Danny Welbeck caps Brighton’s dramatic comeback as Tottenham falls apart | Premier League

Ange Postecoglou sported the thousand-yard stare. The game appeared to be over at half-time, with his Tottenham team two goals ahead and safely on their way to a sixth successive win in all competitions. Now the manager stood motionless on the sidelines, his hands deep in his coat pockets, trying to process what had happened. This was an amazing comeback from Brighton which saw them burst off the canvas and take the lead just after the hour mark. They didn’t want to miss out, the home team celebrated full-time.

Spurs’ defense was the center of uncomfortable attention, with Destiny Udogie enduring a personal nightmare who was to varying degrees to blame for all three goals. But he wasn’t alone. Micky van de Ven, for example, will not enjoy the scrutiny of his role in the first two games, scored by Yankuba Minteh and Georginio Rutter. The same goes for Rodrigo Bentancur, who emerged victorious and was headed into the goal by Danny Welbeck.

Credit goes to Fabian Hürzeler, the Brighton coach, who made an important change at half-time, replacing Ferdi Kadioglu – who was having a difficult time at left-back – with Pervis Estupiñán. And to every player in blue and white. They refused to accept that defeat was their fate. Kaoru Mitoma was the spark and Brighton managed to climb above Spurs and move back up to sixth in the table.

At the beginning of the year, when Hürzeler was in charge at St. Pauli, Postecoglou invited him to Spurs to pass on some of his knowledge. There are certain parallels in both men’s perspectives on the game. “If someone knocks on your door and wants a cup of coffee, let them into your house,” Postecoglou said Friday. “He will neither take your furniture nor steal your cutlery.” Here Hurzeler plundered extensively. Brighton’s £150m summer squad rebuild is paying its latest dividend.

Tottenham got off to a brilliant start and had almost complete control of the first half. There were just 16 seconds on the clock when Dominic Solanke sent Timo Werner Haring down the inside left, and if that had a familiar result for the Spurs fans who had traveled with him, that was the winger passing his low cross with Brennan Johnson free in front of the Goal stood, then that definitely sets the tone.

The visitors looked ready to blow Brighton away, pressing high and aggressively and forcing turnovers in dangerous areas. Werner’s pace was too high for Joel Veltman, while on the other hand Dejan Kulusevski was irrepressible in his role as an inside striker, swaying up and down. The Spurs thought they had scored before they actually did. James Maddison smuggled the ball over the line after a Werner header caused chaos in the Brighton penalty area, but the VAR detected Pedro Porro was offside before his cross.

The Spurs didn’t even bat an eyelid and were in the lead a few moments later. Brighton wanted to play out as usual, but Postecoglou’s team wouldn’t allow it and Udogie and Maddison joined forces to rob Rutter. From then on it was Solanke’s turn to Johnson, who had a poor result the first time around. The biggest compliment to the in-form winger was that the result was never in doubt. It was Johnson’s sixth goal in as many games.

Postecoglou’s side had created a number of decent openings in the first 10 minutes alone, with Kulusevski and Maddison taking center stage, and when the former put Johnson through from a neat Solanke free-kick in the 43rd minute, a Brighton fan was standing next to the press box summed things up. “It’s too easy,” he shouted. Johnson smashed the shot over the crossbar.

At this point it was already 2-0 and the goal was a handling disaster for Bart Verbruggen. Solanke led the counterattack and as Werner pulled back, Maddison took touch of the ball and side-footed into the bottom corner. Verbruggen allowed the ball to move back and forth underneath him.

Brighton, who were without defender Adam Webster in the early stages due to injury, barely contributed to the first half apart from a few moments from Welbeck. He shot wide from Mitoma’s cross when he should have done better, and also fired a header wide. The turnaround in the second half was remarkable.

Hürzeler’s decision to substitute Estupiñán revitalized his team on the left. Mitoma came to life, a mix of quick steps and straight running. After an hour he had two assists and the game was even. The Japanese international was virtually unplayable.

Brighton were aided and abetted by Spurs’ poor defense. Van de Ven and Udogie both missed before Minteh turned to meet Mitoma’s cross and the Spurs pair were beaten too easily in the equaliser, Rutter evading them and firing into the bottom corner. Estupiñán had played a prominent role in the build-up; Also Mitoma.

Mitoma had been denied by Guglielmo Vicario and Brighton’s goal to make it 3-2 had something inevitable about it, once again Udogie’s fault. Rutter got around him so easily, but Bentancur had moved towards the winger as the ball ran over the baseline. But he didn’t. Rutter slipped in the ball and his tackle turned into the perfect cross, Welbeck rose and nodded past Vicario. The Spurs had no turning back.