Tottenham Hotspur managed a dramatic win against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
Brighton went ahead in the 17th minute — Danny Welbeck was fouled in the box, referee Samuel Barrott awarded a penalty and Pascal Gross fired the spot kick beyond Guglielmo Vicario.
But the returning Pape Sarr had the desired impact for Ange Postecoglou’s side. He almost teed up a goal before firing the rebound into the back of Jason Steele’s net. When it looked like they would be held by Roberto De Zerbi’s side, Spurs scored a winner through Brennan Johnson six minutes into stoppage time.
Jack Pitt-Brooke analyses their performance.
Did Postecoglou’s substitutions change the game?
It was Johnson who won the game for Spurs, popping up at the far post in the 96th minute to convert Son Heung-min’s perfect low cross and take all three points.
What was so striking about the winner was that for 30 minutes it felt as if the triple change, which introduced Son, Johnson and Yves Bissouma, had actually lessened Spurs’ control of the game and led to them sacrificing some of their momentum after Sarr’s equaliser.
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Johnson struggled to give them the same control in the opposition half that Dejan Kulusevski had provided. And yet the Welshman had fresher legs and a newfound confidence in the final third.
And so with Son and Johnson racing forward in the last seconds, into the space that James Maddison and Richarlison had created on the break, Spurs did have the right players on the pitch at the end.
How did Sarr perform on his return?
Tottenham have missed Sarr desperately during his time away at the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal, and he proved exactly why with the equaliser in his first club start of 2024.
Sarr is Spurs’ best midfielder at running forward without the ball, darting in behind the opposition defence to create havoc in the box. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Oliver Skipp work hard but neither has the same knack for it as Sarr does.
That is what he did for their first goal here, bursting into space to receive Kulusevski’s clever pass from the right. And while his attempted cross for Richarlison was cut out, Sarr was on hand with a sharp left-footed finish from a tight angle to make it 1-1.
Like his goal when Manchester United visited at the start of the season, it was one few of his team-mates would have been able to score.
How did Brighton unsettle Tottenham?
Brighton are experts at working intelligently off the ball to make it difficult for the opposition to get going.
That’s what they did when they beat Spurs 4-2 in December’s reverse fixture: Joao Pedro and Welbeck pressing from the front, stopping Tottenham from building up. And they did it again here.
It was especially notable that Brighton went man-to-man to stop Spurs.
Jan Paul van Hecke stepped up into midfield to press Maddison, stopping him from running the game. Welbeck dropped back onto Rodrigo Bentancur, and the Uruguay international found it very difficult to get anything going with the former England international always buzzing around. And with Billy Gilmour keeping an eye on Pedro Porro, Spurs’ main routes to ball progression were blocked off from the start.
It took them a long time to get anything going.
What did Postecoglou say?
Postecoglou said: “(It’s) fair to say the first half wasn’t great. Part of that is because Brighton are a good side, they’re well-coached and very disciplined and we weren’t.
“We just took a few liberties with our football, our effort and our workrate, there were a few things that we have been really good at this year but we just didn’t do it in the first half.
“I thought the second half was a lot better. It’s always difficult when you’re chasing a game because the opposition can catch you on the break, but I thought for the most part we handled it well and I’m pleased. We had guys who could come in and make an impact in the game and that happened.”
What next for Tottenham?
Saturday, February 17: Wolves (H), Premier League, 3pm GMT, 10am ET
Spurs have a score to settle here in the Nuno Espirito Santo Clasico, having led November’s reverse fixture 1-0 for 88 of the first 91 minutes, only to get beaten by two stoppage-time goals. Wolves have also won three of the past four meetings between these two.
Recommended reading
- Continued rise of Postecoglou and De Zerbi shows Premier League is more open than ever
- Richarlison has gone from misfit to goal machine at Spurs – what has changed?
- The two-footed enigmas: Why are so few players equally good with both feet?
- Blue cards plan: Did sin bins work in trials? Would they succeed at the top level?
(Top photo: Richard Pelham/Getty Images)