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Previous encounters (Tottenham )
TOTTENHAM - Away, Falmer Years: 17/18 - 22/23 Prem, seasons 7-12 . '22 FA Cup, season11 . '14 EFL Cup, season4. Manager: Antonio Conte (2021) . P37 W = 56.7% @ July '22 . Experience: Prem & Serie A titles and knows a couple of languages to boot. previously Nuno Espirito Santo (2021) P0 @ July '21 . Experience: solid defensively but got into unexplored territory. Jose Mourinho (19-21) - Wins = 45.7% @ Aug '20 . Experience: got results across Europe but also into some disputes. Hotspur Stad gate; 60k . (ave 31.6K, cap 32K @ White Hart Lane . 83K versus Arsenal @ Wembley) . Nickname: Spurs . Shirt: white. Prem record from 11/12 to 22/23; 4, 5, 6, 5, 3, 2 / 3, 4, 6, 7, 4, 5 @ 7/2/23. Recent Best finish = 2nd '17, Worst finish = 7th '21, 6th '14 & '20. C21; Runner-up - '17, top four - 6 times, top six - 7 times, top ten - 6 times. Podiums; 17/18 - Man City, Man Utd, Spurs . 16/17 - Chelsea, Spurs, City . 15/16 - Leicester, Arsenal, Spurs. Prem points: 69, 72, 69, 64, 70, 86, 77, 71, 59 / 62, 71, 39. Recent managers; Jose Mourinho (19-21), Mauricio Pochettino (14-19), Tim Sherwood (2014), Andre Villas Boas (12-14), Harry Redknapp (08-12). 22/23 odds at start: title 14/1, top four 4-6, top six 1-6 . Sack AC 25/1. Expected to finish: in top four. Run in from 8/4/23: Brighton (H), Bournemouth (H), Newcastle (A), Man Utd (H), Liverpool (A), Palace (H), Villa (A), Brentford (H), Leeds (A) Run in forecast @ 1/4/23: ?pt > ?pts . Max was ? . Actual = ? . Po was ?th . Actual po = ?th SPURS @ home; Hotspur Stad (also Wembley & White Hart Lane) Seasn . W D L . F A GD . Pt Po pt/gm %Pt . W% L% 22/23 - 07 0 4 . 22 15 07 . 21 5 = 1.90 53.8 . 63.6 36.3 - Antonio Conte 21/22 - 13 1 5 . 38 19 19 . 40 4 = 2.10 56.3 . 68.4 26.3 - Antonio Conte & Nuno Espirito Santo 20/21 - 10 3 6 . 35 20 15 . 33 7 = 1.73 53.2 . 52.6 31.5 - Ryan Mason & Jose Mourinho. 19/20 - 12 3 4 . 36 17 19 . 39 6 = 2.05 66.1 . 63.1 21.0 - Jose Mourinho, finish 27/7/20. 18/19 - 12 2 5 . 34 16 18 . 38 4 = 2.00 53.5 . 63.1 26.3 - Mauricio Pochettino. 17/18 - 13 4 2 . 40 16 24 . 43 3 = 2.26 55.8 . 68.4 10.5 - Mauricio Pochettino. 16/17 - 17 2 0 . 47 09 38 . 53 2 = 2.78 61.6 . 89.4 00.0 - Mauricio Pochettino. 15/16 - 10 6 3 . 35 15 20 . 36 3 = 1.89 51.4 . 52.6 15.7 - Mauricio Pochettino. 14/15 - 10 3 6 . 31 24 07 . 33 5 = 1.73 51.5 . 52.6 31.5 - Mauricio Pochettino. 13/14 - 11 3 5 . 30 23 07 . 36 6 = 1.89 52.1 . 57.8 26.3 - Andre Villas-Boas & Tim Sherwood. Spurs v Albion (A) from 17/18: 2-0, 1-0, 2-1, 2-1, 0-1, ? . . W = 1 D = 0 L = 4 . F3 A7 scorers: Webster, Lamptey, Trossard . (Bissouma - FAC). memorable match: Season11 (A) - a single goal game with very late score to tip balance of fine margins. For Home Falmer Years results and reports scroll further below. Season12, 6th Premier League (A) Sat 8/4/23 - We'd reached the last quarter Q4, or for purposes of analysis; the run in. Last term's victory at Spurs in mid April '22 was brought back to the minds of Brighton fans, following a sensational away campaign that surpassed all expectation. We'd previously gotten zip, zilch, zero from visits to 'em over 5 years since Dec '17 - originally played at Wembley prior to their new stadium opening (see away scroll below). We'd also lost in Apr '19, Dec '19 and Nov '20 at their new venue (seasons 7-11). So now the question was; could Seagulls replicate that latest win? BHA went to Dubai for their warm-weather camp during the World Cup in December. * match report: tba stats: ht, goals, poss %-%, on, off, corners, fouls, yellows, subs, shape weather . gate . MoM team: . bench: injured: . squad: Prem: P30 . W D L . F A . W D L . F A . Pt? Po? = x.xxpt/gm . W = xx% L = xx% Spurs: Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% 3qtrs: 22 . 12 03 07 . 41 31 10 . 39 5 = 1.77 . 54.5 31.8 hfwy: 19 . 10 03 06 . 37 27 10 . 33 5 = 1.73 . 52.6 31.5 start: 10 . 07 02 01 . 22 10 12 . 23 3 = 2.30 . 70.0 10.0 - A Conte Champ Lg: 16 - AC Milan gp - Frankfurt 3-2 (H) 0-0 (A), S Lisbon 1-1 (H) 2-0 (A), Marseille 1-2 (A) 2-0 (H). EFL Cup: Forest 2-0 (A) R3. FA Cup: ? R5 . Preston 0-3 (A) R4 . Portsmouth 1-0 (H) R3. Oct: 3rd in table, 4pts off 1st at Q1. Jan: 5rh, 5pts off 4th at halfway stage Q2. Season11, 5th Premier League (A) Sat 16/4/22 - W 0-1 ~ Trossard. This match got picked for the PL early kickoff on pay tv, which was least of Brighton fans worries at this late stage of the season. Going to visit Spurs had not been at all productive wherever we'd met on travels out into greater London. In our fifth straight year at Prem level we knew all future results would be recorded here at their super stad, so it was up to us to turn things around for better. Putting a point on the board would be a start during the difficult run-in ahead. Tottenham were pushing for a top four spot and merely a month ago drubbed us at the Amex in that delayed rescheduled home fixture (see scroll below). So we knew momentum was with them and half our battle was believing it was actually remotely possible to get something there this lunchtime. Having said all that, away form wasn't half bad this term and we came into north London again off the back of a battling win at the Arsenal last Saturday previously. * match report: Albion snatched a very late winner in a single goal game. But it wasn't a smash & grab because Spurs had been outplayed for most of the match and failed to live up to their hype as free-scoring world class goal getters. In fact Seagulls should have perhaps bagged a much earlier lead, based on regular intervals between creating chances. Visitors hard working tactics to press hosts back and compete in opposition half paid dividends and kept a clean sheet to boot. Locals couldn't exploit their tendency to open the play out and make runs from deep at counters. Turquoise shirts were all over 'em, snuffed out those forays at pace and hardly gave strikers a kick. in a tough scrap Potter put a striker on after the break and defended from the front. Other subs played their part to maintain a tight grip to the end. Right at the death Trossard wriggled into the area and let fly across the keeper to record victory (90min). Brighton fans went over the moon and agreed GP masterminded a pukka gameplan to take 3pts back to Sussex. Potter said he knew we had to be good - and we were for a deserved win. Spurs fans were moaning all match and mostly cheering their lot diving, faking injury and generally taking the pee, in vain bid to get attention of Ref. If that was top four standard then the Prem is a park league. Brighton showed what a decent side could achieve at this level using discipline, controlled aggression and quality organisation & work rate. You couldn't make it up but apparently Potter really had done his creative homework analysis thoroughly beforehand. Stats: ht 0-0, goal 90, poss 48%-52%, on target 0-5, off target 3-5, blocks 2-2, corners 4-4, crosses 7-16, o/s 0-3, tackles 15-17, fouls 14-10, yellows 3-3, subs 3-3, shape 343-352. weather: sunny & warm . gate: 58,585 (away 3001) . MoM: Cucurella - great Prem signing. team: 1 Sanchez, 34 Veltman, 5 Dunk Y, 3 Cucurella, 2 Lamptey (20 March 82), 13 Gross, 8 Bissouma Y, 25 Caicedo (14 Lallana 78), 12 Mwepu Y (18 Welbeck 46), 11 Trossard . bench: 23 Steele (gk), 4 Webster, 9 Maupay, 57 Offiah, 58 Ferguson, 60 Sarmiento. squad: 28 Roberts, 42 Leonard . injured: 15 Moder, 24 Duffy . ill: 17 Alzate. Prem: P32 . W3 D6 L7 . F10 A20 . W6 D7 L3 . F19 A17 . Pt40 Po10 = 1.25pt/gm . W = 28.1% L = 31.2% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 22 05 11 . 69 40 29 .. 71 4 = 1.86 . 57.8 28.9 3qtrs: 29 . 16 03 10 . 47 36 11 .. 51 5 = 1.75 . 55.1 34.4 Hfwy: 19 . 11 03 05 . 26 22 04 .. 36 5 = 1.89 . 57.8 26.3 - Antonio Conte Start: 10 . 05 00 05 . 09 16 -07 . 15 9 = 1.50 . 50.0 50.0 - Nuno Espirito Santo Eu Lg conf: Arhnem 1-0 (A) 3-2 (H), Mura 5-1 (H) 2-1 (A), Rennes 2-2 (A) P covid (H) gp - eliminated. Ferreira 1-0 (A) 3-0 (H) qual. EFL Cup: Chelsea 0-1 (H) 2-0 (A) s-f . West Ham 2-1 (H) q-f, Burnley 0-1 (A) R4, Wolves 2pen3 2-2 (A) R3. FA Cup: Middlesbro 1-0 (A) R5 . Brighton 3-1 (H) R4 . Morecambe 3-1 (H) R3. Oct: 9th in table and 2pts off fifth at Q1. Manager sacked in Nov. Jan: 5th, 1pt behind 4th at halfway Q2. Out of EU Conf by default. Mar: 5th, 3pts off 4th at threequarters Q3. Out of FA Cup to C'ship side away. May: finshed 4th on 71pts, 3pts off 3rd. Qualify for CL. Season11, FA Cup R4 (A) Sat 5/2/22 - L 3-1 ~ Bissouma. This evening tie, broadcast by ITV on freeview, followed the new two-week Prem winter break. And also final closing of that cracked January transfer window. On the 31st Dan Burn had left for Newcastle. Hot continental striker Deniz Undav signed for BHA but stayed at our feeder club RUSG in Belgium. There had previously been much talk developing in Sussex about Seagulls going on a Cup run this year. And at that traditional January R3 contest of 64 teams Albion edged past West Brom away aet, when coming from behind very late in the day. So it wasn't exactly convincing as a C'ship versus Prem tie, with regard to any difference beyond parity over ninety minutes. In fact a strong PL first-team bench using all five Cup subs just tipped balance against combative level2 hosts - reduced to ten men who finally ran out of puff. Now BHA faced Spurs away for R4, which meant battling fellow Prem opposition immediately, rather than getting another 'easier' draw with a surviving EFL outfit. Spurs had also reverted to A-list subs to help swing that R3 home tie in London their way, against a lowly northwest League One club. They too conceded first, prior to levelling late then scoring twice in the last five minutes of normal time. Brighton fans who had been around the block well remembered our visit to old White Hart Lane during Jan '05 for an FAC3 tie. Back in those days we struggled as a C'ship club at Withdean, while Spurs were a model big-six elite Prem unit. Perhaps there was a lesson to learn; in never say die, nor thinking it may be over until it is, about the fat lady singing, or fickle finger of fate pointing elsewhere at the knockout moment. One club goes thru, the other don't - as watched live on terrestial tv. * match report: Albion crashed out of the Cup, conceding twice inside half an hour and putting up a disappointing display. Mistakes at.the back contributed to going behind to a worldy from the England striker (13min). Then March netted an og with a deflection from a cross (24min). Potter went to a flat back four after the interval and urged more attacking zeal. Then Bissouma pulled one back with a deflected pot shot (63min). But again visitors allowed hosts to up the ante and let in a third immediately - once more in comical fashion (66min). More subs came on but it was all over bar reading reports of how Brighton coulda, woulda, shoulda but didn't. Chances did arrive, were not taken and thereby hangs a tale. There were too many individual errors that contributed to a poor performance overall. Unfortunately fans will remember how we went there and lost again. And to a team that are no great shakes really but know how to put the ball into the net. stats: ht 2-0, goals 13,24,66-63, poss 43%-57%, on target 7-5, off target 5-8, corners 2-3, o/s 1-1, fouls 10-10, yellows 1-1, subs 5-4, shape 343-532 . weather: mild . gate: 54,697 (away 5741) . MoM: Bissouma - impressive. team: 1 Sanchez, 2 Lamptey (18 Welbeck 70), 4 Webster, 5 Dunk, 3 Cucurella, 20 March (25 Caicedo 61), 13 Gross, 8 Bissouma, 14 Lallana (34 Veltman 46 Y), 15 Moder (58 Ferguson), 9 Maupay . bench: 23 Steele (gk), 38 McGill (gk), 17 Alzate, 24 Duffy, 57 Offiah. squad: 28 Roberts . injured: 12 Mwepu . ill: 10 Mac Allister, 11 Trossard. Season10, 4th Premier League (A) Sun 1/11/20 - L 2-1 ~ Lamptey. Match played behind closed doors under coronavirus restrictions. Going up to Spurs had literally been a varied venue experience for Brighton fans, both with recent Prem fixtures and in previous decades during two Cup competitions. Not least also due to visiting their other temporary home, as per Wembley, on route to our fourth season in the elite. Getting anything from each ongoing encounter had proved difficult to say very little but with Albion's pre-season ambitions aiming towards midtable, perhaps times would now reflect positive change. Graham Potter was tasked with obtaining improvement in results here and at least raising Seagulls away game to compete, wherever they landed this term. The squad had been overhauled since last term but Potter's modus operandi was essentially possession based and that wasn't going to change. Brighton fans were hoping he could mould a mixed group of young and experienced players to advantage. * match report: Albion lost again and were becoming part