Tottenham continued to underwhelm, as Brighton and Hove Albion inflicted a comprehensive 3-0 defeat on the Lilywhites at the Amex Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday, thus marking their second loss on the trot after a 7-2 humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League.
Mauricio Pochettino made four changes to the eleven that went down to Bayern on Wednesday but that wasn’t enough to turn the team’s fortunes around, as Brighton completely outplayed the Lilywhites to register their first win in the Premier League since a 3-0 drubbing of Watford on the opening day.
Tottenham’s miserable week turned even more miserable when Hugo Lloris’ handling error allowed Neal Maupay to open the scoring just three minutes into the game.
The Frenchman appeared to have misjudged the flight of the ball and his spill proved costly, as Maupay was at the right place and at the right time to head the ball home.
That, however, wasn’t the only early setback for Spurs, with Lloris stretchered off the ground to the hospital after landing awkwardly on his left hand while spilling the cross which led to the opener.
Paulo Gazzaniga replaced the Frenchman in goal but it wasn’t long before the Seagulls managed to stamp their authority with a second goal.
Aaron Connolly, who was handed his first Premier League start by Graham Potter, forced a save from Gazzaniga with a clever flicked effort before curling it into the far corner to make it 2-0 just after the half-hour mark.
With Spurs looking completely shaken following an early onslaught from the hosts, the Seagulls caused all sorts of problems with their pressing off the ball and never allowed the visitors to settle down into a rhythm.
The lack of creativity up top was quite ridiculous from Tottenham’s perspective and attacking deficiencies further exposed their defensive flaws.
Pochettino was already under the cosh heading into the trip to Brighton and his players certainly didn’t do a lot to save him from some potentially serious criticism which is likely to come thick and fast after the debacle on the south coast.
Trailing 2-0 at the interval, Spurs were under immense pressure to avoid the ignominy of a defeat at the hands of Premier League’s bottom-five clubs and they did show more energy and intent after the restart, albeit it lasted for not more than fifteen minutes into the second half.
Brighton were quite relentless and they looked more than willing to take the game to Spurs despite leading by a two-goal margin.
Lewis Dunk’s long ball from the back found Connolly in acres of space to run into and the young Irishman cut inside Toby Alderweireld on to his stronger right foot before curling the ball past the outstretched fingers of Gazzaniga to hand the Seagulls an unassailable 3-0 advantage.
Staring the down the barrel of a yet another humiliation, Spurs had a couple of glorious opportunities to reduce the deficit within the space of a minute but neither Harry Kane nor Heung-min Son managed to hit the target from inside the box.
Lucas Moura came off the bench to force Matthew Ryan into a couple of sharp saves but Spurs ultimately fell short by a long margin against an inspired Brighton side that looked hungry for all three points in front of a raucous home crowd.
That defeat leaves the Lilywhites at 6th place in the standings for the time being but they are very much in danger of finishing the week outside the top-ten.
Here’s how some of the Spurs fans reacted to the disappointing 3-0 defeat away at Brighton:
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