Familiar failings from Tottenham, proof that a change of management can never immediately cure previous ills. There is, though, a fighting spirit within Thomas Frank’s new Spurs, whereas last season in the Premier League, there was rarely much beyond surrender.
Brighton scored two fine first-half goals, Yankuba Minteh’s solo mission followed by an opportunistic long-range strike from Yasin Ayari, in a 45 minutes where Tottenham dominated possession but repeatedly left the door open. Richarlison’s goal before half-time set up a second-half comeback completed by Jan Paul van Hecke’s own goal.
In May, Brighton’s 4-1 win at Tottenham, completing a home and away double, proved to be the final act of Ange Postecoglou’s reign. Under new management, Spurs were supposed to be a different defensive proposition, but at the Amex, particularly in that first half, Frank’s team showed many of the foibles of the previous regime. Brighton continue to be enigmatic; brilliant one minute, wasteful of opportunities and prone to the type of pratfall that brought Spurs their equaliser the next.
Fabian Hürzeler made four changes from the previous week’s limp defeat at Bournemouth and improvement came. Tottenham featured three changes from the Champions League defeat of Villarreal. Rotating the squad for European commitments is a fresh challenge for a manager whose previous continental assignments were Europa League qualifiers a decade ago at Brondby.
