Match Preview: Tottenham Hotspur v Brighton
Boxing Day football. To some, it’s one of the great traditions of English sport. To others, it is a complete and utter pain in the posterior.
Here at WAB Towers, we can take it or leave it. It’s okay when it’s a reasonable kick off at the Amex which means being home in time for EastEnders. It’s pretty shit when it’s a game in London on a day where there is no public transport running.
Which of course is exactly what we’ve got this year with a trip to Tottenham Hotspur. This will be the first ever Boxing Day game to be played at Spurs’ new stadium, and given that getting in and out of the place wasn’t exactly smooth on a Tuesday night, we can’t wait to see the carnage that is going to unfold on a major public holiday.
Of course, it will all be worth it if the Albion pick up three points. No pressure.
A brief history of Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur were founded in 1882 and are the only English club to have ever won the FA Cup while a non-league side when lifting the famous trophy in 1901. That’s one of eight successes that they’ve had in the competition. Their other honours including two league titles, four League Cups, seven Community Shields, two Europa Leagues and one UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
None of that silverware has come in the past 12 years however, which is why Spurs rolled the dice a month ago by sacking Mauricio Pochettino and bringing in Jose Mourinho. Daniel Levy wants trophies to fill up the cabinet at the shiny new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and he believes that the former Chelsea and Manchester United boss is the man to do it.
Tottenham Hotspur this season
Mourinho’s appointment came about after a disappointing start to the season under Mauricio Pochettino. The Argentinian spoke consistently about Spurs’ defeat in June’s Champions League Final being the end of a chapter for the club and his players seemed to take that a little too literally, downing tools and ultimately not reaching the levels that they’ve performed at over the past few years.
We saw that for ourselves at the Amex in October. Spurs’ showing that day was arguably the worst we’ve seen from an opposition since winning promotion to the Premier League. The Albion took full advantage, winning 3-0 to deliver a result more brutal than Caroline Flack with a lamp.
Results have picked up slightly since Mourinho’s appointment, although it still seems an odd fit to outsiders. After all, the Special One is a manager whose success comes when he has millions to throw around. He spent most of his time at United complaining about the lack of backing in the transfer market before losing the plot before the end of his third season once again.
For a club like Spurs who pride themselves on stability and whose chairman who is tighter than a nun’s gee, Mourinho is a weird choice. It will be interesting to see how it pans out over the coming months.
Head-to-head
Brighton and Spurs first met in the Southern League in 1903, since when there have been 33 meetings between the two clubs. The Albion have won just nine of those, with only four victories coming in the Football League.
In fact, there have been nearly as many riots at Brighton versus Spurs games as there have Seagulls successes. Spurs’ visits to the Goldstone in 1978 and 1982 both ended in disgraceful scenes of crowd disturbance.
The 1978 version was particularly dire as Spurs fans deliberately attempted to get the game abandoned, so as to avoid defeat in what was a crucial four-pointer in the battle to win promotion to Division One. The players even disappeared off the pitch for 14 minutes at one point.
The Albion won 3-1 but Spurs snuck into the top flight after colluding with Southampton in the final game of the season to draw their game, guaranteeing that both sides went up when defeat for one coupled with a Brighton win would have seen Alan Mullery’s side promoted instead. The bastards.
Brighton’s head-to-head record with Tottenham Hotspur
Last six meetings
• Brighton 3-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Premier League, 05/10/19)
• Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Brighton (Premier League, 23/04/19)
• Brighton 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur (Premier League, 22/09/18)
• Brighton 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Premier League, 17/04/18)
• Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Brighton (Premier League, 13/12/17)
• Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Brighton (League Cup Fourth Round, 29/10/14)
October’s victory over Spurs appears to the anomaly as Brighton’s only success in the past eight games, but that only tells half the story. The 1-0 defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in April really should have finished 0-0 but for an excellent goal from Christian Eriksen from a full 30 yards in the final minute.
Brighton could also have taken a point from the meeting earlier in the season at the Amex had Anthony Knockaert displayed a little more composure in the final seconds when presented with a glorious chance to make it 2-2.
Team news
With two games in the space of 48 hours, this will be one of Graham Potter’s more intriguing selections of the season. Will he rest players, believing that Saturday’s home game with Plucky Little Bournemouth represents a better chance of three points? Or will he try and balance things out, not making too many changes in order to have a fair crack at taking something from both games?
What we do know is that Potter was in attendance for Spurs’ weekend defeat to Chelsea, which means he will have seen first hand just how much Mourinho’s men struggled against the Blues’ back three. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Potter copy Frank Lampard’s tactics, especially as a switch to a three man defence would mean he doesn’t have to take Adam Webster out of the firing line following his Coco the Clown-esque performance against Sheffield United on Saturday.
3-4-3 would also mean that Bernardo could step in on the left, Steve Alzate on the right and Glenn Murray into attack with two of Neal Maupay, Aaron Connolly, Leandro Trossard, Aaron Mooy or Pascal Gross either side. Switching formations would mean that plenty of players can be rested before Bournemouth without significantly weakening the starting XI.
Tottenham Hotspur’s key players
There’s one bit of good news for the Albion as Spurs might be without Son Heung-min. The “nicest man in football” received his third red card of the calendar year in the defeat to Chelsea for kicking Antonio Rüdiger in the stomach in an off-the-ball incident. Son’s involvement will be dependent on Spurs’ appeal to have the red card overturned.
Spurs of course have plenty of other talented individuals, not least Eriksen and England captain Harry Kane. If their big name players turn up and the Albion deliver anything like the sort of shit shower that they did on Saturday, then it could be a very long lunchtime in North London.
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Tottenham Hotspur away
Last year’s trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was superb. Amstel at £3.50 a pint and we had a beer with a very worse-for-wear Casper Ankergren at half time who was surrounded by three beautiful women. No doubt they were hanging on his every word about that time he dropped one in his goal at home to Rochdale nine years earlier.
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Tottenham Hotspur away
The away corner at White Hart Lane used to have that ridiculous police box dangling from the roof which looked like a budget UFO. For our League Cup fourth round tie there in 2014, we were unfortunate enough to be positioned behind said spaceship, which meant that the view of the game was like watching through a letterbox. Not really what you want to fork out £30 for.
Our favourite player to play for Brighton and Tottenham
Who else could it be but Mauricio Taricco? Tano arrived at the Albion as a retired right back, came out of retirement once and got sent off in his first game for barracking the referee at Woking in the FA Cup. He retired again, then made another comeback and got sent off a few games into that return for protesting a little too vehemently against a penalty away at Southampton. You could tell he was different class even at the age of 37 but nonetheless, he was a complete loose cannon when it came to dissent.
What we like about Tottenham
Their supporters not realising quite how tinpot it is to care more about finishing above Arsenal than actually winning stuff. Bless.
Prediction
There is absolutely no way that Spurs will be as terrible as they were when we met at the Amex back in October. We’ve also only won one of our past seven fixtures and Saturday was so horrible that it’s hard to see anything other than a home victory. 3-1 to Spurs.
