Spurs 3-1 Brighton: Always said Albion should concentrate on the league
Ah well, we always said it was more important to concentrate on the Premier League. Brighton gave away three cheap goals through defensive errors on their way to FA Cup elimination at the hands of Spurs, who ran out easy 3-1 winners at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Everything had looked so promising before kick off too. The concourse was rocking, Graham Potter named arguably the strongest side available to him and the Albion looked in a decent position to knock out one of the European Super League Elite Six based on recent form and momentum.
What went wrong then for it to finish Spurs 3-1 Brighton? From the off, the formation did not look right. Half of Albion fans watching thought Potter was using a back three of Adam Webster, Lewis Dunk and Marc Cucurella. The other half thought it was a flat back four of Tariq Lamptey, Webster, Dunk and Cucurella.
Brighton supporters were not the only ones who could not work out what shape the Albion were working with. The players seemed somewhat bamboozled by it all, which was in stark contrast to Spurs who had a very clear game plan from Antonio Conte to counterattack at speed.
Conte had done his homework, as you might expect from a world class coach. When Everton won at the Amex in September, they played on the break in wide areas.
Manchester City too were ruthless in picking off Brighton in their 4-1 October victory in Good Old Sussex By The Seas.
Dunk and Webster playing like the Chuckle Brothers moving around furniture played further into the hands of the hosts.
Were their minds on other things, such as who was on their way out of The Masked Singer in the semi final double elimination on the main ITV channel?
The one game you do not want your centre backs to have an off day is when they come up against Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son, probably the best strike partnership in the Premier League.
Dunk being below par was understandable off the back of a six week layoff. 90 minutes to shake the rust will leave him in a better position against Watford once the bread and butter of the Premier League returns next week.
As we have spent weeks pointing out, that should be the Albion’s focus. After all, it is better to finish eighth in the Premier League than finish 10th, win a major piece of silverware for the first ever time and embark on a European Tour in 2022-23. Right?
The performance of Webster on the other hand was a little concerning. Having been championed for an England call up less than three weeks ago following Brighton 1-1 Chelsea, it was almost like he felt the need to give a Tyrone Mings-esque performance to really enter Gareth Southgate’s thinking.
The first sign that this was not going to be the Albion’s evening came when Robert Sanchez got away with one early on.
An attempted pass across his own box from the Brighton goalkeeper spooned straight to the surprised Kane who could not connect properly, rolling the loose ball straight back to the fortunate Sanchzez.
Webster was not so lucky when he stumbled over the ball under no pressure to gift possession to Son. The ball was quickly worked to Kane, Dunk backed off and that allowed Kane the space he needed to fire into the top right corner with a clinical finish.
One became two 11 minutes later. A Brighton foray forward broke down on the edge of the box, from where Spurs launched a lightning quick counter.
The ball was worked to Emmerson Royal on the right who had an alarming amount of space to canter into. He carried the ball 70 yards up the pitch before hitting a cross which looped off Solly March, over Sanchez and into the back of the net.
Scoring three goals away at Spurs looked a pretty tall order, even for this Brighton side who have a well-earned reputation for never knowing when they are beaten.
The away end was silenced, knowing that the Albion’s hopes were effectively over inside of half an hour and without a shot being registered on Hugo Lloris’ goal.
Neal Maupay fired over from 10 yards when he should have done better and Jakub Moder was off target with a curler from outside the box as the half progressed, but it was still an opening 45 minutes which had been about as enjoyable as a package holiday to eastern Ukraine.
To make matters worse, the chances of drowning your sorrows with beer at half time were non-existent thanks to the queues.
Best ground in the world the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium might be, but it was unable to handle 5,700 Albion fans. Maybe Brighton were correct to turn down the full 9,000 allocation?
Potter had a better 15 minute break than parched Albion fans in the away end. He introduced Joel Veltman for Adam Lallana which belatedly sorted out the formation issue.
Brighton subsequently grew into the game, led by the outstanding Yves Bissouma who was the best player on the pitch for either side after the interval.
Bissouma drew a fine one handed save from Lloris with an effort deflected off Cristian Romero. It was another heavy deflection that gave the Albion a way back into the game, Bissouma drifting in from the left and hitting a powerful effort which Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg diverted past Lloris.
There is something about the FA Cup which brings out the best in Bissouma. His goal in Spurs 3-1 Brighton was his first since notching in Brighton 2-1 Blackpool last season at the Amex.
It took Bissouma’s FA Cup career record to three goals in 10 matches. Compare that to his Premier League record of two goals in 100 appearances and you have one player with a very good reason to be disappointed to be out of the competition.
That elimination was all-but confirmed within a couple of minutes of Bissouma hitting the Brighton consolation as Spurs went and made it 3-1 with more questions to be asked about the Albion’s defending.
Son received possession just inside the Brighton half. Again, the Albion backed off and backed off. When Webster did eventually manage to get close to Son, he simply succeeded in knocking the ball straight past Sanchez and towards his own goal.
Kane could scarcely believe his luck as he slid in to poke the ball over the line, denying Webster what would have been a quite wonderful own goal to make it Spurs 3-1 Brighton.
Maupay should have pulled another back when he went through one-on-one with Lloris straight from the restart.
The French striker attempted to dink over his compatriot but put nowhere near enough power or leverage on the shot and it drifted harmlessly into the arms of Lloris.
With grim predictability, the Maupay detractors were out in force after that. His case was not helped by Deniz Undav scoring both goals for Union Saint-Gilloise in their 2-0 win over Jupiler League title rivals Antwerp, opening up a 10 point lead at the top of the table in the process.
There is never any middle ground with Maupay; he is either the hero of the hour for scoring last minute goals and rescuing points or the villain of the piece for squandering easy chances.
What those who criticise Maupay fail to realise is that if he only needed one chance to score – like Kane – rather than putting one in four opportunities away, then he would be playing for a bigger club than Brighton.
There were some positives to take, other than Bissouma. Moises Caicedo looked decent after replacing March on the hour mark. The Ecuadorian international was dynamic, wanted the ball and seemed willing to try and get the Albion on the front foot.
Brighton are well stacked for central midfielders, but hopefully Caicedo gets further opportunities in the Premier League going forward.
For that competition is all the Albion have to concentrate on now. Getting to an FA Cup Final was always going to be difficult but if ever there was a season that was set up for Brighton, this looked it.
Safe from relegation, fixture congestion on the minds of the big clubs, Arsenal and Manchester United already out and Potter’s Albion have proven that on their day, they can go toe-to-toe with the best in the Premier League.
This was not Brighton’s day. You cannot afford to gift players like Son and Kane in a term like Spurs chances like the Albion did. Dreams of Wembley will have to wait for another year.