of the bottom six as per previous seasons of struggle, toil, blood, tears & sweat. VAR had a big influence on the contest, although it's fair to say Ref and his advisor watching on tv both had a mare tonight. Spurs opened the scoring via a disputed penalty, which needed reference to the rule book to fathom (13m). In similar circumstances Albion were denied a pen when Trossard got held back. Lamptey equalised after turnaround and this was only confirmed when Ref studied his monitor for many minutes (56min). Hosts won the game with a free header and BHA went home with nowt once more (73min). Potter brought off both wingbacks suffering injuries but left influential Lallana on for the full 90+ game time. It wasn't that Albion played badly, merely about turning possession into chances and then scoring from on targets. Potter had left two strikers at home and went with a false no.9. Later Welbeck came on and looked the part for remaining minutes until final whistle. Spurs had mugged us as they knew too much about gamesmanship, conning officials and bending rules & regs to boot. Seagulls had to wise up, not be so soft and stop trying so hard to score the perfect goal. In a numbers game, playing percentages would only provide a positive result if plenty of attempts were made to put the ball in the proverbial onion bag. We didn't have the quality like locals to show individual brilliance. Everything else was just filling for a 90 minute match. Stats: ht 1-0, goals 13,73-56, poss 44%-56%, on target 3-2, off target 6-4, o/s 0-4, corners 4-5, fouls 14-13, yellows 2-1, subs 3-3 . Weather: wet. Team: 26 Sanchez, 2 Lamptey (10 Mac Allister 79), 4 Webster, 34 Veltman, 33 Burn Y, 20 March (30 Bernardo 65), 8 Bissouma, 3 White, 14 Lallana, 13 Gross, 11 Trossard (18 Welbeck 74) . Bench: 1 Ryan, 24 Propper, 17 Alzate, 29 Zeqiri. Squad: 7 Connolly, 9 Maupay, 23 Steele, 19 Izquierdo . Ban: 5 Dunk . Injured: 16 Jahanbakhsh, 21 Andone, 32 Walton . MoM: Lamptey. Prem: P7 . W0 D1 L2 . F4 A7 . W1 D1 L2 . F7 A7 . Pt5 Po16 = 0.71pt/gm. Wins = 14.2%, Loss = 57.1% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 18 08 12 . 68 45 23 . 62 7 = 1.63 . 47.3 31.5 - Ryan Mason. 3qtrs: 29 . 14 06 09 . 49 30 19 . 48 6 = 1.65 . 48.2 31.0 - Jose Mourinho. Hfwy: 19 . 09 06 04 . 34 20 14 . 33 6 = 1.73 . 47.3 21.0 Start: 10 . 06 03 01 . 21 09 12 . 21 1 = 2.10 . 60.0 10.0 - Jose Mourinho. Europa League: 16 - D Zagreb 2-0 (H) 3-0 (A) . 32 - Wolfsburg 1-4 (A) 4-0 (H) . group - Ludogorets 1-3 (A) 4-0 (H), LASK 3-0 (H) 3-3 (A), R Antwerp 1-0 (A) 2-0 (H). qual - Maccabi 7-2 (H), Shkendija 1-3 (A), Plovdiv 1-2 (A). EFL Cup: Man City L 1-0 final, Brentford 2-0 (H) s-f, Stoke 1-3 (A) q-f, Chelsea 5pen4 (1-1) (H) R4, Leyton Orient bye (A) R3. FA Cup: Everton 5-4 aet (A) R5, Wycombe 1-4 (A) R4, Marine 0-5 (A) R3. Nov: after finish of the first quarter, Spurs briefly led the Prem table. Jan: at the halfway stage Spurs were 6th posn and 4pts adrift of top four. Mar: threequarters completed and still 6th but 3pts behind 4th place. May: Mourinho went in mid April. Finished 7th and missed top six place by 3pt. Lost EFL Cup final. Qualified for Europa League. Season9, 3rd Premier League (A) Thur 26/12/19 - L 2-1 ~ Webster. Our habitual Xmas hols bash this year in the festive-footy southeast was versus Spurs, at lunchtime in their new metroplitan super-stad up the Lane. It also marked BHA's first reciprocal match and near completion of first half of the 3rd PL campaign. Pre-kickoff Albion were part of the lower order mid-table mix, with an average of 1.11pt/gm. Things could be worse but in truth overall improvement compared to 2018 points in this period had not materialised. At the Amex back in October, blue & white had justly prevailed against misfiring Hotspur but today we didn't really want to end carved up like cold turkeys. Graham Potter had established a new method of play from day1 but other sides were up to speed on us now and also knew all too obvious flaws in this expansive, fluid & open system. Safety first defence tactics from Chris Hughton's first two Prem campaigns may not have apppeared very entertaining but at end of each season we remained ok to go again next time. How would Potter react on his next visit to a big six outfit? Albion could field any manner of shape and change seamlessly during play according to circumstances. But whether the current match-day squad was thought strong enough should be revealed by New Year and opening of the January transfer window. * * * match report: Albion crashed to yet another defeat having led at ht from a set piece goal by Webster (37min). After the break Spurs got going and showed their quality to level (53min) and go ahead (76min). They were too good for Seagulls, who lacked Prem players with a touch of real class. BHA tried hard but all for nothing in the event, failing to keep a clean sheet and never quite developing their amount of possession into taking chances. Brighton fans went home feeling disappointed following a mobile display of intent that lacked the superior levels of skills shown by world-class players of Spurs squad. Such is life in lower reaches of the Premier League. It is easy to make excuses for a team easy on the eye but at end of the season such sentiment counts for zilch when measuring final placing, facts, figs and comparing to the last two PLcampaigns. Stats: shape 433-433, ht 0-1, goals 37-53,72, poss 54%-46%, on target 5-5, off target 2-5, blocks 4-1, o/s 5-0, corners 9-2, fouls 10-9, yellows 4-2, subs 3-3 . MoM - Webster . Gate - 56,308, away 3k . Weather - rain. 1 Ryan, 21 Schelotto (8 Bissouma 83), 4 Duffy, 15 Webster, 33 Burn Y, 46 Alzate, 6 Stephens, 30 Bernardo (11 Trossard 76), 13 Gross Y, 44 Connolly (7 Maupay 68), 18 Mooy . Subs - 27 Button, 22 Montoya, 24 Propper, 17 Murray. Squad - 3 Bong, 14 Balogun, 16 Jahanbakhsh . Injured - 5 Dunk, 19 Izquierdo, 20 March. Prem: P19 . W3 D3 L3 . F12 A11 . W2 D2 L6 . F10 A17 . Pt20 Po15 = 1.05pt/gm. Wins = 26.3%, Loss = 47.3% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 16 11 11 . 61 47 14 . 59 06 = 1.55 . 42.1 28.9 - J Mourinho, finish 27/7/20 3qtrs: 29 . 11 08 10 . 47 40 07 . 41 08 = 1.41 . 37.9 34.4 - J Mourinho. PREM SUSPENDED Hfwy: 19 . 08 05 06 . 34 27 07 . 29 06 = 1.52 . 42.1 31.5 - M Pochettino. Start: 10 . 03 03 04 . 16 15 01 . 12 11 = 1.10 . 30.0 30.0 Champions League: 16 - Leipzig 3-0 (A) 0-1 (H). Group - B Munich 2-7 (H) 3-1 (A), Olympiakos 4-2 (H) 2-2 (A), RS Belgrade 5-0 (H) 0-4 (A). EFL Cup: 3rd rnd - Colchester 4pen3 0-0 (A) FA Cup: Norwich 2pen3 1-1 aet (H) R5, Southampton 3-2 (H) 1-1 (A) R4, Middlesbro 2-1 (H) 1-1 (A) R3. Aug: adrift of top four and even top six at this very early stage. Oct: outside of top ten and results show mid table mediocrity by end of start Q1. New Year: change of manager sees them up to 6th. Qual for last 16 of Ch Lg and in FAC4 draw via a replay. March: in 8th spot when PL suspended. Out of Chmp Lg last 16. July: struggling to make 5th place but qualified for Europa League. Season8 2nd Premier League (A) - Tue 23/4/19 - L 1-0. Once again Sky Sports had selected Albion for tv coverage and so moved the original fixture date from Saturday Apr6 to Sunday the 7th. But next, as Spurs progressed in the Champions League and Seagulls reached FA Cup semis, it got rescheduled a second time. And by this juncture the north London giants brand spanking new stad was coming into regular use. It was thus a PL game in hand for Albion on nearly all other rivals in the wider danger zone but hardly one we could count on as a source of points. Seagulls had stopped the rot with a goalless draw on the road last weekend but knew this was a more difficult task. There were four fixtures left and three were against top six sides. So a clean sheet here would be regarded as almost priceless in the immediate challenge to beat the dreaded drop. * * * match report: Albion hung in there for majority of this miss-match but conceded at the death from a pot shot (88min). Seagulls never looked like scoring and the goalless run was in excess of 10 hours now. Andone got booked for rough stuff and hooked after the hour mark. He did not seem too pleased but hardly had a good game. March & Kayal also joined the defensive display but it turned sour just prior to the ninety. Hughton said, 'I can't fault the effort and what we tried to do. We defended well. In regards to clear cut chances I thought they were minimal. If we manage the game better in the last period we come awy with a result. Saturday noe becomes our biggest game. What we need to do is win in whichever way possible.' Brighton fans knew that meant scoring at least one goal and at this moment couldn't quite guess where it would come from. Set pieces, open play and even opposition mistakes had all drawn a blank lately. BHA had merely netted 32 in the league, which was less than a goal a game on average. Spurs had got 65, so perhaps we were lucky to keep them to just one after all. Stats; ht 0-0, goal 88, shape 433-451, poss 78%-22%, on target 5-1, off target 12-4, corners 6-3, fouls 7-13, yellows 1-2, subs 3-3. Gate 56,251, away 2992 . Weather - mild . MoM - Dunk, outstanding in defence. 1 Ryan, 22 Montoya, 4 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 30 Bernardo Y, 13 Gross, 6 Stephens, 8 Bissouma (7 Kayal 86), 16 Jahanbakhsh (20 March 73), 10 Andone Y (17 Murray 64), 9 Locadia . Subs - 27 Button, 3 Bong, 33 Burn, 14 Balogun. Prem P35 . W6 D4 L7 F17 A23 . W3 D3 L12 F15 A31 . Pt34 Po17 = 0.97pt/gm. Wins = 25.7%, Loss = 54.2% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total; 38 . 23 02 13 . 67 39 28 . 71 4 = 1.86 . 60.5 34.2 3qtrs; 29 . 20 01 08 . 56 30 26 . 61 3 = 2.10 . 68.9 27.5 Hfwy; 19 . 15 00 04 . 42 18 24 . 45 2 = 2.36 . 78.9 21.0 Start; 10 . 07 00 03 . 16 08 08 . 21 5 = 2.10 . 70.0 20.0 - M Pochettino. Champions League; final - lost to Liverpool 0-2, s-f - Ajax 0-1 (H) 2-3 (A), q-f - Man City 1-0 (H) 4-3 (A), 16 - B Dortmund 3-0 (H) 0-1 (A). Group B - Barcelona 2-4 (H) 1-1 (A), PSV Eindhoven 2-2 (A) 2-1 (H), Inter Milan 2-1 (A) 1-0 (H). EFL Cup; s-f - Chelsea 1-0 (H) 4-2 pens 2-1 (A), q-f - Arsenal 0-2 (A), 4th rnd - West Ham 1-3 (A), 3rd rnd - Watford 2-2 4-2 pens (H - @ MK Dons) FA Cup; 4th rnd - Palace 2-0 (A), 3rd rnd - Tranmere 0-7 (A) Aug; will they come to a peak eventually at their new stadium, or over the top after three previous podiums? And that notorious 'wait & see' recruitment policy hasn't exactly moved with the times. October; challenging in top six and getting it done away from Wembley. Still in EFL Cup. New Year; making a fist of it in the top three and within striking distance of 2nd place. FA Cup progress. March; Still at Wembley but move to new stad in April. In a four way fight for 3rd place. Champs Lg q-f. Season7 1st Premier League (A) Wednesday 13/12/17 - WEMBLEY - L 2-0. The PL season was mid-way thru December and in a busy month, now approached the halfway stage just prior to Xmas. Albion were on schedule of a point per game average but there was concern over lack of goals scored recently, while those conceded were racking up. And nobody expected anything much from this next visit to top-six outfit Spurs at their temporary international home. Brighton had been found wanting since their last win at beginning of November, so it was time to stand up and be counted. PL managers knew what Chris Hughton's game plan tended to follow and that we didn't offer too much going forward. In the last few matches Seagulls went behind and were then left chasing the game, often with a mountain to climb. Hughton relied on his settled eleven week in & week out but the team appeared jaded presently. On the night Hughton made wholesale changes, by utilising the 25 man squad for the match-day 18. Somehow a way had to be found to take pressure off defence and create goalscoring opportunities. But was this current match-day squad capable of cutting the Premiership mustard before the transfer window opened? * * * match report: Albion crashed to defeat again and for all their defending couldn't prevent fickle finger of fate setting a trend. It appeared visitors might keep a clean sheet until the interval but somehow it wasn't to be. A deep cross went all the way to the far post and found the top corner (40min). In the second period Hughton sent on March after an hour and later Murray & Gross but nothing changed. Spurs wrapped it up at the death with a second stroke of fortune. From a set piece the ball struck the back of a diving player and deflected into the net (87min). Hughton said, 'we conceded two poor goals. I thought we grew in confidence. We were always going to be up against it but defended well and restricted them to minimal chances. There were no clear ones and that is all you can do.' Brighton fans had an evening out but could see Seagulls were far from ruling the roost home or away this month so far. Stats; shape 4231-4141, ht 1-0, goals 40,87, poss 75%-25%, on target 8-4, off target 17-3, corners 10-2, o/s 3-1, fouls 5-10, yellow 1-1, subs 3-3. Gate 46,438 (away 3126) 1 Ryan, 21 Schelotto, 22 Duffy, 5 Dunk (capt), 3 Bong, 11 Knockaert, 6 Stephens, 7 Kayal (13 Gross), 24 Propper, 19 Izquierdo (20 March), 17 Murray (10 Hemed). Prem P17 . W4 D5 L8. F14 A23 . Pt17 Po13 = 1.00pt/gm . Wins = 23.5%, Loss = 47.0% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total; 38 . 23 08 07 . 74 36 38 . 77 3 = 2.02 . 60.5 18.4 - Mauricio Pochettino. 3qtrs; 29 . 17 07 05 . 55 24 31 . 58 4 = 2.00 . 58.6 17.2 Hfwy; 19 . 10 04 05 . 34 18 16 . 34 5 = 1.78 . 52.6 26.3 Start; 10 . 06 02 02 . 19 07 12 . 20 3 = 2.00 . 60.0 20.0 Aug - failure to reach the top four will be seen as a slight setback during the dual-league Wembley experience. New Year - in 5th place and in danger of being left behind top four. March - challenging for runner-up slot. EFL Cup early exit. FA Cup S-F. Champions League last 16. SPURS PREVIOUS PREM; Seasn . W D L . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% 22/23 - 21/22 - 22 05 11 . 69 40 29 . 71 4 = 1.86 . 57.8 28.9 - Antonio Conte @ 22/5/22 Made the top four, 4pts off the podium, in something of a revival campaign under a quality boss. 20/21 - 18 08 12 . 68 45 23 . 62 7 = 1.63 . 47.3 31.5 - Ryan Mason & Jose Mourinho @ 24/5/21 Manager sacked during run in after losing players support. He'd not either improved their league placing. Ended outside top six for first time. 19/20 - 16 11 11 . 61 47 14 . 59 6 = 1.55 . 42.1 28.9 - Jose Mourinho. PL SUSPENDED, complete @ 27/7/20 Not really what or where the old special one of yore wanted. 18/19 - 23 02 13 . 67 39 28 . 71 4 = 1.86 . 60.5 34.2 - Mauricio Pochettino. Made fourth position in a close finish with usual top six candidates. Runners up in all English Champions League final confirmed strength of the Prem. 17/18 - 23 08 07 . 74 36 38 . 77 3 = 2.02 . 60.5 18.4 - Mauricio Pochettino. Second best hardly defines this man from Argentina. In 4 seasons he has made Spurs a top-three outfit, bearing in mind the club is in transit to realistically become even bigger. 16/17 - 26 08 04 . 86 26 60 . 86 2 = 2.26 . 68.4 10.5 - Mauricio Pochettino. Such was competition at the top that in an average year Spurs may well have won the league. European participation increased the burden away from The Lane. 15/16 - 19 09 10 . 69 35 34 . 70 3 = 1.84 . 50.0 26.3 - Mauricio Pochettino. Being a metropolitan club, the term 'bottled it' would seem an apt description of this ultimately disappointing campaign. But the run-in can't be re-run and so it's all history now. 14/15 - 19 07 12 . 58 53 05 . 64 5 = 1.68 . 50.0 31.5 - Mauricio Pochettino. They talk about glass ceilings and at White Hart Lane, Mauricio Pochettino was on the up, without quite managing to crack it in his first season. 13/14 - 21 06 11 . 55 51 04 . 69 6 = 1.81 . 55.2 28.9 - Andre Villas-Boas & Tim Sherwood. It was the end of European name AVB and latterly novice coach TS but neither saw it out for too long, as 6th & 7th boss since the reign of legend Glenn Hoddle in 2003. 12/13 - 21 09 08 . 66 46 20 . 72 5 = 1.89 . 55.2 21.0 11/12 - 20 09 09 . 66 41 25 . 69 4 = 1.81 . 52.6 23.6 FA CUP from 11/12; s-f, 4th rnd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, s-f, s-f, 4th, 5th, 5th, 5th. LEAGUE CUP; 3rd, 4th, q-f, runners-up, 3rd, 4th, 4th, s-f, 3rd, runners-up, s-f, 3rd. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE; nq, nq, nq, nq, nq, group stage, last 16, finalists, last 16, nq, nq. EUROPA LEAGUE; gp, q-f, last 16, last 32, last 16, last 32, nq, nq, nq, last 16, Conf gp. * * * * * * * * * * Tottenham - away, Falmer years. Season4 (A) 29/10/14 Capital One (EFL) Cup r4 - L 2-0. Going to White Hart Lane was very attractive to those Brighton fans who did attend away matches and the allocation of over 4k seats was sold out well in advance. Spurs had provided friendly Prem opposition for pre-season opening of the Amex in 2011 and there had been other footy connexions with the massive metropolitan outfit over previous decades - see Tottenham on the Withdean Era tab. By reaching the last sixteen in this League Cup competition, Albion had kinda got lucky with the draw on each occasion. In early August, Cheltenham were initially despatched at the Amex, then Swindon in Wiltshire a couple of weeks later but only aet. A useful confidence booster at Burton in September put Seagulls in with a squawk of getting the other Albion with WBA but as we drew Spurs, they went off to Bournemouth instead. On the night at White Hart Lane, travel problems in London delayed k-o until 8pm. Sami Hyypia was forced to field his U20 keeper Chris Walton for debut, after Stockdale damaged a finger in training. Sami also made other changes from regular league line-up too but had left several first teamers on the bench. Albion went into the interval having kept the home team at bay and Walton performed well to indicate he had a very good future ahead. Spurs had most of possession and chances but Seagulls defended resolutely. Then on start of the second period, the home unit subbed for a ball-playing attacker who soon got past defenders and beat CW (54min). Hyypia double subbed on 65min with direct m-f replacements in vain attempt to stay in the tie. But all to no avail as Spurs piled on pressure and got a second as CW went down to parry an effort but it fell to a striker (74min). BHA had a couple of pen shouts waved away, although Ref would have had to be in benevolent mood to give against 30k home crowd. CMS got on for a few moments at the death as Albion rallied and kept heads up. But in truth, stats showed we were well beat a long time before final whistle. At least the rain stopped and away fans went home in good voice after singing hearts out. Walton, Calderon, Hughes, Dunk, Chicksen, McCourt (Teixeira), Ince, Holla, Forster-Caskey (Gardner), LuaLua (Mackail-Smith), Colunga. Seasons 1-6 - not C'ship. * * * * * Withdean Era: 12 seasons from 1999 to 2011 - no league meetings. Noughties last there - Season6 8/1/05 (A) - FA Cup R3, L 2-1. An afternoon that stands out in older B'fans memories, when we first played the big boys at White Hart Lane.
Tottenham - Home, Falmer Years: 17/18 - 22/23 Prem, seasons 7-12. SPURS away: Seasn . W D L . F A GD . Pt Po pt/gm %Pt . W% L% 22/23 - 05 3 3 . 19 15 04 . 18 5 = 1.63 46.1 . 45.4 27.7 - Antonio Conte 21/22 - 09 4 6 . 31 29 02 . 31 4 = 1.63 43.6 . 47.3 31.5 - Antonio Conte & Nuno Espirito Santo 20/21 - 08 5 6 . 33 25 08 . 29 7 = 1.52 46.7 . 42.1 31.5 - Ryan Mason & Jose Mourinho. 19/20 - 04 8 7 . 25 29 -4 .. 20 7 = 1.05 33.8 . 21.0 36.8 - Jose Mourinho, finish 27/7/20. 18/19 - 11 0 8 . 33 23 10 . 33 4 = 1.73 46.4 . 57.8 42.1 - Mauricio Pochettino. 17/18 - 10 4 5 . 34 20 14 . 34 3 = 1.78 44.1 . 52.6 26.3 - Mauricio Pochettino. 16/17 - 09 6 4 . 39 17 22 . 33 2 = 1.73 38.3 . 47.3 21.0 - Mauricio Pochettino. 15/16 - 09 7 3 . 34 20 14 . 34 3 = 1.78 48.5 . 47.3 15.7 - Mauricio Pochettino. 14/15 - 09 4 6 . 27 29 -2 .. 31 5 = 1.63 48.4 . 47.3 31.5 - Mauricio Pochettino. 13/14 - 10 3 6 . 25 28 -3 .. 33 6 = 1.73 47.8 . 52.6 31.5 - Andre Villas-Boas & Tim Sherwood. Albion v Spurs (H) from 17/18: 1-1, 1-2, 3-0, 1-0, 0-2, 0-1 . . W = 2 D = 1 L = 3 . F6 A6 scorers: Gross, Knockaert, Maupay, Connolly 2, Trossard. memorable match: Season9 (H) - first home win this term and a case of reaching necessary standards. For Away Falmer Years results & reports scroll further up. Season12, 6th Premier League (H) Sat 8/10/22 - L 0-1 Two previous postponements in mid Sept due to mourning & funeral of Queen Elizabeth II meant that since the international break Albion were playing catch-up with fixtures - and this was a teatime (5:30) kickoff to boot. End of the first quarter (Q1) was originally scheduled (P10) for completion of this game. But that would now extend onto ten days hence at home to Forest. Following useful domestic returns hosting Hotspur during four lower order Prem seasons (when regularly occupying bottom six places), last term the wings came off when Seagulls were actually flying a lot higher. We initially drew here in Apr '18 but lost in Sept '18 of the second term, then won twice, in Oct '19 and Jan '21, before defeat once again in Mar '22 (seasons 7-11). But that's football for better or worse and you never really know the score; chronologically, consequentially, hypothetically or metaphorically. Of course, changes of manager are a factor in cause & effect and guess what? Yeah, Graham Potter had been gone for a whole calender month and Roberto de Zerbi was head coach now. And this was his home debut - almost needless to say, quoted as a sell out based on pre-match ticket sales. Spurs spent about 100m by start of the season in a bid to assemble a side capable of getting onto the podium. * match report: De Zerbi lost his opening domestic contest and in truth it was forgettable, as the pre-match hype was way better than the football. The Italian head coach appeared to be feeling his way into the Prem, selected an unchanged line-up to Potter's principle eleven, didn't go for broke with subs and generally was low key overseeing an average performance. All previous talk of free-flowing attacking soccer came to nought when opposition set up as 5-3-2 and played on the counter. You couldn't really make it up as a workable theory of stopping opposition at the highest level but that's how it happened. Visitors led to a shot that flicked off the striker's head in hosts crowded goalmouth (22min). Rest of the game was a blur of mediocrity, disappointing attempts at goal scoring and achieved low values for actual entertainment. De Zerbi remained passive when opportunity knocked to shake things up, get Seagulls out of a rut and airbourne with fresh wings from the bench. Changes were initially piecemeal and eventually much too late to do any good. He said the result was unfair - which at least was an emotional response to stilted tactics, robotic means of hosts forward motion and an inflexible game-plan. Maybe Brighton fans shouldn't compare... but we'd been used to Potter making the right call at key moments. Perhaps that's why he's now at Chelsea. De Zerbi has to hit the ground running and get to grips with the Prem as quickly as he upped use of English sound bites in merely a couple of weeks. stats: ht 0-1, goals 22, poss 59%-41%, on 4-3, off 5-4, blocks 5-1, corners 6-2, o/s 2-2, tackles 17-15, fouls 9-14, yellows 1-2, subs 4-3, shape 3421-532 weather: dry . gate: 31,498 away 2989 . MoM: Welbeck - did everything but score. team: 1 Sanchez, 34 Veltman, 5 Dunk, 4 Webster, 7 March, 10 Mac Allister, 25 Caicedo, 30 Estupinan, 13 Gross, 18 Welbeck, 11 Trossard. subs: 22 Mitoma 68 30, 14 Lallana 81 13, 2 Lamptey 87 34, 27 Gilmour 88 25. bench: 23 Steele (gk), 6 Colwill, 43 Turns, 19 Sarmiento, 21 Undav. injured: 15 Moder . squad: 8 Mwepu, 20 Enciso, 28 Ferguson, 29 van Hecke. Prem: P8 . W2 D1 L1 . F6 A3 . W2 D1 L1 . F8 A6 . Pt14 Po6 = 1.75pt/gm . W = 50.0% L = 25.0% Season11, 5th Premier League (H) Wed 16/3/22 - L 0-2. This match was rescheduled from Sunday 12 December due to covid at Spurs during the omicron wave of infection pre-Xmas. So it now marked end of the threequarters stage Q3. Albion had done quite well here versus these London giants over four previous Prem campaigns. Consecutive home wins from those last two meetings under Graham Potter set up an intriguing fifth Amex encounter of a third kind. He'd overseen very few additions to the match-day squad during summer build up and so included U23s who stepped up. And at the January window not much more squad activity significantly happened. From fixtures between August and mid December Seagulls had gone higher than ever before - P15 W4 D8 L3 Pt20 Po9. However at that time our injury list was long with Dunk, Webster, Lallana, Alzate & Welbeck out and Duffy suspended. Now BHA were - P28 W7 D12 L9 Pt33 Po13. Form had clearly tailed off recently - for individuals, starting eleven and impact subs to boot. This as demonstrated by our polarised sequence of results since game 16 in mid December: wdw ddd wll lll. QED. Meanwhile ex-Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo took Spurs helm in pre-season and during August added to a previously under-performing squad, spending around 70m on new signings. But his tenure was very short and he soon got replaced by experienced coach Antonio Conte during November. It may have been a good time to play them but in the week before the original mid-Dec Sunday meeting Spurs had confirmed covid cases in their camp, hence the fixture got postponed. Now however Spurs were on a desperate surge for reaching the top six at very least