Match Review: Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Brighton

One of the most interesting things about Brighton’s dire run of form lately has been the increasing number of people who have talked about relegation from the Premier League actually being a positive thing.

These aren’t just new supporters who aren’t used to us losing a few games either. Proper dyed in the wool Albion fans who’ve been there through the toughest times are publicly saying they wouldn’t mind us going down as they don’t like the Premier League. You won’t find a more dedicated Albion fan than John Baine, and yet he sparked quite the debate about it with a post on an Albion Facebook group before Saturday’s trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The theory goes that if we go down, we’ll win more games and it will therefore be more enjoyable. Except we might not. Of the teams relegated last season, only West Bromwich Albion look likely to finish in the top six this year.

In the past 20 years, only 10 teams have won an immediate return to the top flight. The Championship is a ridiculously tough division to get out of and there are no guarantees of success, especially when your squad could end up being dismantled. That would probably happen to us with the likes of Maty Ryan, Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy sure to attract big offers from elsewhere.

Then there is the financial argument in favour of going down. The Championship is cheaper and you get eight extra games. Except it isn’t cheaper. Last time we were in the second tier, we were paying nearly £40 for tickets to games at Ipswich Town and The Leeds United. There is no £30 cap on away tickets, as there is in the Premier League.

The division also features many more northern clubs with all the additional traveling costs that come with that. Quite simply, anybody who thinks it will be beneficial to their wallet for Brighton to be in the Championship doesn’t go to enough away games.

But the real argument against the Championship being a better division than the Premier League is a night like Tottenham Hotspur away. How could you not enjoy Tuesday night? Watching the Albion go toe-to-toe with one of the finest sides in Europe in one of the greatest stadiums in the world. Anybody who wants to swap that for Rotherham United on a Tuesday night should report to their nearest secure psychiatric unit.

Virtually everything about the trip to Spurs was incredible. £4 an Amstel. Which is poured through the bottom of the pint glass. £3.50 a sausage roll. Rails in front of your seats to lean on when everybody is inevitably standing up. That stand behind the goal that is so huge it seems to disappear into the sky.

The roof which looks like something designed by NASA. The ludicrous number of floodlights which light the whole place up so elegantly. Even the transport wasn’t that bad for a stadium still working out how to cope with 60,000 visitors. They’ll nail that eventually – remember the woes we had getting to and from the Amex in the first season?

On the pitch, the Albion’s performance was nearly as impressive as the surroundings. It was probably one of our best showings away against one of the big six. Only a brilliant finish from Christian Eriksen two minutes from time stopped Chris Hughton becoming the first opposition manager to walk away from the new stadium with a point.

That would have been just reward for a positive line up. Many of us had expected changes ahead of Saturday’s crucial game with Newcastle United, but nobody could have predicted that they’d be so attacking. Two strikers were on the pitch in Florin Andone and Jurgen Locadia, two attacking midfielders in Pascal Gross and Yves Bissouma and one winger in Alireza Jahanbakhsh.

Seemingly gone was Hughton’s customary caution as he named a side that looked like it had been selected by a man who’d enjoyed one too many of the fine wines and vintage cognacs on offer in the stadium’s temperature controlled cellar.

Although the stats show that we mustered just one shot on target, the Albion actually looked quite good playing on the counter attack. That will come as little surprise to those of us who’ve spent the past year saying that Hughton needs to select more pace when we’re playing away from home.

Andone had probably the best chance from open play when he surged into the box but was halted by what looked like it might have been a foul just as he was about to shoot. Replays later showed it to be a perfectly timed tackle, although the bigger question was why he didn’t pull the trigger earlier?

Aside from that opportunity, set pieces appeared to be our best chance of scoring for the first time in seven games – now the longest run without a goal in Albion history. Dunk and Duffy both went close as Gross sent in the sort of teasing deliveries which suggested he is getting back to somewhere near his best.

At the other end, Dunk, Duffy and Ryan were magnificent. The defensive duo made one unbelievable goal line block each as they threw their bodies at everything and anything. Ryan meanwhile looked unbeatable and would have had a second consecutive clean sheet were it not for a moment of magic from Eriksen with two minutes remaining.

There didn’t seem to be any danger when Dele Alli found the Dane miles out from goal but Eriksen advanced and unleashed the most accurate shot you’ll ever see from a full 25 yards which beat the despairing dive of Ryan to nestle in the bottom corner. A quality moment from a quality player.

For Spurs, that goal brought relief. For the Albion, it was despair. We’d been just minutes away from taking a point against a side in the last four of the Champions League. It was all a far cry from losing 5-0 at home to Bournemouth.

If Brighton can replicate the performance levels they showed against Spurs in the final three fixtures of the season, we should have enough to stay up. A win against Newcastle United should do it – play like this against the Toon Army and there’s every chance three very important points will be in the bag come Saturday evening.

And whilst that might not please those who are yearning for days out in Luton and Blackburn next season because it might mean we win a few games, for those of us who want to see Brighton competing against the best players in the world in the most famous venues in the country, survival is crucial. Spurs away again next year, please.