Decent demolition job! Brighton’s oiled engine brought down Tottenham, who woke up in the night hours – Soccernet.ee

Brighton, who recently did not have a winning streak, once again showed today what they are capable of if they want it: in their own backyard, they managed to push Tottenham, who had won their last three games, to the stomach. By the end of the evening four wins had been recorded and, although their opponents had also finally started their engines, the winning points still went to Brighton.

The Seagulls club, which in September had beaten Manchester United, Newcastle and Bournemouth in consecutive matches, has been rather unstable since then: one day it was beaten 1-6 by Aston Villa and drew with the red-light Sheffield United, but the second day they play with league leaders Liverpool on equal terms. At the same time, Tottenham did not have any better luck either, who in the meantime were at the top of the table with zero defeats, but this was followed by a series of five consecutive victories.

Today the home team started many times better, creating very dangerous opportunities in the first minutes. Danny Welbeck and Guglielmo Vicario were the center of attention on two occasions, when the former made a good tackle and the Italian responded with a powerful save. In the 11th minute, however, Vicario didn’t help either: Joao Pedro ran parallel to the goal line, broke through the mass of men and finally sent a pass to Jack Hinshelwood. The 18-year-old midfielder received the pass and sent a beautiful bomb shot under the crossbar – 1:0.

19 – Brighton have scored 19 goals through teenage players in the Premier League in 2023; more than all the other teams playing in the competition this year combined (16). Fearless. pic.twitter.com/4a7VFmrtAg

—OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 28, 2023

The next most talked about situation occurred in the 20th minute, when Brighton centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke headed the ball onto the post. A few bounces later, the shot was crossed into Tottenham’s penalty area again, but Welbeck, who was chasing the shot, flew theatrically onto the turf. With the help of the replay cameras it was discovered that the opponent Dejan Kulusevski had pulled the Briton’s shirt hard, so the whistler had to blow the whistle for a penalty. Behind the ball was Joao Pedro, who looked deadly at Vicario and rolled it into the left corner. The driver himself jumped to the other side – 2:0.

The excitement is still shared, but only for Tottenham’s goal: in the 32nd minute, the veteran champion James MIlner has the opportunity to test his precision, but the leather ball just hits the post, in the 38th minute Facundo Buonanotte sends the ball in the goal. goal, but he does so from offside, in the 45th minute, Joao Pedro manages to escape thanks to a bad pass from his opponents, to run alone, but a slight lift on Vicario fails and the tackle bounces off the sideline from the skipper’s hands. In the extra minutes, Spurs also had their first decent chance, when Richarlison flicked the ball onto the post from 15 meters to end a (semi) counterattack.

The start of the second half made it clear that manager Ange Postecoglou managed to remind his players of their ball skills during the break, as Tottenham also had several good chances. For example, fullback Destiny Udogie rose into the opponent’s penalty area and made two shots in a row, but the first hit the defensive line, and the second was blocked by Jason Steele. Moments later, Richarlison managed to push the ball into the goal, but did so from offside.

Despite everything, the net was still shaking on the other side of the pitch. Brighton opened the game with a corner pass, Pervis Estupinan, returning from the injury break, was behind the ball and tried to score a beautiful goal from 20 meters from outside. And that’s exactly what he managed to do. The ball flew left and right until finally it turned left and landed exactly at a diagonal angle – 3:0. During the goal celebration, the man sent his mother birthday wishes by sending a simple message: “I’m back!”

Joao Pedro’s face says it all 😅#BHATOT pic.twitter.com/mSU8QmpfNO
— Premier League (@premierleague) December 28, 2023

However, this was not the end of the scoring. On the contrary, the queue reached halfway! In the 75th minute, the Spurs defender pounced on the back of young Evan Ferguson and the result was again a penalty. Joao Pedro, still deadly serious, got behind the ball and once again the tool rolled firmly into the goal. Vicario leapt to the wrong place again – 4:0.

When it seemed that neither of them wanted to play anymore, in the final minutes, Tottenham finally managed to compose themselves. In the 81st minute, Brighton captain Lewis Dunk lost the ball in front of goal and Alejo Veliz managed to put it into the net very easily, and a few minutes later, Ben Davies again headed the ball past Steele – 4:2. Intense pressure ensued and, with nine minutes to spare, it really looked like Tottenham might mount a strong comeback. The post was also hit once, but ultimately Brighton’s bowlers still managed to hold on for victory.

After suffering their fifth defeat of the season, Tottenham still have problems with their defense: since the beginning of November they have conceded 19 goals (along with Nottingham Forest, the worst result of the championship) and their opponents have a combined xG of 21.4, which is more than any other Premier League club. On the other hand, it is not worth looking far for problems, given that both main central defenders are currently on an injury break: both Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven.

Brighton-Tottenham 4:2 (2:0)
11. Jack Hinshelwood, 23. pen., 75. pen. Joao Pedro, 63. Pervis Estupinan – 81. Alejo Veliz, 85. Ben Davies

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