Mitoma stars as Brighton come from two goals down to stun Tottenham
Fabian Hürzeler received heavy criticism for the manner in which his side shipped four goals to Chelsea in their last PL outing, so it was perhaps surprising to see Brighton’s high line exploited again seconds after kick-off, with Timo Werner racing down the left flank before his square ball narrowly evaded the sliding Brennan Johnson.
Brighton’s offside trap did well to catch Pedro Porro and deny James Maddison his would-be opener, but just moments later, Johnson timed his run to perfection, finishing first-time from Dominic Solanke’s delicate pass to score for a sixth successive Spurs game – the first player to do so since Harry Kane in 2019.
A positive spell from the hosts soon followed, with Kaoru Mitoma sending an outside-of-the-boot cross towards a sliding Danny Welbeck, who steered his effort wide.
However, that brief period of encouragement came to an abrupt end for the Seagulls when they were caught in transition, leading to a rather tame Maddison strike finding its way through the hands of a disappointed Bart Verbruggen.
Brighton had the chance to pull a goal back when Welbeck’s header dropped just wide of the post, but in truth, the contest could have been all but over on the stroke of HT as Johnson fired over from a tight angle.
Since the start of last season, 77% of Tottenham’s matches had seen over 2.5 goals scored, and that looked likely once again, but few could have foreseen how that would unfold.
After large periods of first-half dominance, Spurs fell behind in the space of 21 minutes after the restart, conceding the first when Destiny Udogie calamitously missed a clearance, leaving Yankuba Minteh to sweep home from close range.
Mitoma had been Brighton’s brightest spark before the break, and he teed up Georginio Rutter to bury a low strike that drew the sides level.
Still shellshocked, Spurs were caught out yet again as the Seagulls improbably turned the game on its head, with Rutter sliding to keep the ball in play and teeing up Welbeck for a simple header.
There was still over 20 minutes left to salvage a result that appeared to be in the bag for the visitors, but Verbruggen was on hand to stop a low drive from Udogie – Tottenham’s final chance of note.
A disastrous second period sees the North Londoners miss the chance to record three successive PL victories for the first time this calendar year, draining much of the goodwill earned from their emphatic 3-0 away win over Manchester United last time out.
Meanwhile, Brighton end a run of four PL matches without victory, lifting them to sixth in the league table, two points above ninth-placed Tottenham.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton & Hove Albion)