during the forthcoming run in. * match report: Albion chalked up a seventh home loss, with last four on the bounce, making a run of six consecutive defeats overall. Also another fail to score stat (11 = 37.9%) and lack of clean sheet (22 = 75.8%). We were lucky to get nought. A deflected strike caught Sanchez cold (37min) just when it appeared we might possibly hold visitors to nil-nil at halftime. In the second period they caught us on the break and went two up (57min), giving hosts a proverbial mountain to climb. It wasn't that blue & white were that hopeless during open play but it came down to the same old tale of what to do in front of goal. Or to be pedantic, after getting into visitors third and their area. Yes, no shots on target, zero, zip, zilch. Seagulls could send the ball into row Z, miss by a mile, get smothered, blocked and end up in a heap but not bother their keeper at all. Potter took the positives as usual but even he is finding it hard to state enough sound bites and not mention the obvious elephant on the pitch - 10 goals scored in 15 domestic fixtures to date. The good news was there was a two week interval until our next game, so you'd hope coaches & squad would address that old problem and find a solution. If not the consequences didn't bear thinking about if we slipped toward the bottom six as in days of yore. Stats: ht 0-1, goals 37,57, poss 48%-52%, on target 0-7, off target 15-10, corners 6-3, fouls 11-9, yellows 2-2, subs 3-3, shape 532-3421 weather: dry, mild . gate: 31,141 (2888 away) . MoM: Cucurella - up & back. team: 1 Sanchez, 20 March, 34 Veltman Y (2 Lamptey 78), 24 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 3 Cucurella, 13 Gross (15 Moder 78), 8 Bissouma (18 Welbeck 62), 10 Mac Allister, 9 Maupay Y, 11 Trossard . bench: 23 Steele (gk), 12 Mwepu, 17 Alzate, 25 Caicedo, 42 Leonard, 60 Sarmiento squad: 28 Roberts . injured: 4 Webster, 14 Lallana . ban: 0. Prem: P29 . W3 D5 L7 . F10 A20 . W4 D7 L3 . F16 A16 . Pt33 Po13 = 1.13pt/gm . W = 24.1% L = 34.4% Season10, 4th Premier League (H) Sun 31/1/21 - W 1-0 ~ Trossard. Coronavirus attendance restrictions - lockdown 3, no fans (Tier 3/4/5 = 0, 2 = 2000, 1 = 4000). Match played behind closed doors. Looking at last year's fixture here (see season9 below) a couple of things are apparent. First of all the timing of playing big-boys Spurs during an assumed testing season ahead and secondly, their match-day mental state, given that club's upheaval when replacing a successful manager. This psychological aspect can be applied to other big sides (eg. Arsenal) and may account for one-off positive results against top-six giants in campaigns of generally low returns of wins & points. Graham Potter now had to repeat such singular success and also attempt to replicate it against any Prem quality opposition arriving on our turf. Before kickoff Albion hadn't won at the Amex all season and those domestic failings of '20 were carrying into '21. Home form was: 1-3, 2-3, 1-1, 0-0, 1-1, 1-2, 1-1, 0-1, 3-3, 0-0. So frustrated Brighton fans could see today would be massive to actually get something versus mighty Spurs. Talking of which, BHA posted 67m losses on books from the previous term, given covid restrictions were a significant factor for both income and outgoings columns. But the thing that really made Seagulls supporters ears twitch was comments about latent player values. In other words whether we'd become a selling club going forward. It led to anoraks checking on line sources for purchase prices and transfer fees etc. and speculation as to icon Tony Bloom's continued financial benevolence. On this penultimate day of the January window, no full transfers in had taken place. BHA legend Glenn Murray joined Forest, again with boss Chris Hughton, on a free. Izquierdo was back on the bench following two seasons out with injury. *** match report: Albion won for the first time at home this season. It also ensured a 7pt gap above the d-z, off loaded heaps of pressure & unloaded lotsa frustration to boot. Seagulls were good value for the single goal victory and keeping a clean sheet against an under par Spurs unit on the night. Trossard netted from a Mac Allister to Gross interplay with a fluid move worthy of scoring (17min). After that chances came and went but visitors seldom troubled Sanchez between our sticks. Potter kept momentum going with two late subs, although the team ground it out ok. Brighton fans stuck at home could see a half decent eleven, match-day squad, etc given talent sat on the bench and also a couple out injured. What they had to do now was prove in future fixtures this was no one off but a side to be reckoned with versus quality opposition or not. Time would only tell. Stats: ht 1-0, goal 17, poss 43%-57%, on target 5-4, off target 11-4, o/s 2-1, corners 9-2, fouls 11-11, yellows 2-1, subs 3-3, shape 3421-3421. Weather: cold & wet. Team: 26 Sanchez, 3 White, 5 Dunk, 4 Webster, 34 Veltman (33 Burn 72 Y), 13 Gross, 8 Bissouma, 20 March, 10 Mac Allister, 9 Maupay Y (14 Lallana 79), 11 Trossard (7 Connolly 79) . Bench: 31 Walton, 15 Moder, 19 Izquierdo, 17 Alzate, 22 Tau, 29 Zeqiri . Squad: 16 Jahanbakhsh, 24 Propper . Injured: 2 Lamptey, 18 Welbeck . MoM: Mac Allister. Prem: P21 . W1 D6 L4 . F11 A15 . W3 D3 L4 . F12 A14 . Pt21 Po17 = 1.00pt/gm. Wins = 19.0%, Loss = 38.0% Season9, 3rd Premier League (H) Sat 5/10/19 - W 3-0 ~ Maupay, Connolly 2. By vagaries of those PL fixture computer listings, Spurs were the only top-six giant that Albion would host prior to New Year - before follow-on domestic games during second half of the camaign. And they don't come much bigger than entertaining this huge north London outfit at best of times - remembering they were our big name opposition at opening of the Amex in July 2011 after all. All this apart, Albion had not won a Prem League match at ex-fortress Amex for six months... so no pressure then going into this clash. Graham Potter had made various changes in formation, method of play and personnel from start of the season but results to date were much the same as during Chris Hughton's 'defence first' tenure. Over 20 players from the PL/PL2 pools were now sent out on loan, so Brighton fans assumed our first team group was best of that whole bunch anyhow. Today would show if they were up to current PL survival standard or not. * * * match report: Albion notched a sensational victory to send Brighton fans home for tea very happy indeed. Potter set up the team as 442 with Connolly starting on debut alongside Maupay. In opening moments Spurs keeper dropped a cross on the goal-line and Maupay took advantage (3 min). There was then a long delay before their goalie got stretchered off. Seagulls went further ahead when Connolly opened his account, neatly finishing after his back heel flick rebounded off the sub custodian (32min). The teenage wonder striker went solo after the hour mark, smashing a low shot home across the goalmouth (65min). He duly got a standing ovation when replaced by Bissouma with the match already won. Spurs on the otherhand were disappointing, although Albion did what they had to do in keeping them at bay. All in all a very good BHA performance to finally break the Amex hoodoo. Potter said, 'I don't like to talk about individuals after such a strong team effort but Aaron gave us an extra dimension.' After getting a bit of luck from the get go, hosts built on their lead with attacking intent and a super display going forward from midfield, where Gross & Mooy ran the show. The side looked balanced and also created chances from fluid offensive moves. Both strikers were mobile, took their goals well and tested an under par away outfit to beyond previous limits on our turf. Brighton fans hoped this would prove to be a turning point for progress up the table before we met Spurs again on Boxing Day. Stats; shape 442-4231, h-t 2-0, goals 3,32,65, poss 48%-52%, on target 6-3, off target 5-3, blocks 6-2, crosses 16-15, corners 4-4, o/s 1-1, tackles 23-25, fouls 11-7, yellows 2-1, subs 3-3 . Gate 30,610, away 3028 . Weather - dry & mild . MoM - Connolly. 1 Ryan, 22 Montoya, 15 Webster, 5 Dunk Y, 33 Burn, 13 Gross, 6 Stephens Y (17 Murray 90), 46 Alzate (3 Bong 88), 18 Mooy, 44 Connolly (8 Bissouma 80), 7 Maupay . Subs - 27 Button, 14 Balogun, 16 Jahanbakhsh, 20 March. Squad - 21 Schelotto . Injured - 4 Duffy, 11 Trossard, 19 Izquierdo, 30 Bernardo. Prem P8 . W1 D2 L1 . F5 A4 . W1 D1 L2 . F3 A6 . Pt9 Po13 = 1.12pt/gm. Wins = 25%, Loss = 37.5% Season8 2nd Premier League (H) Sat 22/9/18 - L 1-2 ~ Knockaert. When is the best time to play a top six side? Well, Spurs were third visitors to the Amex this term and we'd already hosted Man Utd here for our first domestic fixture. Ironically those two sides had been our last two games at the Amex back in the spring (see season7 below). And both previous outcomes were posititve in that first campaign. And the north London outfit hadn't exactly been in form lately, suffering both a PL & Champions League defeat this week. On the night (5:30 k-o for pay tv coverage) Hughton named his regular eleven to start and the bench appeared strong. From word go it rained continually. * * * match report: Hotspur certainly rained on Albion's parade, showering hapless hosts with superior possession and stats. BHA were architects of their own fortress collapse as they wasted what chances were created to score during 90 mins normal time. Stephens got injured early on, to be replaced by Kayal. A dour first half appeared to be goalless but just prior to the break lively visitors then drew blood. From a f-k Murray handled in the wall and so Ref gave a pen, duly converted (42min). During the 2nd 45 Seagulls were better but couldn't make efforts count to level it. Kayal & Bissouma got booked. Hughton put on Jahanbakhsh as locals pushed up with a good spell. But it went tits up again at a fast counter attack (76min). Locadia arrived and hosts reshaped, chasing the game in frantic closing moments. Hughton was not happy with turn of events but in truth Albion came up short and could only blame themselves for defeat to half decent but below par opposition. Brighton fans got wet and felt disappointed the team couldn't take a lead at home, or at least manage the game a tad better from k-o and not just the final half hour when chips were down. Stats; shape 4411-442, h-t 0-1, goals 93-42,76, poss 28%-72%, on target 4-7, off target 3-5, blocks 1-4, crosses 14-15, corners 5-7, o/s 2-0, tackles 13-18, fouls 15-9, yellows 2-1, subs 3-2 . Gate 30,531, away 2954 . Weather - rain. 1 Ryan, 22 Montoya, 4 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 3 Bong, 11 Knockaert, 6 Stephens (7 Kayal 21 Y61), 24 Propper, 20 March (16 Jahanbakhsh 73), 8 Bissouma Y74 (9 Locadia 79), 17 Murray . Subs - 27 Button, 30 Bernardo, 14 Balogun, 10 Andone. Prem P6 . W1 D1 L1 . F6 A6 . W0 D1 L2 . F2 A5 . Pt5 Po13 = 0.83pt/gm. Wins = 16%, Loss = 50% Season7 1st Premier League (H) Tuesday 17/4/18 - 1-1 ~ Gross. Sky tv turned up to add extra bucks to gate money on the night. This game was also re-scheduled as it clashed with FAC S-F ties the following weekend. There were four further fixtures left to play after this and all were also against sides in the top seven. To date Albion's home record versus big-six clubs was: Man City 0-2, Liverpool 1-5, Chelsea 0-4 & Arsenal 2-1. And versus 7th Burnley 0-0 & 8th Leicester 0-2. So on the face of it Seagulls had it all to do and some, to get any kind of result tonight. It was critical BHA didn't drop below a pt/gm average overall, which stood at 1.06 and could drop to 1.03 with defeat. On the night Chris Hughton named his most influencial side to take on the north London giants. * * * match report: Albion came from behind to snatch a dramatic point and relieve supporters fears of possible meltdown during the crucial run in. Visitors dominated the match as expected but hosts were always in the game despite quality of opposition threats & forays. After a goalless first half Spurs went ahead moments into the second period. A mix up in defence presented an easy chance to the Hotspur striker (48min). But locals hit back immediately when Izquierdo got tripped in the box. Gross stepped up to smash home the spot kick (50min). Hughton sent on Ulloa & March to freshen up attack and the defence held out to the death. Hughton said, 'against these sides you've got to give everything. It's about concentration - not allowing the quality they've got to have really good opportunities. We had some good spells and that's what you have to do because that eats up the time as well.' Brighton fans were overjoyed at the final whistle and many felt this vital point gained would be enough to get Seagulls over the cut off line as of now. Stats; shape 4411-4231, ht 0-0, goals 50-48, poss 36%-64%, on target 5-6, off target 2-5, corners 3-4, fouls 6-5, yellows1-0, subs 2-3. Gate 30,440. 1 Ryan, 2 Bruno, 22 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 3 Bong, 11 Knockaert, 6 Stephens, 7 Kayal, 19 Izquierdo (20 March 77), 13 Gross, 17 Murray (16 Ulloa 74). Prem P34 . W8 D12 L14 . F32 A47 . Pt36 Po13 = 1.05pt/gm . Wins = 23.5%, Loss = 41.1% * * * * * Falmer years: from 2011 to 2017 - no home meetings. Withdean Era: from 1999 to 2011 - no home meetings.
