Brighton 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur: 5 talking points as Seagulls edge away from the drop zone | Premier League 2020-21
Brighton and Hove Albion took a massive step towards securing Premier League football for another season by defeating Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 at the Amex Stadium on Sunday.
The victory was Brighton’s first at home since June. Meanwhile, it will be bitter pill to swallow for Tottenham fans as it follows their awful defeat at the hands of Liverpool on Thursday.
It didn’t take Brighton long to score. They took the attacking impetus from the off. After a nice move involving Alexis MacAllister and Pascal Gross, the latter cut the ball back to Leandro Trossard, who slammed home from close range.
Tottenham Hotspur had almost 80 minutes in total to find an equaliser. However, Jose Mourinho’s side looked devoid of any attacking quality without the injured Harry Kane.
Brighton did slow down in the second half, but even a tactical switch from Mourinho didn’t help. The Seagulls’ defence of Lewis Dunk, Ben White and Adam Webster held firm, and Graham Potter’s men secured a huge win.
Here are 5 talking points from Brighton’s win over Tottenham Hotspur.
#1 Brighton are almost certain to survive for another season
It’s hard to play down exactly how big this win was for Brighton. After the only other side seemingly on a slide – Newcastle United – won big on Saturday, the Seagulls could’ve been forgiven for looking over their shoulder into the drop zone had they lost here.
However, with tonight’s win over Tottenham Hotspur, Graham Potter’s men are now seven points clear of Fulham and are only two points away from 14th place Wolves.
Brighton have always been a strange side to judge this season. Before Sunday, they had just three wins to their name and yet, they’ve never seemed truly out of a game, even against the Premier League’s big guns.
But of course, wins are what matter and on Sunday, they outfought, outthought and outplayed Tottenham Hotspur for the entire game. Had Toby Alderweireld not performed a miracle block late on, this would’ve been a far more comfortable win, too.
Pep Guardiola recently labelled Graham Potter the best British manager in the Premier League. While it’s hard to agree with that given the existence of Dean Smith, David Moyes and Brendan Rodgers, it’s clear he’s doing something right if he can get his team playing this way.
#2 How much longer can Tottenham Hotspur tolerate this mess?
It seems hard to believe now, but Tottenham Hotspur were actually top of the Premier League in December, and a title challenge looked very much on the cards. However, since they were defeated by Liverpool on December 16h, Jose Mourinho’s side have been on a major slide.
Sunday’s defeat to Brighton now means that Tottenham Hotspur have won just two of their last nine Premier League games, and one of those wins came against basement side Sheffield United.
In that time, Tottenham Hotspur have scored just ten goals, conceded eleven, and on Sunday, they looked absolutely devoid of any attacking ideas.
Sure, they were without Harry Kane – more on that later – but right now, Tottenham Hotspur are playing worse football than they were in the latter stages of Mauricio Pochettino’s reign at the club.
And all of this brings up one question – how much longer should Tottenham Hotspur persist with Mourinho if the football is this bad and the results aren’t coming? The Portuguese was brought to North London to win trophies, but with displays like this, it won’t happen any time soon.