Tottenham v Brighton: Premier League – live!

Spurs, Brighton and the officials will all be a bit disappointed at the break, I think. Spurs have been poor since the penalty, Brighton have played for 35 minutes against a half-interested side and achieved little, and the officials have made at least one bad penalty decision, probably two, and generally stuffed everything up for everyone.

“What’s more outrageous (but depressingly predictable) than the PPV mess is how easily the government got fobbed off on the games going on terrestrial TV,” writes Tom Atkins. “It was supposed to be the quid pro quo for making exceptions to the Covid rules to allow this whole thing to go ahead, and what did we get? A handful of 10th-choice games for a couple of months. It’s no wonder so few people have any moral qualms whatsoever when finding illegal streams to watch a sport which, let’s not forget, doesn’t belong to Sky, BT or Amazon in any sensible view of the game.”

45+4 mins: Lamela gets up and has a ludicrously unlikely attempt at goal from only a foot or two away from the byline, which goes over the bar, and that’s the end of the half!

45+3 mins: Burn tackles Lamela on the Brighton right, concedes a free-kick and gets booked. Another poor decision, in my opinion, as there was very little contact there, perhaps none at all.

45+2 mins: The ball is lifted over Tottenham’s defence towards Lallana, who might have controlled it, and would have been rewarded with a clear sight of goal, but didn’t.

45+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there’ll be three minutes or so.

42 mins: The corner leads to a cross, a Burn header, and a Lloris collection. “I see your point, but it’s not quite convincing,” says Gary Naylor. “Fans cannot attend in the stadiums nor watch in the pub, so Sky and BT have us over a barrel. I’d pay £5 to watch Everton’s games (okay, not today’s obviously) but £14.95 is a bit gougey really.” I don’t disagree with that. As a supporter of a Championship team, I have been asked to pay £10 to watch my team’s games, which I think is reasonable. I also think that anyone who has paid for a 2020-21 season ticket should be getting deeply discounted access, though they may prefer just to get a refund at some point in the future.

41 mins: Brighton win their fourth corner, double Tottenham’s tally. They have been on top for the last 15 minutes or so, but are still without a shot on target.

39 mins: Reguilon slides in to tackle Gross, and catches the opponent’s toe in his follow-through. He’s booked, another poor decision in my opinion.

34 mins: Lamptey pulls back to Trossard, whose shot is blocked, and anyway Lamptey was offside. Also it’s come to my attention that I called Lallana Lamela twice, which is extraordinarily foolish. It’s been a long day.

“I’m afraid it’s to be expected considering that we’re living in the upside-down that jumping to head a ball is a foul but purposely backing into an opponent who is in mid-air and cutting their legs out from under them wins a penalty,” writes JR. “Ah well, civilization may be ending Tuesday or soon after that anyway.”

29 mins: Brighton are having a good spell here, but remain in search of their first clear chance. “I just sat down to watch the game and found out that it is PPV,” writes Adam Levine (presumably not the Maroon 5 frontman). “So not only do I pay a fortune for sky for the right to watch a bunch of games that I couldn’t care less about I now have to pay extra for the occasional one I do. I think the expression I’m reaching for is [sod] that for a game of soldiers.” Personally I don’t really see the issue here. Sky/Prime/BT Sport subscriptions are expensive, but nobody was ever promised live coverage of every Premier League game. They still all show their subscribers the same number of games they did pre-Covid, but those subscribers are no longer getting loads of bonus extra free games as they did after the resumption of football last season. I think the number of different subscription services fans are expected to pay for is unacceptable, but these PPV games have nothing to do with that argument. Pay for them or don’t, whatever.

26 mins: Frankly I can understand their frustration, given the two penalty decisions that have now gone against them.

24 mins: VAR is not convinced, and play continues. That falls deep into seen-them-given territory.

23 mins: White crosses from the right, and Trossard flings himself to the ground. Doherty had hands on him there, and VAR is going to check this.

21 mins: Son sends a curling shot way high and also way wide of goal from just outside the area.

19 mins: The already-booked Ndombele goes into the back of Lamptey, who Kaned that situation a little bit, and concedes a free kick. This game seems depressingly likely to be decided by refereeing decisions.