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Previous encounters (Tottenham )
TOTTENHAM - Away, Falmer Years: 17/18 - 22/23 Prem, seasons 7-12 . '22 FA Cup, season11 . '14 EFL Cup, season4. Manager: Antonio Conte (2021) . P37 W = 56.7% @ July '22 . Experience: Prem & Serie A titles and knows a couple of languages to boot. previously Nuno Espirito Santo (2021) P0 @ July '21 . Experience: solid defensively but got into unexplored territory. Jose Mourinho (19-21) - Wins = 45.7% @ Aug '20 . Experience: got results across Europe but also into some disputes. Hotspur Stad gate; 60k . (ave 31.6K, cap 32K @ White Hart Lane . 83K versus Arsenal @ Wembley) . Nickname: Spurs . Shirt: white. Prem record from 11/12 to 22/23; 4, 5, 6, 5, 3, 2 / 3, 4, 6, 7, 4, 5 @ 7/2/23. Recent Best finish = 2nd '17, Worst finish = 7th '21, 6th '14 & '20. C21; Runner-up - '17, top four - 6 times, top six - 7 times, top ten - 6 times. Podiums; 17/18 - Man City, Man Utd, Spurs . 16/17 - Chelsea, Spurs, City . 15/16 - Leicester, Arsenal, Spurs. Prem points: 69, 72, 69, 64, 70, 86, 77, 71, 59 / 62, 71, 39. Recent managers; Jose Mourinho (19-21), Mauricio Pochettino (14-19), Tim Sherwood (2014), Andre Villas Boas (12-14), Harry Redknapp (08-12). 22/23 odds at start: title 14/1, top four 4-6, top six 1-6 . Sack AC 25/1. Expected to finish: in top four. Run in from 8/4/23: Brighton (H), Bournemouth (H), Newcastle (A), Man Utd (H), Liverpool (A), Palace (H), Villa (A), Brentford (H), Leeds (A) Run in forecast @ 1/4/23: ?pt > ?pts . Max was ? . Actual = ? . Po was ?th . Actual po = ?th SPURS @ home; Hotspur Stad (also Wembley & White Hart Lane) Seasn . W D L . F A GD . Pt Po pt/gm %Pt . W% L% 22/23 - 07 0 4 . 22 15 07 . 21 5 = 1.90 53.8 . 63.6 36.3 - Antonio Conte 21/22 - 13 1 5 . 38 19 19 . 40 4 = 2.10 56.3 . 68.4 26.3 - Antonio Conte & Nuno Espirito Santo 20/21 - 10 3 6 . 35 20 15 . 33 7 = 1.73 53.2 . 52.6 31.5 - Ryan Mason & Jose Mourinho. 19/20 - 12 3 4 . 36 17 19 . 39 6 = 2.05 66.1 . 63.1 21.0 - Jose Mourinho, finish 27/7/20. 18/19 - 12 2 5 . 34 16 18 . 38 4 = 2.00 53.5 . 63.1 26.3 - Mauricio Pochettino. 17/18 - 13 4 2 . 40 16 24 . 43 3 = 2.26 55.8 . 68.4 10.5 - Mauricio Pochettino. 16/17 - 17 2 0 . 47 09 38 . 53 2 = 2.78 61.6 . 89.4 00.0 - Mauricio Pochettino. 15/16 - 10 6 3 . 35 15 20 . 36 3 = 1.89 51.4 . 52.6 15.7 - Mauricio Pochettino. 14/15 - 10 3 6 . 31 24 07 . 33 5 = 1.73 51.5 . 52.6 31.5 - Mauricio Pochettino. 13/14 - 11 3 5 . 30 23 07 . 36 6 = 1.89 52.1 . 57.8 26.3 - Andre Villas-Boas & Tim Sherwood. Spurs v Albion (A) from 17/18: 2-0, 1-0, 2-1, 2-1, 0-1, ? . . W = 1 D = 0 L = 4 . F3 A7 scorers: Webster, Lamptey, Trossard . (Bissouma - FAC). memorable match: Season11 (A) - a single goal game with very late score to tip balance of fine margins. For Home Falmer Years results and reports scroll further below. Season12, 6th Premier League (A) Sat 8/4/23 - We'd reached the last quarter Q4, or for purposes of analysis; the run in. Last term's victory at Spurs in mid April '22 was brought back to the minds of Brighton fans, following a sensational away campaign that surpassed all expectation. We'd previously gotten zip, zilch, zero from visits to 'em over 5 years since Dec '17 - originally played at Wembley prior to their new stadium opening (see away scroll below). We'd also lost in Apr '19, Dec '19 and Nov '20 at their new venue (seasons 7-11). So now the question was; could Seagulls replicate that latest win? BHA went to Dubai for their warm-weather camp during the World Cup in December. * match report: tba stats: ht, goals, poss %-%, on, off, corners, fouls, yellows, subs, shape weather . gate . MoM team: . bench: injured: . squad: Prem: P30 . W D L . F A . W D L . F A . Pt? Po? = x.xxpt/gm . W = xx% L = xx% Spurs: Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% 3qtrs: 22 . 12 03 07 . 41 31 10 . 39 5 = 1.77 . 54.5 31.8 hfwy: 19 . 10 03 06 . 37 27 10 . 33 5 = 1.73 . 52.6 31.5 start: 10 . 07 02 01 . 22 10 12 . 23 3 = 2.30 . 70.0 10.0 - A Conte Champ Lg: 16 - AC Milan gp - Frankfurt 3-2 (H) 0-0 (A), S Lisbon 1-1 (H) 2-0 (A), Marseille 1-2 (A) 2-0 (H). EFL Cup: Forest 2-0 (A) R3. FA Cup: ? R5 . Preston 0-3 (A) R4 . Portsmouth 1-0 (H) R3. Oct: 3rd in table, 4pts off 1st at Q1. Jan: 5rh, 5pts off 4th at halfway stage Q2. Season11, 5th Premier League (A) Sat 16/4/22 - W 0-1 ~ Trossard. This match got picked for the PL early kickoff on pay tv, which was least of Brighton fans worries at this late stage of the season. Going to visit Spurs had not been at all productive wherever we'd met on travels out into greater London. In our fifth straight year at Prem level we knew all future results would be recorded here at their super stad, so it was up to us to turn things around for better. Putting a point on the board would be a start during the difficult run-in ahead. Tottenham were pushing for a top four spot and merely a month ago drubbed us at the Amex in that delayed rescheduled home fixture (see scroll below). So we knew momentum was with them and half our battle was believing it was actually remotely possible to get something there this lunchtime. Having said all that, away form wasn't half bad this term and we came into north London again off the back of a battling win at the Arsenal last Saturday previously. * match report: Albion snatched a very late winner in a single goal game. But it wasn't a smash & grab because Spurs had been outplayed for most of the match and failed to live up to their hype as free-scoring world class goal getters. In fact Seagulls should have perhaps bagged a much earlier lead, based on regular intervals between creating chances. Visitors hard working tactics to press hosts back and compete in opposition half paid dividends and kept a clean sheet to boot. Locals couldn't exploit their tendency to open the play out and make runs from deep at counters. Turquoise shirts were all over 'em, snuffed out those forays at pace and hardly gave strikers a kick. in a tough scrap Potter put a striker on after the break and defended from the front. Other subs played their part to maintain a tight grip to the end. Right at the death Trossard wriggled into the area and let fly across the keeper to record victory (90min). Brighton fans went over the moon and agreed GP masterminded a pukka gameplan to take 3pts back to Sussex. Potter said he knew we had to be good - and we were for a deserved win. Spurs fans were moaning all match and mostly cheering their lot diving, faking injury and generally taking the pee, in vain bid to get attention of Ref. If that was top four standard then the Prem is a park league. Brighton showed what a decent side could achieve at this level using discipline, controlled aggression and quality organisation & work rate. You couldn't make it up but apparently Potter really had done his creative homework analysis thoroughly beforehand. Stats: ht 0-0, goal 90, poss 48%-52%, on target 0-5, off target 3-5, blocks 2-2, corners 4-4, crosses 7-16, o/s 0-3, tackles 15-17, fouls 14-10, yellows 3-3, subs 3-3, shape 343-352. weather: sunny & warm . gate: 58,585 (away 3001) . MoM: Cucurella - great Prem signing. team: 1 Sanchez, 34 Veltman, 5 Dunk Y, 3 Cucurella, 2 Lamptey (20 March 82), 13 Gross, 8 Bissouma Y, 25 Caicedo (14 Lallana 78), 12 Mwepu Y (18 Welbeck 46), 11 Trossard . bench: 23 Steele (gk), 4 Webster, 9 Maupay, 57 Offiah, 58 Ferguson, 60 Sarmiento. squad: 28 Roberts, 42 Leonard . injured: 15 Moder, 24 Duffy . ill: 17 Alzate. Prem: P32 . W3 D6 L7 . F10 A20 . W6 D7 L3 . F19 A17 . Pt40 Po10 = 1.25pt/gm . W = 28.1% L = 31.2% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 22 05 11 . 69 40 29 .. 71 4 = 1.86 . 57.8 28.9 3qtrs: 29 . 16 03 10 . 47 36 11 .. 51 5 = 1.75 . 55.1 34.4 Hfwy: 19 . 11 03 05 . 26 22 04 .. 36 5 = 1.89 . 57.8 26.3 - Antonio Conte Start: 10 . 05 00 05 . 09 16 -07 . 15 9 = 1.50 . 50.0 50.0 - Nuno Espirito Santo Eu Lg conf: Arhnem 1-0 (A) 3-2 (H), Mura 5-1 (H) 2-1 (A), Rennes 2-2 (A) P covid (H) gp - eliminated. Ferreira 1-0 (A) 3-0 (H) qual. EFL Cup: Chelsea 0-1 (H) 2-0 (A) s-f . West Ham 2-1 (H) q-f, Burnley 0-1 (A) R4, Wolves 2pen3 2-2 (A) R3. FA Cup: Middlesbro 1-0 (A) R5 . Brighton 3-1 (H) R4 . Morecambe 3-1 (H) R3. Oct: 9th in table and 2pts off fifth at Q1. Manager sacked in Nov. Jan: 5th, 1pt behind 4th at halfway Q2. Out of EU Conf by default. Mar: 5th, 3pts off 4th at threequarters Q3. Out of FA Cup to C'ship side away. May: finshed 4th on 71pts, 3pts off 3rd. Qualify for CL. Season11, FA Cup R4 (A) Sat 5/2/22 - L 3-1 ~ Bissouma. This evening tie, broadcast by ITV on freeview, followed the new two-week Prem winter break. And also final closing of that cracked January transfer window. On the 31st Dan Burn had left for Newcastle. Hot continental striker Deniz Undav signed for BHA but stayed at our feeder club RUSG in Belgium. There had previously been much talk developing in Sussex about Seagulls going on a Cup run this year. And at that traditional January R3 contest of 64 teams Albion edged past West Brom away aet, when coming from behind very late in the day. So it wasn't exactly convincing as a C'ship versus Prem tie, with regard to any difference beyond parity over ninety minutes. In fact a strong PL first-team bench using all five Cup subs just tipped balance against combative level2 hosts - reduced to ten men who finally ran out of puff. Now BHA faced Spurs away for R4, which meant battling fellow Prem opposition immediately, rather than getting another 'easier' draw with a surviving EFL outfit. Spurs had also reverted to A-list subs to help swing that R3 home tie in London their way, against a lowly northwest League One club. They too conceded first, prior to levelling late then scoring twice in the last five minutes of normal time. Brighton fans who had been around the block well remembered our visit to old White Hart Lane during Jan '05 for an FAC3 tie. Back in those days we struggled as a C'ship club at Withdean, while Spurs were a model big-six elite Prem unit. Perhaps there was a lesson to learn; in never say die, nor thinking it may be over until it is, about the fat lady singing, or fickle finger of fate pointing elsewhere at the knockout moment. One club goes thru, the other don't - as watched live on terrestial tv. * match report: Albion crashed out of the Cup, conceding twice inside half an hour and putting up a disappointing display. Mistakes at.the back contributed to going behind to a worldy from the England striker (13min). Then March netted an og with a deflection from a cross (24min). Potter went to a flat back four after the interval and urged more attacking zeal. Then Bissouma pulled one back with a deflected pot shot (63min). But again visitors allowed hosts to up the ante and let in a third immediately - once more in comical fashion (66min). More subs came on but it was all over bar reading reports of how Brighton coulda, woulda, shoulda but didn't. Chances did arrive, were not taken and thereby hangs a tale. There were too many individual errors that contributed to a poor performance overall. Unfortunately fans will remember how we went there and lost again. And to a team that are no great shakes really but know how to put the ball into the net. stats: ht 2-0, goals 13,24,66-63, poss 43%-57%, on target 7-5, off target 5-8, corners 2-3, o/s 1-1, fouls 10-10, yellows 1-1, subs 5-4, shape 343-532 . weather: mild . gate: 54,697 (away 5741) . MoM: Bissouma - impressive. team: 1 Sanchez, 2 Lamptey (18 Welbeck 70), 4 Webster, 5 Dunk, 3 Cucurella, 20 March (25 Caicedo 61), 13 Gross, 8 Bissouma, 14 Lallana (34 Veltman 46 Y), 15 Moder (58 Ferguson), 9 Maupay . bench: 23 Steele (gk), 38 McGill (gk), 17 Alzate, 24 Duffy, 57 Offiah. squad: 28 Roberts . injured: 12 Mwepu . ill: 10 Mac Allister, 11 Trossard. Season10, 4th Premier League (A) Sun 1/11/20 - L 2-1 ~ Lamptey. Match played behind closed doors under coronavirus restrictions. Going up to Spurs had literally been a varied venue experience for Brighton fans, both with recent Prem fixtures and in previous decades during two Cup competitions. Not least also due to visiting their other temporary home, as per Wembley, on route to our fourth season in the elite. Getting anything from each ongoing encounter had proved difficult to say very little but with Albion's pre-season ambitions aiming towards midtable, perhaps