This game promised goals — and it delivered.
Leading 2-0 at half-time, Tottenham Hotspur suffered a terrible start to the second half as Brighton surged into a 3-2 lead by the 66th minute.
Both teams’ use of a high defensive line was highlighted before kick-off and there were early chances at both ends before Brennan Johnson continued his remarkable form by scoring in a sixth consecutive match in all competitions — the first Spurs player to do so since Harry Kane.
James Maddison then doubled Spurs’ lead after more impressive link-up play from Dominic Solanke before Yankuba Minteh took advantage of a Destiny Udogie error to begin the comeback. Further goals from Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck completed the turnaround.
Jack Pitt-Brooke and Anantaajith Raghuraman break down the action from the Amex Stadium.
How did Spurs let the lead slip?
At half-time, it might have looked to some as if the game was over and Spurs were on their way to a sixth straight win.
The problem is that Tottenham played the second half as if the work was already done and their minds could already drift to their forthcoming international duties. Because the second half here was one of the worst collapses from a winning team you will ever see. Spurs had been warned about Kaoru Mitoma in the first half but did nothing to stop him in the second.
The failure of Micky van de Ven or Destiny Udogie to cut out the cross led to Minteh’s opener. Then Rutter was free to receive Mitoma’s pass and run through on goal with no opposition. Worst of all was the third when Udogie failed to stop Rutter’s cross from the right, then Welbeck jumped above Cristian Romero in the box.
It was a complete failure of defensive responsibility from the Spurs players.
Jack Pitt-Brooke
Where was Spurs’ defence caught out?
In our preview for this match, we said that Spurs’ defenders can often be caught on their heels when asked to defend runs to their blindside — an issue that leaves them vulnerable to cutbacks, underlaps and overlaps. Spurs faced that predicament against Brighton too but this time, the runs caught out the heart of their defence.
Pedro Porro struggled at times to defend the combination play between Mitoma and Ferdi Kadioglu for much of the first half. In the 32nd minute, this led to Brighton’s most clear-cut chance of the half as an innovative outside-of-the-boot cross from Mitoma saw Welbeck sneak in behind Romero to slide in, but the ball dribbled wide of the far post.
Eight minutes later, Mitoma found Kadioglu who crossed into the box. Once again, Welbeck made a run behind Romero before leaping to meet the ball, with the header dribbling wide of the post after briefly worrying a diving Vicario.
Midway through the second half, Spurs paid for not heeding those warnings. Rutter showed great perseverance to knock the ball past multiple Spurs defenders before diving close to the byline to float a cross in.
Incredibly, neither Van de Ven nor Romero, both of whose eyes were glued to the ball, noticed Welbeck run into the gap between them and nod home with ease to complete Brighton’s comeback.
Anantaajith Raghuraman
Does this undo the recent upturn in form?
If Tottenham had held on for the win here — as they looked certain to do at half-time — then this would have been their sixth straight win in all competitions, the first time they had achieved this since 2018. Had they done that then people would have argued that Ange Postecoglou had turned Spurs’ season around after a wobbly start.
But collapsing like this in the second half, throwing the game away, will now change the narrative. Especially going into a two-week international break.
People will ask whether the progress of this season so far is real or illusory, especially given that so much of this season’s apparent progress had been Spurs’ defensive solidity.
They were finally looking like they were robust and hard to play against. And then they did this. It will bring back questions about whether Angeball is inherently defensively frail. Now maybe today was just down to players switching off and making bad decisions, rather than anything tactical. Maybe the improvements of this season are still genuine.
But this is now the debate that will play out before West Ham come to Tottenham after the break.
Jack Pitt-Brooke
How is Solanke’s role developing?
When Dominic Solanke joined Tottenham in the summer, he had to handle the responsibility of trying to replace Harry Kane. It was a role that Richarlison never looked fully comfortable with, but in Spurs’ positive first half, you could see an aspect of his game reminiscent of Kane: Solanke’s ability to drop into deep areas (see his first-half touch map below) and play forward passes that hurt the opposition.
Both of Spurs’ first-half goals came from Solanke in that space. Firstly when he took a pass from James Maddison and then threaded a perfect ball to Brennan Johnson, attacking the space behind Brighton’s defence (very similar to the goal Johnson scored against Qarabag).
And then with the second when Solanke released Timo Werner, who passed to Maddison, who made it 2-0. When you have fast wide forwards running in behind, you need a deep striker to play those passes, and Solanke can be as adept at it as Kane used to be.
The problem was that when Spurs lost control in the second half, Solanke struggled to impose himself on the game or even to get on the ball at all, and all of the hard work of the first half was thrown away.
Jack Pitt-Brooke
What did Ange Postecoglou say?
The Tottenham head coach said after the game: “We didn’t do what you need to do at this level, it’s non-negotiable. We just weren’t competitive. We didn’t win our duels, we lacked intensity, we didn’t deliver the things you need to at this level, the basics of the game, and paid the price for it.”
“It’s unacceptable at the end of the day. You can understand that you’re not going to win every game. But there’s the manner you lose games. And that’s the first time since I’ve been here that we’ve lost the game in that manner. Unacceptable.“
“All of it it’s disappointing. There are certain elements of this team that have been pretty consistent throughout my tenure, and that is one, even on our not-so-good days we’ve always fought and been competitive. I think that’s been a non-negotiable.
“Today’s the first day I felt like we didn’t deliver in those areas. Whether that’s defensively, whether that’s with the ball. Sport is as much about competition as it is about anything else. And if you don’t compete, you allow the opponent to overrun you in that manner, you’re not going to get anything out of it.”
What next for Tottenham?
Saturday, October 19: West Ham United (H), Premier League, 12.30pm UK, 7.30am ET
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(Top photo: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)