15 mins: That was such a cheap goal to concede. Bissouma did a terrible job of clearing the ball, and then Lallana threw himself at the header and in so doing clattered into a player who positioned himself deliberately to be in his path. I’m not at all convinced that it was a foul, but the situation should have been avoided.

Kane sidefoots into the right corner, with the keeper going the other way, and Spurs have been gifted a lead!

12 mins: VAR has a look and decides the foul took place inside the penalty area, so it’s upgraded to a penalty!

11 mins: Spurs are dominating here. Son crosses to the far post but it’s headed clear and eventually loops to Kane, who goes down as Lallana comes in to challenge for it. The Spurs striker was trying to win the free-kick rather than the ball, and got his wish.

7 mins: Brighton look to break from a Spurs corner, but Ndombele pulls Lamptey back by a shoulder and gets booked.

6 mins: Action for Robert Sanchez! Reguilon gets the ball in the area. He checks back, assesses his options, decides none of them are any good, spins again and shoots high but too close to the Brighton keeper, who helps it over the bar.

3 mins: Son’s pass finds Lamela sprinting into the left side of the area, and he waits for Kane to catch up before sliding a low cross towards the far post, but it’s nicked off his toes as the goal loomed!

The players are out and will be in action very shortly, after a silence in memory of Nobby Stiles, and fallen members of the armed forces.

The absence of Maupay and Aaron Connolly, plus the change in goal, is certainly intriguing. There’s no mention from Potter of any kind of injury issues, so we’re left with no choice but to jump to wild conclusions. Any suggestions, beyond the obvious training-ground punch-up?

Graham Potter doesn’t have much to say in his pre-match interview, refusing to explain Neal Maupay’s absence while of the change in goal he says: “Rob Sanchez comes in. A goalkeeper with some fantastic attributes, we think he can help us in this game.” So, there’s that. Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho says this:

I hope we see a good reaction. I hope we see the team that fought hard and tried everything to win at Burnley. I hope we see the team that played so well in so many of the other matches. I want to believe that against Antwerp it was a question of motivation, concentration, being ready or not being ready for a match that could be a difficult match. I was disappointed not so much with individuals but in the general attitude of the team.

Robert Sánchez comes into the Brighton team, making his league debut for the team he joined back in 2015. Tottenham meanwhile bring Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Eric Dier, Tanguy Ndombele, Moussa Sissoko and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg back into the team after sitting out the Europa League defeat to Royal Antwerp. Dele Alli, Carlos Vinicius, Serge Aurier and Steven Bergwijn drop out of the squad altogether. Or if you want to compare this team to their last league line-up, Reguilon and Lamela are in, and Davies and Lucas Moura are out.

The team sheets have been handed in, and these are the players picked:

Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Doherty, Alderweireld, Dier, Reguilon, Sissoko, Hojbjerg, Lamela, Ndombele, Son, Kane. Subs: Winks, Bale, Hart, Rodon, Lo Celso, Lucas Moura, Davies.
Brighton: Sanchez, Webster, Veltman, Burn, Lamptey, White, Bissouma, March, Gross, Lallana, Trossard. Subs: Ryan, Mac Allister, Alzate, Welbeck, Propper, Zeqiri, Bernardo.
Referee: Graham Scott.

Tottenham, like Brighton, collected their first league points with a victory on 20 September, but unlike today’s opponents they have kept going, and they will go second if they win today. But Brighton’s five-point haul doesn’t even faintly reflect their performances, which have tended to be rather good, and it is not inconceivable that they will win at Spurs today for the first time in 39 years, even with Lewis Dunk suspended.

Jose Mourinho will celebrate the first anniversary of his appointment at Spurs later this month, a prospect which he relishes. “I am really happy because one year more or less since we arrived, there was, in our opinion, a great evolution in the team at every level,” he tubthumped. Time, as always, will tell. In the next couple of weeks Spurs play Brighton and then West Brom, before a run of games against Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal(, Crystal Palace) and Liverpool which will really show the extent of their evolution. The Seagulls will fancy their chances of exposing a few faultlines themselves, I’d wager.

Anyway, hello! Here’s Jonathan Wilson saying encouraging things about Spurs: