Match Review: Brighton 3-0 Tottenham Hotspur
This is the sort of result that Brighton have been threatening all season. Aside from last week’s defeat at Chelsea when the Albion were never at the races, performances under Graham Potter have been good. The only thing missing was goals in the back of the net and points on the board to match.
That had led to one very pertinent question. It’s all very well playing attacking football that is nice to watch, but what if it couldn’t deliver results?
What if we didn’t take enough of our chances? What if next season we were booking trains to Luton and Barnsley rather than Manchester and Liverpool? Would Tony Bloom’s gamble of sacking Chris Hughton in favour of Potter have been worth it then?
The visit of Tottenham Hotspur went some of the way towards answering those. You’ve probably heard via every single national newspaper and Match of the Day about how poor Spurs were – and it’s true.
Brighton have won just four Premier League games in 2019. Those have come against Huddersfield Town, Crystal Palace, Watford and now Spurs. And Mauricio Pochettino’s side were arguably the poorest opponents of the four. It’s quite a fall from grace for last season’s Champions League runners up.
But that shouldn’t take away from how good the Albion were. It was a day when everything came together. The back four – yes, Potter reverted to a four with Dan Burn becoming the tallest starting left back in professional football history – were rock solid.
Lewis Dunk in particular made a mockery out of not being called up to Gareth Southgate’s latest England squad by marking Harry Kane out of the game.
Maty Ryan made a few vital saves during the one period that Spurs got on top early in the second half. Dale Stephens and Steve Alzate buzzed and snapped around in midfield. Ahead of them, almost in the 4-2-2-2 formation that Potter used at Swansea City, came Pascal Gross and Aaron Mooy.
Mooy in particular was outstanding. He covered every blade of grass and played passes that nobody else on that pitch was able to do.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see a significant increase in the number of people walking around with bald heads in the Sussex area on Monday morning in tribute to the shiny bonced Australian given how good he was.
Then we come to the Albion’s front two. Neal Maupay notched a poachers goal within a couple of minutes after a nasty slip from Hugh Lloris for his third of the season since signing from Brentford.
And as for Aaron Connolly, wow. Potter gave the 19-year-old his first Premier League start and he duly responded with two goals in what must rank as one of the best full debuts of any youth team player in Brighton history.
By 8pm, he’d even been fast tracked into the Republic of Ireland senior squad for their Euro 2020 qualifiers with Georgia and Switzerland next week.
Connolly looked like a centre forward who’d been playing in the top flight for 20 years as opposed to 154 minutes. Potter’s biggest problem so far this season has been that we simply haven’t been clinical enough. Based on this, the answer to that conundrum has been in his squad the whole time.
Connolly’s showing was reminiscent of a young Wayne Rooney and praise doesn’t come any higher than that. He shares a similar build to England’s greatest ever goal scorer, as both are not the tallest and quite stocky.
At 19, Rooney was deceptively quick as Connolly is. They’re both strong, a nightmare to mark with constant running and Connolly’s second goal in particular when he took a shot on early, firing across Paulo Gazzaniga and into the opposite corner was the sort of finish that peak-Rooney would have been proud of.
Rooney had something of a mischievous streak and Connolly even shares that, celebrating his first goal by cupping his hands to his ears in front of a shell shocked away end. Talk about a way to announce your arrival.
Those Spurs fans had already seen their side go 1-0 down in the strangest of circumstances. Having conceded seven times against Bayern Munich in midweek and been eliminated by Colchester United in the Camila Cabello Cup the week before, the last thing that they needed was to see Lloris make an astonishing error after just two minutes.
There seemed little danger when Gross harmlessly whipped over a cross which gave the Spurs captain a routine catch under his cross bar.
Somehow though, he dropped the ball straight at the feet of Maupay and then fell into his goal, nastily injuring his arm as he went to ground.
Maupay had the simple task of tapping in and that was the end of Lloris’ afternoon as he needed significant treatment including oxygen and morphine before being whisked off to hospital. Not the sort of thing you want to see happen to anyone.
Connolly’s first and Brighton’s second came thanks to a piece of brilliant innovation from the Irishman as he back heeled towards goal Burn’s cross which had been whipped in with pace.
Gazzaniga managed to keep the initial effort out but Connolly reacted quickest to the loose ball, slamming in the rebound. A poachers goal to go with his wonderful, Rooney-esque finish which came just past the hour mark after a probing forward ball out of defence from Dunk had put Connolly in against Toby Alderweireld, who was unable to deal with the striker.
Spurs managed just one shot on target in the whole first half from Christian Eriksen. In the second half, Ryan denied Lucas Moura twice, Son Heung-min saw a ball squirm away and on the one occasion that Kane did manage to get out of Dunk’s pocket, he fired over the bar. 3-0 and in some ways, that result still flattered Spurs.
So tight is the Premier League table that the victory lifts the Albion onto nine points, just three shy of the top six. Conversely, we’re also three away from the relegation zone.
Spurs’ troubles, Manchester United looking like relegation fodder and the air of invincibility fast being stripped away from Manchester City are all shaping up to make this one of tightest and most competitive Premier League seasons in years, aside from Liverpool at the top who sadly look unbeatable.
In third are Leicester, fourth are bloody Crystal Palace and fifth are Burnley. If Potter can find a way to make the Albion perform like this every week, then who’s to say we won’t be spending more time looking up the table than down? That was certainly the feeling around the bars at the Amex come the final whistle on Saturday.
We all know that it’s goals that have been lacking. Potter may have just found the answer in Connolly. Since we’ve been in the top flight, every single transfer window seems to have been dominated with talk about finding that mythical centre forward.
What if we had him all along? What if the goals that Hughton so desperately needed could have come from a bloke we sent to Luton Town last year?
The victory over Spurs could come to be seen as a defining moment in Potter’s reign and Brighton’s Premier League journey. For all the talk about positive football, fluid formations and playing out from the back, the most crucial difference between Potter and Hughton may well turn out to be the new man’s faith in youth.
It’s a shame we’ve got to wait two weeks to find out whether Connolly and the Albion can do it all over again. Roll on Aston Villa in two weeks.