times would now reflect positive change. Graham Potter was tasked with obtaining improvement in results here and at least raising Seagulls away game to compete, wherever they landed this term. The squad had been overhauled since last term but Potter's modus operandi was essentially possession based and that wasn't going to change. Brighton fans were hoping he could mould a mixed group of young and experienced players to advantage. * match report: Albion lost again and were becoming part of the bottom six as per previous seasons of struggle, toil, blood, tears & sweat. VAR had a big influence on the contest, although it's fair to say Ref and his advisor watching on tv both had a mare tonight. Spurs opened the scoring via a disputed penalty, which needed reference to the rule book to fathom (13m). In similar circumstances Albion were denied a pen when Trossard got held back. Lamptey equalised after turnaround and this was only confirmed when Ref studied his monitor for many minutes (56min). Hosts won the game with a free header and BHA went home with nowt once more (73min). Potter brought off both wingbacks suffering injuries but left influential Lallana on for the full 90+ game time. It wasn't that Albion played badly, merely about turning possession into chances and then scoring from on targets. Potter had left two strikers at home and went with a false no.9. Later Welbeck came on and looked the part for remaining minutes until final whistle. Spurs had mugged us as they knew too much about gamesmanship, conning officials and bending rules & regs to boot. Seagulls had to wise up, not be so soft and stop trying so hard to score the perfect goal. In a numbers game, playing percentages would only provide a positive result if plenty of attempts were made to put the ball in the proverbial onion bag. We didn't have the quality like locals to show individual brilliance. Everything else was just filling for a 90 minute match. Stats: ht 1-0, goals 13,73-56, poss 44%-56%, on target 3-2, off target 6-4, o/s 0-4, corners 4-5, fouls 14-13, yellows 2-1, subs 3-3 . Weather: wet. Team: 26 Sanchez, 2 Lamptey (10 Mac Allister 79), 4 Webster, 34 Veltman, 33 Burn Y, 20 March (30 Bernardo 65), 8 Bissouma, 3 White, 14 Lallana, 13 Gross, 11 Trossard (18 Welbeck 74) . Bench: 1 Ryan, 24 Propper, 17 Alzate, 29 Zeqiri. Squad: 7 Connolly, 9 Maupay, 23 Steele, 19 Izquierdo . Ban: 5 Dunk . Injured: 16 Jahanbakhsh, 21 Andone, 32 Walton . MoM: Lamptey. Prem: P7 . W0 D1 L2 . F4 A7 . W1 D1 L2 . F7 A7 . Pt5 Po16 = 0.71pt/gm. Wins = 14.2%, Loss = 57.1% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 18 08 12 . 68 45 23 . 62 7 = 1.63 . 47.3 31.5 - Ryan Mason. 3qtrs: 29 . 14 06 09 . 49 30 19 . 48 6 = 1.65 . 48.2 31.0 - Jose Mourinho. Hfwy: 19 . 09 06 04 . 34 20 14 . 33 6 = 1.73 . 47.3 21.0 Start: 10 . 06 03 01 . 21 09 12 . 21 1 = 2.10 . 60.0 10.0 - Jose Mourinho. Europa League: 16 - D Zagreb 2-0 (H) 3-0 (A) . 32 - Wolfsburg 1-4 (A) 4-0 (H) . group - Ludogorets 1-3 (A) 4-0 (H), LASK 3-0 (H) 3-3 (A), R Antwerp 1-0 (A) 2-0 (H). qual - Maccabi 7-2 (H), Shkendija 1-3 (A), Plovdiv 1-2 (A). EFL Cup: Man City L 1-0 final, Brentford 2-0 (H) s-f, Stoke 1-3 (A) q-f, Chelsea 5pen4 (1-1) (H) R4, Leyton Orient bye (A) R3. FA Cup: Everton 5-4 aet (A) R5, Wycombe 1-4 (A) R4, Marine 0-5 (A) R3. Nov: after finish of the first quarter, Spurs briefly led the Prem table. Jan: at the halfway stage Spurs were 6th posn and 4pts adrift of top four. Mar: threequarters completed and still 6th but 3pts behind 4th place. May: Mourinho went in mid April. Finished 7th and missed top six place by 3pt. Lost EFL Cup final. Qualified for Europa League. Season9, 3rd Premier League (A) Thur 26/12/19 - L 2-1 ~ Webster. Our habitual Xmas hols bash this year in the festive-footy southeast was versus Spurs, at lunchtime in their new metroplitan super-stad up the Lane. It also marked BHA's first reciprocal match and near completion of first half of the 3rd PL campaign. Pre-kickoff Albion were part of the lower order mid-table mix, with an average of 1.11pt/gm. Things could be worse but in truth overall improvement compared to 2018 points in this period had not materialised. At the Amex back in October, blue & white had justly prevailed against misfiring Hotspur but today we didn't really want to end carved up like cold turkeys. Graham Potter had established a new method of play from day1 but other sides were up to speed on us now and also knew all too obvious flaws in this expansive, fluid & open system. Safety first defence tactics from Chris Hughton's first two Prem campaigns may not have apppeared very entertaining but at end of each season we remained ok to go again next time. How would Potter react on his next visit to a big six outfit? Albion could field any manner of shape and change seamlessly during play according to circumstances. But whether the current match-day squad was thought strong enough should be revealed by New Year and opening of the January transfer window. * * * match report: Albion crashed to yet another defeat having led at ht from a set piece goal by Webster (37min). After the break Spurs got going and showed their quality to level (53min) and go ahead (76min). They were too good for Seagulls, who lacked Prem players with a touch of real class. BHA tried hard but all for nothing in the event, failing to keep a clean sheet and never quite developing their amount of possession into taking chances. Brighton fans went home feeling disappointed following a mobile display of intent that lacked the superior levels of skills shown by world-class players of Spurs squad. Such is life in lower reaches of the Premier League. It is easy to make excuses for a team easy on the eye but at end of the season such sentiment counts for zilch when measuring final placing, facts, figs and comparing to the last two PLcampaigns. Stats: shape 433-433, ht 0-1, goals 37-53,72, poss 54%-46%, on target 5-5, off target 2-5, blocks 4-1, o/s 5-0, corners 9-2, fouls 10-9, yellows 4-2, subs 3-3 . MoM - Webster . Gate - 56,308, away 3k . Weather - rain. 1 Ryan, 21 Schelotto (8 Bissouma 83), 4 Duffy, 15 Webster, 33 Burn Y, 46 Alzate, 6 Stephens, 30 Bernardo (11 Trossard 76), 13 Gross Y, 44 Connolly (7 Maupay 68), 18 Mooy . Subs - 27 Button, 22 Montoya, 24 Propper, 17 Murray. Squad - 3 Bong, 14 Balogun, 16 Jahanbakhsh . Injured - 5 Dunk, 19 Izquierdo, 20 March. Prem: P19 . W3 D3 L3 . F12 A11 . W2 D2 L6 . F10 A17 . Pt20 Po15 = 1.05pt/gm. Wins = 26.3%, Loss = 47.3% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 16 11 11 . 61 47 14 . 59 06 = 1.55 . 42.1 28.9 - J Mourinho, finish 27/7/20 3qtrs: 29 . 11 08 10 . 47 40 07 . 41 08 = 1.41 . 37.9 34.4 - J Mourinho. PREM SUSPENDED Hfwy: 19 . 08 05 06 . 34 27 07 . 29 06 = 1.52 . 42.1 31.5 - M Pochettino. Start: 10 . 03 03 04 . 16 15 01 . 12 11 = 1.10 . 30.0 30.0 Champions League: 16 - Leipzig 3-0 (A) 0-1 (H). Group - B Munich 2-7 (H) 3-1 (A), Olympiakos 4-2 (H) 2-2 (A), RS Belgrade 5-0 (H) 0-4 (A). EFL Cup: 3rd rnd - Colchester 4pen3 0-0 (A) FA Cup: Norwich 2pen3 1-1 aet (H) R5, Southampton 3-2 (H) 1-1 (A) R4, Middlesbro 2-1 (H) 1-1 (A) R3. Aug: adrift of top four and even top six at this very early stage. Oct: outside of top ten and results show mid table mediocrity by end of start Q1. New Year: change of manager sees them up to 6th. Qual for last 16 of Ch Lg and in FAC4 draw via a replay. March: in 8th spot when PL suspended. Out of Chmp Lg last 16. July: struggling to make 5th place but qualified for Europa League. Season8 2nd Premier League (A) - Tue 23/4/19 - L 1-0. Once again Sky Sports had selected Albion for tv coverage and so moved the original fixture date from Saturday Apr6 to Sunday the 7th. But next, as Spurs progressed in the Champions League and Seagulls reached FA Cup semis, it got rescheduled a second time. And by this juncture the north London giants brand spanking new stad was coming into regular use. It was thus a PL game in hand for Albion on nearly all other rivals in the wider danger zone but hardly one we could count on as a source of points. Seagulls had stopped the rot with a goalless draw on the road last weekend but knew this was a more difficult task. There were four fixtures left and three were against top six sides. So a clean sheet here would be regarded as almost priceless in the immediate challenge to beat the dreaded drop. * * * match report: Albion hung in there for majority of this miss-match but conceded at the death from a pot shot (88min). Seagulls never looked like scoring and the goalless run was in excess of 10 hours now. Andone got booked for rough stuff and hooked after the hour mark. He did not seem too pleased but hardly had a good game. March & Kayal also joined the defensive display but it turned sour just prior to the ninety. Hughton said, 'I can't fault the effort and what we tried to do. We defended well. In regards to clear cut chances I thought they were minimal. If we manage the game better in the last period we come awy with a result. Saturday noe becomes our biggest game. What we need to do is win in whichever way possible.' Brighton fans knew that meant scoring at least one goal and at this moment couldn't quite guess where it would come from. Set pieces, open play and even opposition mistakes had all drawn a blank lately. BHA had merely netted 32 in the league, which was less than a goal a game on average. Spurs had got 65, so perhaps we were lucky to keep them to just one after all. Stats; ht 0-0, goal 88, shape 433-451, poss 78%-22%, on target 5-1, off target 12-4, corners 6-3, fouls 7-13, yellows 1-2, subs 3-3. Gate 56,251, away 2992 . Weather - mild . MoM - Dunk, outstanding in defence. 1 Ryan, 22 Montoya, 4 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 30 Bernardo Y, 13 Gross, 6 Stephens, 8 Bissouma (7 Kayal 86), 16 Jahanbakhsh (20 March 73), 10 Andone Y (17 Murray 64), 9 Locadia . Subs - 27 Button, 3 Bong, 33 Burn, 14 Balogun. Prem P35 . W6 D4 L7 F17 A23 . W3 D3 L12 F15 A31 . Pt34 Po17 = 0.97pt/gm. Wins = 25.7%, Loss = 54.2% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total; 38 . 23 02 13 . 67 39 28 . 71 4 = 1.86 . 60.5 34.2 3qtrs; 29 . 20 01 08 . 56 30 26 . 61 3 = 2.10 . 68.9 27.5 Hfwy; 19 . 15 00 04 . 42 18 24 . 45 2 = 2.36 . 78.9 21.0 Start; 10 . 07 00 03 . 16 08 08 . 21 5 = 2.10 . 70.0 20.0 - M Pochettino. Champions League; final - lost to Liverpool 0-2, s-f - Ajax 0-1 (H) 2-3 (A), q-f - Man City 1-0 (H) 4-3 (A), 16 - B Dortmund 3-0 (H) 0-1 (A). Group B - Barcelona 2-4 (H) 1-1 (A), PSV Eindhoven 2-2 (A) 2-1 (H), Inter Milan 2-1 (A) 1-0 (H). EFL Cup; s-f - Chelsea 1-0 (H) 4-2 pens 2-1 (A), q-f - Arsenal 0-2 (A), 4th rnd - West Ham 1-3 (A), 3rd rnd - Watford 2-2 4-2 pens (H - @ MK Dons) FA Cup; 4th rnd - Palace 2-0 (A), 3rd rnd - Tranmere 0-7 (A) Aug; will they come to a peak eventually at their new stadium, or over the top after three previous podiums? And that notorious 'wait & see' recruitment policy hasn't exactly moved with the times. October; challenging in top six and getting it done away from Wembley. Still in EFL Cup. New Year; making a fist of it in the top three and within striking distance of 2nd place. FA Cup progress. March; Still at Wembley but move to new stad in April. In a four way fight for 3rd place. Champs Lg q-f. Season7 1st Premier League (A) Wednesday 13/12/17 - WEMBLEY - L 2-0. The PL season was mid-way thru December and in a busy month, now approached the halfway stage just prior to Xmas. Albion were on schedule of a point per game average but there was concern over lack of goals scored recently, while those conceded were racking up. And nobody expected anything much from this next visit to top-six outfit Spurs at their temporary international home. Brighton had been found wanting since their last win at beginning of November, so it was time to stand up and be counted. PL managers knew what Chris Hughton's game plan tended to follow and that we didn't offer too much going forward. In the last few matches Seagulls went behind and were then left chasing the game, often with a mountain to climb. Hughton relied on his settled eleven week in & week out but the team appeared jaded presently. On the night Hughton made wholesale changes, by utilising the 25 man squad for the match-day 18. Somehow a way had to be found to take pressure off defence and create goalscoring opportunities. But was this current match-day squad capable of cutting the Premiership mustard before the transfer window opened? * * * match report: Albion crashed to defeat again and for all their defending couldn't prevent fickle finger of fate setting a trend. It appeared visitors might keep a clean sheet until the interval but somehow it wasn't to be. A deep cross went all the way to the far post and found the top corner (40min). In the second period Hughton sent on March after an hour and later Murray & Gross but nothing changed. Spurs wrapped it up at the death with a second stroke of fortune. From a set piece the ball struck the back of a diving player and deflected into the net (87min). Hughton said, 'we conceded two poor goals. I thought we grew in confidence. We were always going to be up against it but defended well and restricted them to minimal chances. There were no clear ones and that is all you can do.' Brighton fans had an evening out but could see Seagulls were far from ruling the roost home or away this month so far. Stats; shape 4231-4141, ht 1-0, goals 40,87, poss 75%-25%, on target 8-4, off target 17-3, corners 10-2, o/s 3-1, fouls 5-10, yellow 1-1, subs 3-3. Gate 46,438 (away 3126) 1 Ryan, 21 Schelotto, 22 Duffy, 5 Dunk (capt), 3 Bong, 11 Knockaert, 6 Stephens, 7 Kayal (13 Gross), 24 Propper, 19 Izquierdo (20 March), 17 Murray (10 Hemed). Prem P17 . W4 D5 L8. F14 A23 . Pt17 Po13 = 1.00pt/gm . Wins = 23.5%, Loss = 47.0% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total; 38 . 