Only Tottenham Hotspur can take the high spirits and enjoyment of five victories on the bounce plus another very good half of football and flush it down the toilet in 18 unacceptable minutes on the south coast.
Spurs had come into the encounter off the back of those five wins, with 13 goals scored and three conceded, and it was 15 goals scored in six games by 5pm on Sunday. Yet by the time the final whistle arrived, Ange Postecoglou was seething.
He made sure his Spurs players were well aware of that and his interviews after the defeat at the Amex Stadium were short and not particularly sweet. His club interview lasted just 76 seconds. It was only in his press conference where he opened up slightly more across eight minutes or so of questioning.
This should have been a very different day. Tottenham brought the confidence of those five wins on the spin to Brighton and tore their hosts apart again and again in the first half with Brennan Johnson, Timo Werner, Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison running riot in and around the Seagull’s box with Dominic Solanke pulling the strings in the pockets of space in a way that brought back memories of his England captain.
Spurs pressed aggressively and kept winning the ball back with 18 recoveries in those opening 45 minutes. Danny Welbeck called Brighton’s performance in that first half “embarrassing” as the visitors got in behind again and again.
It was a pleasure to watch Tottenham in that first half and within just 18 seconds, the north London side should have been ahead when Solanke sent Werner away down the left but the German’s ball across was too far in front of Johnson as he slid into the six-yard box.
Kulusevski then ran into the box and was denied by a last-gasp block. Within six minutes Spurs had another big opportunity as captain for the day Cristian Romero picked out Maddison with a ball over the top and despite excellent control from the midfielder, his half-volley was stopped by a great sliding challenge from Adam Webster, who would soon go off injured.
Werner had a shot deflected off target before sending in a header from a Pedro Porro cross that was saved by Bart Vebruggen only to hit Maddison and creep just over the line, pinging a message to the referee David Coote’s watch. However, Porro had been marginally offside in the build-up
Johnson was not to be denied his sixth goal in as many games. Maddison won the ball back in the Brighton half with help from Destiny Udogie, fed Solanke and the Tottenham striker played an inch-perfect weighted pass into the path of the Wales international who swept a first-time finish into that bottom left corner of the net that has become his best friend in the past month.
It meant the 23-year-old had become the first Spurs player to score in six successive games since Harry Kane more than half a decade ago. Johnson already has more goals than he scored last season and it’s early October.
Just after the half hour mark came the warning that the away side should have heeded, Welbeck somehow sending a sliding effort wide from six yards from Kaoru Mitoma’s excellent ball from the left.
Five minutes later, Spurs scored again. Tottenham played well around the Brighton press, Porro curling a ball into the path of Solanke, who turned, used his strength to hold off a challenge and fired a pass between the lines for Werner to race on to. The German faked to cross and instead stabbed it sideways to Maddison, who cut inside and hit a low shot that bounced through the hands of Verbruggen.
There was another Welbeck warning with a difficult header sent spinning just wide from Ferdi Kadioglu’s cross, but Tottenham had a chance in the 43rd minute that we know now would have likely wrapped up the game.
Romero and Solanke combined superbly with the latter flicking the ball to Kulusevski and the Swede played a through ball that Johnson showed strength to run on to. However, for once he didn’t go for that bottom left corner and instead sent a powerful central effort just over the crossbar.
Either way, Spurs went into the half-time break in a strong position, having dominated their hosts and firmly in control of the game.
Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler made a key change at the break with Pervis Estupinan replacing Ferdi Kadioglu, who had struggled up against Johnson and Kulusevski.
Yet the Seagulls were helped by their generous visitors as Tottenham started making mistake after mistake from the off.
Pedro Porro allowed Mitoma to get in behind him, then told Romero with a hand in the air to hold off in coming across. It might have helped if he did because the Japan international’s bouncing cross was completely missed by the sliding Micky van de Ven and Udogie made a complete mess of an attempted clearance, the ball ricocheting off the inside of his leg to Yankuba Minteh to gratefully fire home.
It’s a cliche but the timing of the goal, so early in the second half, changed the dynamic on the pitch and inside the stadium. The Brighton fans came alive, the home side rediscovered their confidence and the Tottenham players started to shrink.
This was when Spurs needed their leaders to step up and they didn’t. Only Vicario, who turned 28 on Monday, showed anything about him, making a low save from Mitoma soon after Brighton’s first goal.
Tottenham could have got a third goal of their own still, Kulusevski sending a low ball into the Brighton area, agonisingly too far in front of Solanke as he burst towards the six-yard box.
In the 58th minute, Spurs showed all of the brittleness that many thought had been mostly dispensed with this season. It was too easy for Brighton, Mitoma handed so much space in between Bentancur and Romero, the latter eventually attempted a late, weak lunge at the ball.
If you’re looking for Postecoglou to be a arm-waving, reactionary coach on the sidelines, that’s just not who he is. Other than the odd shout, he mainly observes the game so he can make better decisions and little interjections to his players, but those better decisions did not come on Sunday.
Bentancur was just an onlooker by this point despite having had the midweek match off in Budapest. The attacking players had mostly become observers as Spurs failed to shift the ball up the pitch to them.
Postecoglou was missing the depth on his bench with players like Son, Richarlison and Odobert out injured, but something needed to change. Whether it was introducing Yves Bissouma or Pape Matar Sarr at that stage, or both, or whether it was to replace the shaky Udogie with Djed Spence.
Although not registered for the Europa League, a decision that still remains baffling, Spence had been left back at Hotspur Way unlike Sergio Reguilon – who was in the same position – when the team travelled to Budapest in midweek. The idea was that he could work and prepare in case he was needed should Udogie fail to return from his quad problem.
Yet Spence never even entered the fray, despite the Italian’s clear struggles in the second half. Both Romero and Porro looked like players who had played the full 95 minutes in Hungary two-and-a-half days earlier but neither the rested Spence nor Radu Dragusin were looked to. Even Micky van de Ven looked off the pace at times despite having not played in midweek.
Even a youthful injection of energy in Archie Gray, excellent on Thursday night, or Lucas Bergvall or even Mikey Moore, following his exciting full debut in midweek, might have changed the momentum.
Instead, Postecoglou did something that goes against his belief system. He played it safe and that was exactly the opposite of what he needed to do in that moment.
His team were unable to repay his misplaced faith in them as eight minutes later, Brighton scored again after further errors from the same players.
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