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If José Mourinho had hoped to discover a viable plan B in the absence of Harry Kane, this miserable offer from Tottenham confirmed that it will be necessary to return to the drawing board. They were outmatched from minute to minute by Brighton, which was excellent for a man, and such a mild show bodes ill for the weeks ahead. Watching Gareth Bale walk away in the 61st minute after a near-anonymous performance was a reminder that they have more than one problem in attack, although that was the only aspect in which they battled opponents whose superiority was often surprising.
Brighton had not won any of their last 14 home games but would not have been flattered by the 3-0 margin they built up here during the agony of Mauricio Pochettino’s reign. Their winning goal coincided with the smart and incisive football they produced throughout. When Alexis Mac Allister slipped Pascal Gross down the right side of the box, the situation called for a clever cut. He duly received one, and Gross found Leandro Trossard for a shortened finish for the first time that gave Hugo Lloris no chance. Trossard hadn’t scored since September; it was a great moment for him and Brighton, who had since lacked avant-garde, to discover his killer touch.
That was in the 17th minute and Brighton could have already been a goal up by then, Gross hit the post with the outside of his foot after a beautiful play involving Mac Allister and Neal Maupay. They were dominant in the opening period and Mac Allister, who is quietly turning out to be a very impressive operator, was their featured actor. He dunked a deflected shot, spotted another deflector and probed intelligently into the gaping chasms between Spurs’ defense and midfield.
Tottenham never seemed to take hold and Mourinho was left to lament what he called “lack of confidence, lack of self-esteem” in his players before the break. “In the first half I felt like the team was probably too sad with the goal conceded and the situation,” he said. “There was a lack of energy.”
That was true, but Mourinho’s analysis of the second part was, kindly said, much more generous. He felt the Spurs had shown “great spirit,” but it was hard to spot many changes. After a 45-minute error against Liverpool in the middle of the week, he had removed Serge Aurier, who subsequently left the stadium and did not even step onto the bench here. That, Mourinho said, was a “technical decision.” This time he relieved Davinson Sánchez of his duties at halftime, putting Carlos Vinícius in front in an attempt to keep the attacks going, but the improvement was minimal.
Vinícius placed an angled header into Robert Sánchez’s legs shortly after his tackle and, with 15 minutes remaining, pulled off a magnificent save from the goalkeeper with a shot around the corner. That was it: The Spurs, for whom Son Heung-min was peripheral and Steven Bergwijn more or less invisible with a shot in the first half that dragged wide, never managed to mount a sustained threat.
That’s where Bale’s name comes back, given he just needed to impress in his second top flight since his return. Kane is likely to miss his next five games, even if analysis of his ankle injury yields the best-case scenario and Mourinho can’t afford to spend that time managing his expensive loan with children’s gloves. Bale started on the right, but the quarter hour had changed it. Not that he did much wrong – he could even have written a very different story had Son not squandered the opportunity to play him early on, and produced a solid piece of defensive work by clearing a Lewis Dunk header from near the line. . But the speed, strength and incision of yesteryear weren’t there and it would seem like a gamble by Mourinho to give him another bite against Chelsea on Thursday.
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“I’m not talking about Bale, I’m talking about us,” Mourinho said of the Spurs’ inability to unite fluid attacks. They could do worse than examine how Brighton managed to do that. While Mourinho suggested his team “deserved more than we got” after the break, the simple observation told a truer story and home substitute Aaron Connolly would have made it clearer if he hadn’t allowed Toby Alderweireld to block late with the goal. open.
Brighton would have felt bad if that lady had been expensive. “It’s our best performance this season and last,” said Graham Potter. “I thought it was closer to 2-0 than 1-0.” That was a more solid assessment; Daylight now shines between Potter’s team and the bottom three, but no matter how Mourinho does it, the Spurs will spend the next few days under a cloud.
