Yves BISSOUMA       (  9  Jurgen LOCADIA  79)
24  Davu PROPPER
20  Solly MARCH  (16  Alireza JAHANBAKHSH  73)

17  Glenn MURRAY

Unused subs: 
27  David BUTTON
14  Leon BALOGUN
10  Florin ANDONE
30  BERNARDO


 

  2  Kieran TRIPPIER
  5  Jan VERTONGHEN
  4  Toby ALDERWEIRELD
  3  Danny ROSE

15  Eric DIER
19  Mousa DEMBELE 

27  Lucas MOURA  (20  DELE Alli  78)
23  Christian ERIKSEN
  7  Heung-Min SON  (11  Erik LAMELA  68  )

10  Harry KANE (c) 

Unused subs: 
41  Alfie WHITEMAN
24  Serge AURIER
  6  Davinson SANCHEZ
  8  Harry WINKS
12  Victor WANYAM

Having the majority of the play, Tottenham played better than recently, but made heavy weather of beating Brighton at the Amex Stadium, in the heavy weather and against a late, late fight-back by the home team.

Rainy East Sussex welcomed Spurs, featuring five changes from the midweek loss in Milan. The main one was the absence of Michel Vorm filled by Paulo Gazzaniga.  A first minute ball into the box won Spurs a corner, which was played short and blocked. It should have been played into the area to test the home defence, but corners are not our forte. The two missing players from Tuesday tried to link up, but Trippier just couldn’t reach Toby’s diagonal pass.  When Kieran received the ball after Tottenham passed it across the pitch, he won another corner.  From this one they did better, with Alderweireld winning a near post header and Ryan was forced to a smart save. Palming the ball out, Jan was just beaten to the ball. Spurs maintained pressure on the Brighton back five, with Sonny driving a skidding shot across goal and missing by a yard.

When Brighton won a free-kick, the defence played a very high line and with Stephens holding Rose, so he couldn’t track Dunk, the centre-half was left with a free shot, but it went sideways and went harmlessly across the pitch rather than at goal. Their next set-piece went too long and flew off for a goal-kick, but Spurs were making the best use of the slick surface with some quick passing, as Danny Rose squared for Son, but his shot was deflected wide. When Lucas got around the outside on the right, only a touch by Stephens stopped it reaching a green shirt.

While Brighton were working hard, Spurs were fining their passing groove and a Rose cross had to be put behind for another corner that came to nothing. Murray was the man furthest forward for the hosts, but he was isolated and many of their balls out of defence were not near him although conceding possession didn’t seem to worry them, with ten men back behind the ball they were trying to squeeze the space Tottenham had to play in, but a good move ended with Son having a a
shot that went way wide.

Five minutes before half-time a good move ended when Kane moved towards the box to the right of the D and Bong stopped his progress unfairly. The free-kick was delayed while the referee sorted out some shoving and when Trippier took it, instead of hitting the net, it bounced off the wall and away. Chris Kavanagh, the referee, was standing next to Trippier and saw that Glenn Murray had thrown his arm up to stop the ball and pointed to the spot. It gave Kane the chance to step up and bury the ball to the keeper’s right. Sending Ryan the wrong way and equalling Jermain Defoe’s Spurs goal tally in the process.

The second half saw Brighton kick off and an early diagonal went over Rose’s head, but Knockaert’s cross failed to find a team-mate. The Seagulls had a free-kick when March took the ball off Trippier near his own corner flag and had to foul him. Vertonghen was on hand to head narrowly over his own bar as the ball was played in. The corner brought a lot of striped shirts in and around Gazzaniga, but he took the ball cleanly when the corner was played into the box.  When Spurs play the ball out from the back properly, it can be very effective. Working the ball up the right, it went across to Eriksen, who came inside to hit a shot but it flashed wide. Kane got away from Dunk on the right, but his low ball aimed into the goalmouth was blocked for a corner. Trips played it short, Lucas’s ball in was blocked and Christian smashed it a long way over on the half turn.  Another break saw the ball swept from right to left and Rose came inside, but had to then jink
outside, where Montoya got a foot in to prevent him getting in on goal. Duffy was in there too and  decided to play on, limping heavily. Danny had to make an important interception, as Eriksen lost possession and it was quickly moved through the middle for Knockaert, but his loose touch let Rose get across to take the ball away from him. The corner was cleared to March, who fired in a fierce shot that took a deflection off Son and spun just over the bar. The next corner was punched out by Gazzaniga, but was returned high into the goalmouth and the Spurs keeper didn’t get there as Duffy headed in with Jan unable to clear on the line. As he wheeled away to celebrate, it was cut short as the referee’s assistant flagged him offside.

Tottenham were pushing Rose forward and playing a high line, but were getting caught when Kayal was too strong for Trippier and set up Knockaert. He came inside from the left of the box, but on his right foot, he hit a weak shot along the ground at Gazzaniga.  Pochettino brought on Lamela to replace Son, then Brighton brought on Jahanbaksh for March. The  game was a not bogged down in midfield, with only a Dunk header over the bar to break it up.

When Spurs looked to be trapped in their own defensive third, Trippier’s nutmeg on Kayal opened up Brighton and Lamela ran the ball forward and played it out left to Danny Rose. A low return pass saw Erik turn the ball past Ryan with a low left foot shot from near the penalty spot. It was a good move and the movement of the Spurs players was the difference between the last three games and this one.  It was also a composed finish from Lamela, who is fit and raring to go.

The opposition had battled back from 0-2 down in their last two games to get a point, so Spurs would need to kill the game off. Knockaert tried to kill Dier off with a kick in his chest, but Brighton were finding it hard to get the ball off Spurs, with their tactics with Locadia on being to pump stratospheric balls forward and Lamela spun away from Dunk, but his shot was straight at Ryan. The pressure the home team were putting on the ball had been let off and Spurs were passing the ball around to keep it away from their own goal and a neat inter-change of passing set up Kane for a fierce shot that Ryan got behind to block and grab at the second attempt.

Dele. Lamela and Eriksen played some neat close passing in the Brighton box, allowing Dele to slide a ball across goal, but a little too far ahead of Harry Kane to get to it at the far post. Ryan had to be alert to get behind another hard shot from Kane, as Jan broke out from the back and was neck and neck with Harry. Gazzaniga had been un-used for a while and was out of his box quickly to prevent Locadia getting onto a long ball. He didn’t take any chances and hacked the ball high into the side stand. BY the time the game reached the 90-minute mark, it was mostly being played at walking pace.

Taking the ball off Brighton, Kane was suddenly away and hit a low shot that against Ryan kept out, this time with his feet. But a long ball away put Knockaert away on the right and he cut inside Rose to lash a shot past Gazzaniga to make it 2-1. The game should have been dead and buried with the chances we had, but Knockaert also had another go, coming in from the right again, to try and curl a shot, that took a deflection, allowing Gazzaniga to dive to get this body behind it.
It was a frantic end to the game, but Tottenham just about held out to earn a win that they needed for both their confidence and the fact that they had dominated this match for long periods. There was more of an assuredness in their passing and a willingness to close the other side down, moving off the player with the ball to give them a chance to move on to get the ball back.

Pochettino will be more pleased with the result, but maybe not the last few minutes, when instead of killing the game by not taking chances to make it 3-0, we let Brighton back in straight away. They might have got their comeback point had they been able to finish their last gasp last chance.

The result was what the team set out to get and they got it. In the future, it will show a 2-1 win and not how it was achieved or nearly lost. And the result is now history, as Spurs have to get past Watford in the League Cup and then Cardiff in the league.
 

Gary Sampson