23 08 07 . 74 36 38 . 77 3 = 2.02 . 60.5 18.4 - Mauricio Pochettino. 3qtrs; 29 . 17 07 05 . 55 24 31 . 58 4 = 2.00 . 58.6 17.2 Hfwy; 19 . 10 04 05 . 34 18 16 . 34 5 = 1.78 . 52.6 26.3 Start; 10 . 06 02 02 . 19 07 12 . 20 3 = 2.00 . 60.0 20.0 Aug - failure to reach the top four will be seen as a slight setback during the dual-league Wembley experience. New Year - in 5th place and in danger of being left behind top four. March - challenging for runner-up slot. EFL Cup early exit. FA Cup S-F. Champions League last 16. SPURS PREVIOUS PREM; Seasn . W D L . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% 22/23 - 21/22 - 22 05 11 . 69 40 29 . 71 4 = 1.86 . 57.8 28.9 - Antonio Conte @ 22/5/22 Made the top four, 4pts off the podium, in something of a revival campaign under a quality boss. 20/21 - 18 08 12 . 68 45 23 . 62 7 = 1.63 . 47.3 31.5 - Ryan Mason & Jose Mourinho @ 24/5/21 Manager sacked during run in after losing players support. He'd not either improved their league placing. Ended outside top six for first time. 19/20 - 16 11 11 . 61 47 14 . 59 6 = 1.55 . 42.1 28.9 - Jose Mourinho. PL SUSPENDED, complete @ 27/7/20 Not really what or where the old special one of yore wanted. 18/19 - 23 02 13 . 67 39 28 . 71 4 = 1.86 . 60.5 34.2 - Mauricio Pochettino. Made fourth position in a close finish with usual top six candidates. Runners up in all English Champions League final confirmed strength of the Prem. 17/18 - 23 08 07 . 74 36 38 . 77 3 = 2.02 . 60.5 18.4 - Mauricio Pochettino. Second best hardly defines this man from Argentina. In 4 seasons he has made Spurs a top-three outfit, bearing in mind the club is in transit to realistically become even bigger. 16/17 - 26 08 04 . 86 26 60 . 86 2 = 2.26 . 68.4 10.5 - Mauricio Pochettino. Such was competition at the top that in an average year Spurs may well have won the league. European participation increased the burden away from The Lane. 15/16 - 19 09 10 . 69 35 34 . 70 3 = 1.84 . 50.0 26.3 - Mauricio Pochettino. Being a metropolitan club, the term 'bottled it' would seem an apt description of this ultimately disappointing campaign. But the run-in can't be re-run and so it's all history now. 14/15 - 19 07 12 . 58 53 05 . 64 5 = 1.68 . 50.0 31.5 - Mauricio Pochettino. They talk about glass ceilings and at White Hart Lane, Mauricio Pochettino was on the up, without quite managing to crack it in his first season. 13/14 - 21 06 11 . 55 51 04 . 69 6 = 1.81 . 55.2 28.9 - Andre Villas-Boas & Tim Sherwood. It was the end of European name AVB and latterly novice coach TS but neither saw it out for too long, as 6th & 7th boss since the reign of legend Glenn Hoddle in 2003. 12/13 - 21 09 08 . 66 46 20 . 72 5 = 1.89 . 55.2 21.0 11/12 - 20 09 09 . 66 41 25 . 69 4 = 1.81 . 52.6 23.6 FA CUP from 11/12; s-f, 4th rnd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, s-f, s-f, 4th, 5th, 5th, 5th. LEAGUE CUP; 3rd, 4th, q-f, runners-up, 3rd, 4th, 4th, s-f, 3rd, runners-up, s-f, 3rd. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE; nq, nq, nq, nq, nq, group stage, last 16, finalists, last 16, nq, nq. EUROPA LEAGUE; gp, q-f, last 16, last 32, last 16, last 32, nq, nq, nq, last 16, Conf gp. * * * * * * * * * * Tottenham - away, Falmer years. Season4 (A) 29/10/14 Capital One (EFL) Cup r4 - L 2-0. Going to White Hart Lane was very attractive to those Brighton fans who did attend away matches and the allocation of over 4k seats was sold out well in advance. Spurs had provided friendly Prem opposition for pre-season opening of the Amex in 2011 and there had been other footy connexions with the massive metropolitan outfit over previous decades - see Tottenham on the Withdean Era tab. By reaching the last sixteen in this League Cup competition, Albion had kinda got lucky with the draw on each occasion. In early August, Cheltenham were initially despatched at the Amex, then Swindon in Wiltshire a couple of weeks later but only aet. A useful confidence booster at Burton in September put Seagulls in with a squawk of getting the other Albion with WBA but as we drew Spurs, they went off to Bournemouth instead. On the night at White Hart Lane, travel problems in London delayed k-o until 8pm. Sami Hyypia was forced to field his U20 keeper Chris Walton for debut, after Stockdale damaged a finger in training. Sami also made other changes from regular league line-up too but had left several first teamers on the bench. Albion went into the interval having kept the home team at bay and Walton performed well to indicate he had a very good future ahead. Spurs had most of possession and chances but Seagulls defended resolutely. Then on start of the second period, the home unit subbed for a ball-playing attacker who soon got past defenders and beat CW (54min). Hyypia double subbed on 65min with direct m-f replacements in vain attempt to stay in the tie. But all to no avail as Spurs piled on pressure and got a second as CW went down to parry an effort but it fell to a striker (74min). BHA had a couple of pen shouts waved away, although Ref would have had to be in benevolent mood to give against 30k home crowd. CMS got on for a few moments at the death as Albion rallied and kept heads up. But in truth, stats showed we were well beat a long time before final whistle. At least the rain stopped and away fans went home in good voice after singing hearts out. Walton, Calderon, Hughes, Dunk, Chicksen, McCourt (Teixeira), Ince, Holla, Forster-Caskey (Gardner), LuaLua (Mackail-Smith), Colunga. Seasons 1-6 - not C'ship. * * * * * Withdean Era: 12 seasons from 1999 to 2011 - no league meetings. Noughties last there - Season6 8/1/05 (A) - FA Cup R3, L 2-1. An afternoon that stands out in older B'fans memories, when we first played the big boys at White Hart Lane.
Tottenham - Home, Falmer Years: 17/18 - 22/23 Prem, seasons 7-12. SPURS away: Seasn . W D L . F A GD . Pt Po pt/gm %Pt . W% L% 22/23 - 05 3 3 . 19 15 04 . 18 5 = 1.63 46.1 . 45.4 27.7 - Antonio Conte 21/22 - 09 4 6 . 31 29 02 . 31 4 = 1.63 43.6 . 47.3 31.5 - Antonio Conte & Nuno Espirito Santo 20/21 - 08 5 6 . 33 25 08 . 29 7 = 1.52 46.7 . 42.1 31.5 - Ryan Mason & Jose Mourinho. 19/20 - 04 8 7 . 25 29 -4 .. 20 7 = 1.05 33.8 . 21.0 36.8 - Jose Mourinho, finish 27/7/20. 18/19 - 11 0 8 . 33 23 10 . 33 4 = 1.73 46.4 . 57.8 42.1 - Mauricio Pochettino. 17/18 - 10 4 5 . 34 20 14 . 34 3 = 1.78 44.1 . 52.6 26.3 - Mauricio Pochettino. 16/17 - 09 6 4 . 39 17 22 . 33 2 = 1.73 38.3 . 47.3 21.0 - Mauricio Pochettino. 15/16 - 09 7 3 . 34 20 14 . 34 3 = 1.78 48.5 . 47.3 15.7 - Mauricio Pochettino. 14/15 - 09 4 6 . 27 29 -2 .. 31 5 = 1.63 48.4 . 47.3 31.5 - Mauricio Pochettino. 13/14 - 10 3 6 . 25 28 -3 .. 33 6 = 1.73 47.8 . 52.6 31.5 - Andre Villas-Boas & Tim Sherwood. Albion v Spurs (H) from 17/18: 1-1, 1-2, 3-0, 1-0, 0-2, 0-1 . . W = 2 D = 1 L = 3 . F6 A6 scorers: Gross, Knockaert, Maupay, Connolly 2, Trossard. memorable match: Season9 (H) - first home win this term and a case of reaching necessary standards. For Away Falmer Years results & reports scroll further up. Season12, 6th Premier League (H) Sat 8/10/22 - L 0-1 Two previous postponements in mid Sept due to mourning & funeral of Queen Elizabeth II meant that since the international break Albion were playing catch-up with fixtures - and this was a teatime (5:30) kickoff to boot. End of the first quarter (Q1) was originally scheduled (P10) for completion of this game. But that would now extend onto ten days hence at home to Forest. Following useful domestic returns hosting Hotspur during four lower order Prem seasons (when regularly occupying bottom six places), last term the wings came off when Seagulls were actually flying a lot higher. We initially drew here in Apr '18 but lost in Sept '18 of the second term, then won twice, in Oct '19 and Jan '21, before defeat once again in Mar '22 (seasons 7-11). But that's football for better or worse and you never really know the score; chronologically, consequentially, hypothetically or metaphorically. Of course, changes of manager are a factor in cause & effect and guess what? Yeah, Graham Potter had been gone for a whole calender month and Roberto de Zerbi was head coach now. And this was his home debut - almost needless to say, quoted as a sell out based on pre-match ticket sales. Spurs spent about 100m by start of the season in a bid to assemble a side capable of getting onto the podium. * match report: De Zerbi lost his opening domestic contest and in truth it was forgettable, as the pre-match hype was way better than the football. The Italian head coach appeared to be feeling his way into the Prem, selected an unchanged line-up to Potter's principle eleven, didn't go for broke with subs and generally was low key overseeing an average performance. All previous talk of free-flowing attacking soccer came to nought when opposition set up as 5-3-2 and played on the counter. You couldn't really make it up as a workable theory of stopping opposition at the highest level but that's how it happened. Visitors led to a shot that flicked off the striker's head in hosts crowded goalmouth (22min). Rest of the game was a blur of mediocrity, disappointing attempts at goal scoring and achieved low values for actual entertainment. De Zerbi remained passive when opportunity knocked to shake things up, get Seagulls out of a rut and airbourne with fresh wings from the bench. Changes were initially piecemeal and eventually much too late to do any good. He said the result was unfair - which at least was an emotional response to stilted tactics, robotic means of hosts forward motion and an inflexible game-plan. Maybe Brighton fans shouldn't compare... but we'd been used to Potter making the right call at key moments. Perhaps that's why he's now at Chelsea. De Zerbi has to hit the ground running and get to grips with the Prem as quickly as he upped use of English sound bites in merely a couple of weeks. stats: ht 0-1, goals 22, poss 59%-41%, on 4-3, off 5-4, blocks 5-1, corners 6-2, o/s 2-2, tackles 17-15, fouls 9-14, yellows 1-2, subs 4-3, shape 3421-532 weather: dry . gate: 31,498 away 2989 . MoM: Welbeck - did everything but score. team: 1 Sanchez, 34 Veltman, 5 Dunk, 4 Webster, 7 March, 10 Mac Allister, 25 Caicedo, 30 Estupinan, 13 Gross, 18 Welbeck, 11 Trossard. subs: 22 Mitoma 68 30, 14 Lallana 81 13, 2 Lamptey 87 34, 27 Gilmour 88 25. bench: 23 Steele (gk), 6 Colwill, 43 Turns, 19 Sarmiento, 21 Undav. injured: 15 Moder . squad: 8 Mwepu, 20 Enciso, 28 Ferguson, 29 van Hecke. Prem: P8 . W2 D1 L1 . F6 A3 . W2 D1 L1 . F8 A6 . Pt14 Po6 = 1.75pt/gm . W = 50.0% L = 25.0% Season11, 5th Premier League (H) Wed 16/3/22 - L 0-2. This match was rescheduled from Sunday 12 December due to covid at Spurs during the omicron wave of infection pre-Xmas. So it now marked end of the threequarters stage Q3. Albion had done quite well here versus these London giants over four previous Prem campaigns. Consecutive home wins from those last two meetings under Graham Potter set up an intriguing fifth Amex encounter of a third kind. He'd overseen very few additions to the match-day squad during summer build up and so included U23s who stepped up. And at the January window not much more squad activity significantly happened. From fixtures between August and mid December Seagulls had gone higher than ever before - P15 W4 D8 L3 Pt20 Po9. However at that time our injury list was long with Dunk, Webster, Lallana, Alzate & Welbeck out and Duffy suspended. Now BHA were - P28 W7 D12 L9 Pt33 Po13. Form had clearly tailed off recently - for individuals, starting eleven and impact subs to boot. This as demonstrated by our polarised sequence of results since game 16 in mid December: wdw ddd wll lll. QED. Meanwhile ex-Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo took Spurs helm