The defeat at Manchester City might have been a bit of a given after the emotion of the Champions League match there three days before, but the performance perhaps exceeded expectation and with a little better finishing and a more consistent referee, there may have been some joy for us there.  But this will be a different proposition.  City were aggressive as they sought revenge, while Brighton will be seeking to continue the weird run of results for the top six over the last weekend.   They have some players who are capable of causing an upset, but they have become disjointed as  side over the last four months.  Whether it was their FA Cup run to the semi-final, who knows, but the run that saw them without a win from 29th December to 2nd March has put a dent in their league season.  Two wins helped, but in recent weeks they were mauled 0-5 at home by Bournemouth, in which Anthony Knockaert was sent off for a reckless and idiotic tackle on Adam Smith, but more damaging was the 0-2 home loss to fellow strugglers Cardiff.

They have some players who have done well in the top flight.  Dunk and Duffy forma  decent pairing in the centre of their defence, but they have become a little more vulnerable of late, as the side is probably lacking confidence to do the things that served them so well last season.  I like Solly March, who is a creative midfielder, although a little on the light-weight side - kind of Dele lite.  Former Spurs trialist Mat Ryan is a good keeper, being a confident shot-stopper and brave, but being exposed by the players in front of him have left him to cope with a lot of work to do.  Glenn Murray keeps on scoring, although goals have been an issue for the Seagulls, with only Cardiff scoring less than their 32.  Locadia (4) and Andone (5) have chipped in with a few, but Murray's 13 is far and away the bulk of their season's total.  Duffy's presence at free-kicks and corners had seen him grab five goals this season, while Knockaert has four, but Jahanbakhsh and Izqureido have failed to get anything past opposing keepers this term.

Brighton are likely to be without Davy Propper, the Dutch midfielder who was supposed to light up their midfield, but has not fulfilled the role that he was envisaged to at the Amex, while the assist king of German football before he signed for Brighton, Pascal Gross has failed to reproduce that on a regular basis in the Premier League.  Bissouma is an aggressive, driving midfielder and Dale Stephens tries to be, but is often overly aggressive resulting in him giving away too many free-kicks and picking up too many cards.

At this stage of the season, a lot of teams still have something to play for, even if it be prize money for their placing in the final table, but Brighton need a win to pull away from Cardiff.  It was a tough game at the Amex, but if Spurs can play as they did against City, then (as Poch would say) anything is possible.
 

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

12  Victor WANYAMA  (33  Ben DAVIES  82)
20  DELE Alli 

23  Christian ERIKSEN
  7  Heung-Min SON  (21  Juan FOYTH  90)
27  Lucas MOURA  (  9  Vincent JANSSEN  80)

18  Fernando LLORENTE

Unused subs: 
22  Paulo GAZZANIGA
16  Kyle WALKER-PETERS
15  Eric DIER
52  Oliver SKIPP

22  Martin MONTOYA
  5  Lewis DUNK (c)
  4  Shane DUFFY
30  BERNARDO      

13  Pascal GROSS
  6  Dale STPEHENS
  8  Yves BISSOUMA  (  7  Biram KAYAL  86)
16  Alireza JAHANBAKHSH  (20  Solly MARCH  73)
10  Florin ANDONE        (16  Glenn MURRAY  64)

  9  Jurgen LOCADIA

Unused subs: 
27  David BUTTON
  3  Gaetan BONG
14  Leon BALOGUN
33  Dan BURN
 

Despite the impassioned cries from the crowd for Spurs to play it long and thus play into Brighton’s hands, the team kept playing their way, believing in the style they have been coached in and reaped their reward with less then 90 seconds of normal time left to score a winner that Brighton’s resilience threatened to thwart and the Seagulls; unadventurous play deserved.

I am aware that the South Coast side’s need for points is probably the reason that Chris Hughton’s game plan involved Brighton rarely crossing the half-way line, while sticking the best part of eleven men behind the ball wherever it was in their own half. This made things horrendously difficult to break down with players in the way whichever way our white shirts turned. The visitors worked ever so hard, but in the end, they were not able to keep it going for the full 90 minutes, unlike Spurs, whose 29 shots bombarded the Brighton goal so regularly that they couldn’t keep them all out.

This came despite a bright start for the Seagulls, as they won a couple of corners in a spell of pressure when their strapping defenders came up to try and make the most of their set-pieces.  Spurs had won a corner themselves by this time and had a couple of efforts on goal, but both went wide.  A 17th minute free-kick out on the left of the penalty area was played in by Christian Eriksen, with the ball almost being met by Victor Wanyama's crouching header, but the ball came back out to Jan  Vertonghen on the edge of the box and his low drive was blocked by the prone body of Wanyama. before Brighton hacked the ball clear. 

When Wanyama was fouled just outside the box, the free-kick was taken quickly, to maintain the pressure on the Brighton defence and they weren't happy about it, but it gave Spurs the opportunity to benefit from the foul and to try and make use of space before Brighton could re-form their shape.  While Tottenham were camped in the Brighton half, their attempts to get good balls in from wide positions was made more difficult as the opposition closed down the available space and our crosses only succeeded in finding the heads of green-shirted Brighton players.  This resulted in pot-shots from long range, which both Vertonghen and Eriksen fired over the bar.  With 33 minutes gone, Lucas Moura made a run down our left (he had switched over wings with Son), with a drilled low cross heading for Dele at the far post until Dunk slid in to clear the ball.

