Tottenham back to winning ways at Brighton

Tom Devlin 6 years ago 1.2k |

Reading time: minutes

Stopped the rot. AFP

Tottenham ended their three-game losing streak with a routine win at the Amex Stadium on Saturday night. Goals from Harry Kane and Erik Lamela proved enough to carry them to a 2-1 victory.

FT

Matchday 6

Brighton & Hove Albion

1-2

Tottenham Hotspur

22 SEP 2018

There were fears that it could have turned out differently. Paulo Gazzaniga was given the start in goal, with the club revealing that Michel Vorm had suffered a knee injury in Friday training. With Hugo Lloris also out, there was no reserve goalkeeper on the bench should something go wrong.

As it was, there was little risk of that happening with neither goalkeeper having much to worry about in the opening 40 minutes. Mat Ryan pulled off a wonderful save early in the game following a Spurs corner, and he was rarely called into action again until minutes before half-time.

Spurs won a free-kick on the edge of the box and it looked well within range for their set-piece takers. It was Trippier who got the nod but his effort was hit straight at the wall, or so it seemed at first. However, referee Chris Kavanagh spotted an infringement and pointed straight to the spot.

Replays confirmed that Murray stuck an arm out in the wall to block the ball, and Harry Kane had the chance to put another goal to his name. Ryan went right, Kane went left, and Tottenham went into the break a goal to the good.

When the teams came out for the second half, the game continued in much the same vein. It was a very wet evening on the south coast, hardly conducive to sparkling football, and the players struggled to put much together.

It took until the 77th minute for another clear cut change and a goal. Danny Rose got free down the left and his cross was tucked home with a first time finish by substitute Lamela. It was the Argentine’s fourth goal in his last four league games - replicating his numbers over the previous 58 before this run.

At this point, it looked to be an easy win for Tottenham. Brighton had barely threatened all game, and the defence was doing a sterling job of seeing the game out. Anthony Knockaert gave them a scare in added time.

A long ball over the top launched a quick counter attack and the Frenchman cut inside before lashing an effort into the far corner to deny the defence their clean sheet. There was time for little more afterwards though, and Tottenham got themselves over the line to take all three points.