Trossard Piles Misery On Sad Spurs

Tottenham concluded a week to forget with a wretched one-nil defeat at Brighton. The loss leaves the North Londoners further adrift of the Champions League places following a run of just two wins from nine in the Premier League.

Jose Mourinho’s side started the match in a catatonic stupor, still haunted by the chasing they’d received from Liverpool on Thursday night. Brighton by contrast, full of vim and vigour, set about Spurs from the off.

Pascal Gross, the game’s outstanding player, was unfortunate not to open the scoring within three minutes. Macallister found a route to slip the ball in to Gross inside the Spurs area. Despite the attentions of three centre-halves, the stylish Swiss swerved a shot with the outside of his right foot that had Lloris beaten, but cannoned back off the post.

This near-miss did nothing to stir Spurs. The visitors proved incapable of stringing even the simplest passing combinations together and as a result, could barely progress beyond the halfway line. Alderweireld was slow in body and mind when attempting a clearance which allowed Brighton to poach possession in dangerous territory. Gross and Macallister exchanged a quick one-two that caught Ben Davies napping. Gross escaped down the left side of the Tottenham box, and with time to look up, cut an inch-perfect ball to Trossard who swept home at the near post.

With six of Mourinho’s outfield players primarily selected for their defensive instincts – bafflingly cautious for a match against a team without a home win all season and who started the game a lowly 17th in the Premier League – Tottenham offered no real response.

It took Spurs until the half-hour mark to fashion an attack worthy of the name. Ndombele – here as against Liverpool the one Tottenham player wanting the ball and at least trying to use it progressively – rode three Brighton challenges before being felled. With possession breaking to Gareth Bale, the referee afforded Tottenham the advantage. The Welshman steered the ball down the line to Son, who drove towards the Brighton box.

The only Tottenham player to have matched the Korean’s thrust was Steven Bergwijn. Receiving the ball on the right side of the area, the former PSV winger dragged a tame shot wide of Robert Sanchez’s far post. It was very much the finish of a man still searching for his first Premier League goal of the season.

Brighton came close to doubling their lead nine minutes before half-time when Lewis Dunk met Gross’s corner with a meaty header. Thankfully for Spurs Bale had not wandered too far from the post he’d been stationing and was able to repel the ball away from the line.

At the interval, with Mourinho needing to chase the game, Davinson Sanchez was replaced by Vinicius. The Brazilian must be severely questioning his decision to join Spurs on loan from Benfica, given that he is unable to command a berth in the Premier League lineup even when the man he is here to understudy – Harry Kane – is injured. The striker at least finally forced the Brighton keeper into a first save on 53 minutes. Finding space at the back post, he headed Bale’s deep corner goalwards. But, from an acute angle, couldn’t force it beyond Sanchez.

Moments later only a superb piece of goalkeeping at the other end kept Tottenham in the match. Spurs failed to clear a Gross corner, presenting the ball back to the midfielder on the left of their box. Gross fired in a low centre that from close range, Ben White diverted on target. As the ball flew towards the goal, it took a mighty deflection off Alderweireld which forced Hugo Lloris to move his feet sharply before plunging to his right to make a fine one-handed reflex save.

With an hour played, Bale, making only his second league start of the season – his first coming back in November – was replaced by Moura. Tottenham’s number nine appeared to be nursing an injury as he left the pitch – but, in truth, he could have been hooked long before then. It is increasingly hard to describe Bale’s much-heralded Spurs return as anything but an abject flop.

Moura didn’t fare any better, and Ndombele’s enforced substitution with twenty minutes to play, seriously damaged Tottenham’s hopes of staging a revival. By then, even the young Frenchman looked forlorn.

At least Son’s long-range strike soon after forced Sanchez to make another save of sorts, comfortably palming the ball over his bar. Seconds later the Brighton keeper had to be at his very best to deny Vinicius. After a slaloming run, Bergwijn found Davies, who, in turn, fed the ball to the striker. Vinicius’s left-foot shot looked destined for the bottom corner until Sanchez’s flying fingertip save.

Spurs did not trouble the Brighton goal again. And the home side should have finished the game with a flourish when Gross squared to late substitute Aaron Connolly ten yards out. With only Alderweireld between him and the goal, the striker thrashed at the ball rather than lifting it over the line, allowing Alderweireld to make a brave block. Two-nil would not have flattered Brighton in the slightest.

In normal circumstances, such a dispiriting Spurs display would have fans calling for the manager’s head. But, even if Mourinho were to lose on Thursday at home to Chelsea, without supporters in the stadium, it seems highly unlikely Daniel Levy will feel pressured into taking any action before the Summer – at the earliest.

Lest we forget when appointing Mourinho, the Tottenham chairman declared the Portuguese one of only two world-class coaches in the entire game. Given Klopp and Guardiola’s dominance of English football, it sounded a remarkable statement at the time. Judging by Tottenham’s performances over the last 14 months, increasingly it seems a ridiculous one.