Andone was booked for a poor foul on Danny Rose and then a minute later did the same to Trippier, but didn't get the same punishment despite it being equally as bad a challenge.  Spurs managed a break and Moura ended it with a fiercely struck shot that Ryan was well-behind to save.    Brighton did have one break, with Jahanbahksh put it in a teasing cross from the right, all the way long the grass, which Andone couldn't quite reach.  Then, right on half-time, Tottenham had a great chance with Trippier's short cross into Dele brought under control instantly.  The ball seemed to stick to his boot on the right corner of the six yard box.  Taking it down with his right foot, he immediately got a shot on goal with his left and while it lacked power, it beat Ryan, but not Dunk who was stationed behind the keeper but in front of the goal-line. 

The second half was just as much one way traffic as the first and it looked like being like the Wembley a game against Burnley this season, with Ryan taking a long time over every clearance and the referee allowing him to get away with it.  Kavanagh had an inconsistent game, with similar challenges bringing different outcomes, while he allowed the game to be stop-start by blowing for a large number of fouls.  This didn't help the flow of the game, as Spurs launched wave after wave of attack on the Brighton goal.  But it was the Seagulls with the first chance from a free-kick, conceded by Eriksen, who [picked up a booking, with it played to Gross on the left.  He floated the ball to the far post, where Duffy got a good head on it, but Lloris was there to stop the effort.  Tottenham were still being limited to long range shots and when they did get around the back of the full-backs, their final ball in the box was either blocked or cut out.  Both Eriksen and Wanyama pulled shots across the face of goal from around the 18 yard line, but with so many players crammed into the last 22 yards of the pitch (including 11 Brighton players), there was quite literally, little room to manoeuvre.  That forced Son to try to bend a shot in, but it ended up too high, before Brighton brought on Glenn Murray for the Romaniain Andone.

It was still a long shot, but Danny Rose took it, from 25 yards and came the closest to a goal yet, as he forced Ryan to reach upwards and palm the ball into the air, being there to catch it when it came down.  It was a very good one-handed stop by the keeper once on trial with Tottenham.  That was with 25 minutes left and Spurs were piling forward.  Both Wanyama and Son had shots blocked as Brighton were throwing everything in the way, but when they were beaten, Spurs till couldn't get the goal they craved.  A short corner on the right worked between Trippier and Son saw it played out to Eriksen outside the box,  who in turn played it to Toby Alderweireld inside the area.   Shaping to turn inside, he slipped as he was about to shoot.  Maybe that had fooled everyone, as his shot skidded along the floor and hit the keeper's left hand post, rebounding across goal !  It looked as if it wasn't to be Tottenham's night. 

Dele smashed a Lucas header back across the box over the bar (being wiped out by Dunk who got there late, but the referee seemed to have no interest in giving a penalty for what he had given free-kicks for outside the area), before Bernardo threw himself into Son, as he looked to get away.  After Eriksen had played the ball in, it was Son who had the shot, but again it was over the bar.  It looked like we might have a bit of luck, as Toby had little to do at the back and was pushed forward, having another shot that spun into the air off a defender to Dele on the left hand side of the box.  He ran in to head it, but it was too high and he couldn't get over his header and the ball ended up in the crowd again. 

The crowd got excited when Lucas Moura was replaced by Vincent Janssen, making his first appearance for a ling time, so the Spurs fans hoped he would make a difference.  He nearly did, as the ball reached Christian Eriksen from Alderweireld and he moved forward before striking a low drive that Ryan dive left to save, but it was pushed out in front of goal, as Janssen lurked looking for the rebound.  Dunk just stuck a leg out to push the ball wide as Janssen brought his foot back to shoot.  The referee looked desperate not to give Spurs much with Danny Rose barged off the ball as he went for a header with the ball not having arrived.  Brighton then looked to substitute Biram Kayal, who broke forward and 25 yards out choose to shoot, but it was wildly wide of Lloris' goal.  When Spurs moved the ball forward form the goal-kick, Son was repelled as Brighton were forming a green wall on their 18 yard line, but Alderweireld found Dele, who passed to his right, where Eriksen picked up the ball 35 yards out.  No Brighton player broke form their position to close him down, allowing him to move forward to where he had forced Ryan to save.  He again hit the ball left-footed and drilled it low to the keeper's left and this time he couldn't get there.  The noise was tremendous as the ball hit the net., except form the Brighton end.  Scenes of joy ,as Tottenham finally broke the deadlock with just a minute and a bit of normal playing time remaining.   Eriksen had form for this and it looked a replica of the goal he got at Crystal Palace a couple of seasons ago at around a similar time in the match.

Pochettino brought on Juan Foyth for Son as the fourth official showed four added minutes to play.  Brighton's substitute March gave Tottenham a worrying moment when he cut in from wide on the right to make room for a shot, but he dragged it wide and that was Brighton's last chance.

Not a beautiful thing and one fan in front of me commented that they had never seen such a one-sided match.  Unfortunately for Chris Hughton, he had chosen to make it that way and the stats afterwards showed that we had 78% possession, but in all games like this, it is not how much you have the ball, but what you do with it.  29 shots with only five on target (although many of them blocked) demonstrated that Brighton stuck to their task by defending deep in numbers to deny Spurs the space to get through.  It was a brave display, but in the end, class showed out, as to play like that you have to do it for the whole match and Stephens turning his back on Eriksen's shot instead of throwing a block probably cost them the game.

It was an important win for Spurs and potentially a body blow for Brighton.  I hope they can stay up, as Hughton is a Spurs legend and I wouldn't want to see him suffer relegation, but they have to find the way to score some goals.   This tactic might be fine trying to keep the top teams out, but against their fellow bottom dwellers, they need to score and at least two probably. 

With other results going our way, Spurs retained third and need to maintain their own form to hang onto it.  They showed a resilience of their own in not playing the percentage game of chucking long balls into the box, but kept trying to find a way through using the moves they were comfortable with.  That leaves three games left in the league with everything to play for.

Eddie Brooks