Brighton & Hove Albion 4-2 Tottenham Hotspur (Dec 28, 2023) Game Analysis

Tottenham Hotspur’s top-four ambitions suffered a blow as they misplaced 4-2 at Brighton & Hove Albion within the Premier League on Thursday with solely a late rally saving them from their heaviest defeat since Ange Postecoglou grew to become supervisor.

Victory would have put injury-hit Spurs above Manchester City into fourth spot however they had been mauled on the south coast as a Brighton aspect additionally lacking key gamers ran riot.

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A robust early strike by Josh Hinshelwood and Joao Pedro’s penalty gave the hosts a deserved 2-0 lead at half-time as Tottenham struggled to cope with Brighton’s depth.

The guests responded within the second half with Richarlison having a aim disallowed however when halftime substitute Pervis Estupinan despatched a thunderbolt previous Spurs keeper Guglielmo Vicario and Joao Pedro netted a second penalty the sport appeared over.

However, when Tottenham’s late substitute Alejo Veliz fired dwelling from shut vary within the seventy fifth minute and Ben Davies scored with a header a miraculous comeback abruptly appeared attainable.

Midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg hit the submit for Spurs in stoppage time as Brighton appeared nervy, however they held on to maneuver into eighth place within the desk on 30 factors whereas Tottenham stay fifth on 36, some extent off the highest 4.

The closing scoreline hardly did justice to a chaotic match through which Tottenham had been off the tempo for lengthy intervals however confirmed admirable spirit to emerge with their pleasure intact.

For Brighton, with out the likes of winger Kaoru Mitoma, Tariq Lamptey, Solly March and Julio Enciso, they snapped a three-match winless sequence.

Tottenham’s defensive issues, made worse by centre-back Cristian Romero having been added to their damage checklist, had been uncovered by Brighton because the hosts dominated the primary half.

Vicario had already made two saves earlier than Hinshelwood was performed in by Joao Pedro on the sting of the world and thumped an unstoppable shot excessive into the online.

Brighton nearly doubled their lead when Jan Paul van Hecke’s header hit the submit and because the ball rebounded in the direction of Danny Welbeck the striker was pulled again by Dejan Kulusevski with a penalty being awarded after a VAR test.

Joao Pedro rolled the Twenty third-minute spot kick previous Vicario to place Brighton in command, though Richarlison almost responded simply earlier than half-time with a shot that kissed the submit.

Spurs appeared brighter after the break and wasted a number of probabilities earlier than Richarlison netted, solely to have his pleasure minimize brief as VAR confirmed he was offside.

Estupinan made it 3-0 to Brighton with a sensational strike from outdoors the world earlier than Tottenham substitute Giovani Lo Celso conceded a penalty that was dispatched by Joao Pedro.

A raft of substitutions revived Spurs with Bryan Gil and Veliz including some vitality to the guests and the latter celebrated wildly as he slotted his first aim for the membership.

Davies headed in from shut vary and Tottenham then had quite a few probabilities to attempt to seize an unlikely level.