in pre-season and during August added to a previously under-performing squad, spending around 70m on new signings. But his tenure was very short and he soon got replaced by experienced coach Antonio Conte during November. It may have been a good time to play them but in the week before the original mid-Dec Sunday meeting Spurs had confirmed covid cases in their camp, hence the fixture got postponed. Now however Spurs were on a desperate surge for reaching the top six at very least during the forthcoming run in. * match report: Albion chalked up a seventh home loss, with last four on the bounce, making a run of six consecutive defeats overall. Also another fail to score stat (11 = 37.9%) and lack of clean sheet (22 = 75.8%). We were lucky to get nought. A deflected strike caught Sanchez cold (37min) just when it appeared we might possibly hold visitors to nil-nil at halftime. In the second period they caught us on the break and went two up (57min), giving hosts a proverbial mountain to climb. It wasn't that blue & white were that hopeless during open play but it came down to the same old tale of what to do in front of goal. Or to be pedantic, after getting into visitors third and their area. Yes, no shots on target, zero, zip, zilch. Seagulls could send the ball into row Z, miss by a mile, get smothered, blocked and end up in a heap but not bother their keeper at all. Potter took the positives as usual but even he is finding it hard to state enough sound bites and not mention the obvious elephant on the pitch - 10 goals scored in 15 domestic fixtures to date. The good news was there was a two week interval until our next game, so you'd hope coaches & squad would address that old problem and find a solution. If not the consequences didn't bear thinking about if we slipped toward the bottom six as in days of yore. Stats: ht 0-1, goals 37,57, poss 48%-52%, on target 0-7, off target 15-10, corners 6-3, fouls 11-9, yellows 2-2, subs 3-3, shape 532-3421 weather: dry, mild . gate: 31,141 (2888 away) . MoM: Cucurella - up & back. team: 1 Sanchez, 20 March, 34 Veltman Y (2 Lamptey 78), 24 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 3 Cucurella, 13 Gross (15 Moder 78), 8 Bissouma (18 Welbeck 62), 10 Mac Allister, 9 Maupay Y, 11 Trossard . bench: 23 Steele (gk), 12 Mwepu, 17 Alzate, 25 Caicedo, 42 Leonard, 60 Sarmiento squad: 28 Roberts . injured: 4 Webster, 14 Lallana . ban: 0. Prem: P29 . W3 D5 L7 . F10 A20 . W4 D7 L3 . F16 A16 . Pt33 Po13 = 1.13pt/gm . W = 24.1% L = 34.4% Season10, 4th Premier League (H) Sun 31/1/21 - W 1-0 ~ Trossard. Coronavirus attendance restrictions - lockdown 3, no fans (Tier 3/4/5 = 0, 2 = 2000, 1 = 4000). Match played behind closed doors. Looking at last year's fixture here (see season9 below) a couple of things are apparent. First of all the timing of playing big-boys Spurs during an assumed testing season ahead and secondly, their match-day mental state, given that club's upheaval when replacing a successful manager. This psychological aspect can be applied to other big sides (eg. Arsenal) and may account for one-off positive results against top-six giants in campaigns of generally low returns of wins & points. Graham Potter now had to repeat such singular success and also attempt to replicate it against any Prem quality opposition arriving on our turf. Before kickoff Albion hadn't won at the Amex all season and those domestic failings of '20 were carrying into '21. Home form was: 1-3, 2-3, 1-1, 0-0, 1-1, 1-2, 1-1, 0-1, 3-3, 0-0. So frustrated Brighton fans could see today would be massive to actually get something versus mighty Spurs. Talking of which, BHA posted 67m losses on books from the previous term, given covid restrictions were a significant factor for both income and outgoings columns. But the thing that really made Seagulls supporters ears twitch was comments about latent player values. In other words whether we'd become a selling club going forward. It led to anoraks checking on line sources for purchase prices and transfer fees etc. and speculation as to icon Tony Bloom's continued financial benevolence. On this penultimate day of the January window, no full transfers in had taken place. BHA legend Glenn Murray joined Forest, again with boss Chris Hughton, on a free. Izquierdo was back on the bench following two seasons out with injury. *** match report: Albion won for the first time at home this season. It also ensured a 7pt gap above the d-z, off loaded heaps of pressure & unloaded lotsa frustration to boot. Seagulls were good value for the single goal victory and keeping a clean sheet against an under par Spurs unit on the night. Trossard netted from a Mac Allister to Gross interplay with a fluid move worthy of scoring (17min). After that chances came and went but visitors seldom troubled Sanchez between our sticks. Potter kept momentum going with two late subs, although the team ground it out ok. Brighton fans stuck at home could see a half decent eleven, match-day squad, etc given talent sat on the bench and also a couple out injured. What they had to do now was prove in future fixtures this was no one off but a side to be reckoned with versus quality opposition or not. Time would only tell. Stats: ht 1-0, goal 17, poss 43%-57%, on target 5-4, off target 11-4, o/s 2-1, corners 9-2, fouls 11-11, yellows 2-1, subs 3-3, shape 3421-3421. Weather: cold & wet. Team: 26 Sanchez, 3 White, 5 Dunk, 4 Webster, 34 Veltman (33 Burn 72 Y), 13 Gross, 8 Bissouma, 20 March, 10 Mac Allister, 9 Maupay Y (14 Lallana 79), 11 Trossard (7 Connolly 79) . Bench: 31 Walton, 15 Moder, 19 Izquierdo, 17 Alzate, 22 Tau, 29 Zeqiri . Squad: 16 Jahanbakhsh, 24 Propper . Injured: 2 Lamptey, 18 Welbeck . MoM: Mac Allister. Prem: P21 . W1 D6 L4 . F11 A15 . W3 D3 L4 . F12 A14 . Pt21 Po17 = 1.00pt/gm. Wins = 19.0%, Loss = 38.0% Season9, 3rd Premier League (H) Sat 5/10/19 - W 3-0 ~ Maupay, Connolly 2. By vagaries of those PL fixture computer listings, Spurs were the only top-six giant that Albion would host prior to New Year - before follow-on domestic games during second half of the camaign. And they don't come much bigger than entertaining this huge north London outfit at best of times - remembering they were our big name opposition at opening of the Amex in July 2011 after all. All this apart, Albion had not won a Prem League match at ex-fortress Amex for six months... so no pressure then going into this clash. Graham Potter had made various changes in formation, method of play and personnel from start of the season but results to date were much the same as during Chris Hughton's 'defence first' tenure. Over 20 players from the PL/PL2 pools were now sent out on loan, so Brighton fans assumed our first team group was best of that whole bunch anyhow. Today would show if they were up to current PL survival standard or not. * * * match report: Albion notched a sensational victory to send Brighton fans home for tea very happy indeed. Potter set up the team as 442 with Connolly starting on debut alongside Maupay. In opening moments Spurs keeper dropped a cross on the goal-line and Maupay took advantage (3 min). There was then a long delay before their goalie got stretchered off. Seagulls went further ahead when Connolly opened his account, neatly finishing after his back heel flick rebounded off the sub custodian (32min). The teenage wonder striker went solo after the hour mark, smashing a low shot home across the goalmouth (65min). He duly got a standing ovation when replaced by Bissouma with the match already won. Spurs on the otherhand were disappointing, although Albion did what they had to do in keeping them at bay. All in all a very good BHA performance to finally break the Amex hoodoo. Potter said, 'I don't like to talk about individuals after such a strong team effort but Aaron gave us an extra dimension.' After getting a bit of luck from the get go, hosts built on their lead with attacking intent and a super display going forward from midfield, where Gross & Mooy ran the show. The side looked balanced and also created chances from fluid offensive moves. Both strikers were mobile, took their goals well and tested an under par away outfit to beyond previous limits on our turf. Brighton fans hoped this would prove to be a turning point for progress up the table before we met Spurs again on Boxing Day. Stats; shape 442-4231, h-t 2-0, goals 3,32,65, poss 48%-52%, on target 6-3, off target 5-3, blocks 6-2, crosses 16-15, corners 4-4, o/s 1-1, tackles 23-25, fouls 11-7, yellows 2-1, subs 3-3 . Gate 30,610, away 3028 . Weather - dry & mild . MoM - Connolly. 1 Ryan, 22 Montoya, 15 Webster, 5 Dunk Y, 33 Burn, 13 Gross, 6 Stephens Y (17 Murray 90), 46 Alzate (3 Bong 88), 18 Mooy, 44 Connolly (8 Bissouma 80), 7 Maupay . Subs - 27 Button, 14 Balogun, 16 Jahanbakhsh, 20 March. Squad - 21 Schelotto . Injured - 4 Duffy, 11 Trossard, 19 Izquierdo, 30 Bernardo. Prem P8 . W1 D2 L1 . F5 A4 . W1 D1 L2 . F3 A6 . Pt9 Po13 = 1.12pt/gm. Wins = 25%, Loss = 37.5% Season8 2nd Premier League (H) Sat 22/9/18 - L 1-2 ~ Knockaert. When is the best time to play a top six side? Well, Spurs were third visitors to the Amex this term and we'd already hosted Man Utd here for our first domestic fixture. Ironically those two sides had been our last two games at the Amex back in the spring (see season7 below). And both previous outcomes were posititve in that first campaign. And the north London outfit hadn't exactly been in form lately, suffering both a PL & Champions League defeat this week. On the night (5:30 k-o for pay tv coverage) Hughton named his regular eleven to start and the bench appeared strong. From word go it rained continually. * * * match report: Hotspur certainly rained on Albion's parade, showering hapless hosts with superior possession and stats. BHA were architects of their own fortress collapse as they wasted what chances were created to score during 90 mins normal time. Stephens got injured early on, to be replaced by Kayal. A dour first half appeared to be goalless but just prior to the break lively visitors then drew blood. From a f-k Murray handled in the wall and so Ref gave a pen, duly converted (42min). During the 2nd 45 Seagulls were better but couldn't make efforts count to level it. Kayal & Bissouma got booked. Hughton put on Jahanbakhsh as locals pushed up with a good spell. But it went tits up again at a fast counter attack (76min). Locadia arrived and hosts reshaped, chasing the game in frantic closing moments. Hughton was not happy with turn of events but in truth Albion came up short and could only blame themselves for defeat to half decent but below par opposition. Brighton fans got wet and felt disappointed the team couldn't take a lead at home, or at least manage the game a tad better from k-o and not just the final half hour when chips were down. Stats; shape 4411-442, h-t 0-1, goals 93-42,76, poss 28%-72%, on target 4-7, off target 3-5, blocks 1-4, crosses 14-15, corners 5-7, o/s 2-0, tackles 13-18, fouls 15-9, yellows 2-1, subs 3-2 . Gate 30,531, away 2954 . Weather - rain. 1 Ryan, 22 Montoya, 4 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 3 Bong, 11 Knockaert, 6 Stephens (7 Kayal 21 Y61), 24 Propper, 20 March (16 Jahanbakhsh 73), 8 Bissouma Y74 (9 Locadia 79), 17 Murray . Subs - 27 Button, 30 Bernardo, 14 Balogun, 10 Andone. Prem P6 . W1 D1 L1 . F6 A6 . W0 D1 L2 . F2 A5 . Pt5 Po13 = 0.83pt/gm. Wins = 16%, Loss = 50% Season7 1st Premier League (H) Tuesday 17/4/18 - 1-1 ~ Gross. Sky tv turned up to add extra bucks to gate money on the night. This game was also re-scheduled as it clashed with FAC S-F ties the following weekend. There were four further fixtures left to play after this and all were also against sides in the top seven. To date Albion's home record versus big-six clubs was: Man City 0-2, Liverpool 1-5, Chelsea 0-4 & Arsenal 2-1. And versus 7th Burnley 0-0 & 8th Leicester 0-2. So on the face of it Seagulls had it all to do and some, to get any kind of result tonight. It was critical BHA didn't drop below a pt/gm average overall, which stood at 1.06 and could drop to 1.03 with defeat. On the night Chris Hughton named his most influencial side to take on the north London giants. * * * match report: Albion came from behind to snatch a dramatic point and relieve supporters fears of possible meltdown during the crucial run in. Visitors dominated the match as expected but hosts were always in the game despite quality of opposition threats & forays. After a goalless first half Spurs went ahead moments into the second period. A mix up in defence presented an easy chance to the Hotspur striker (48min). But locals hit back immediately when Izquierdo got tripped in the box. Gross stepped up to smash home the spot kick (50min). Hughton sent on Ulloa & March to freshen up attack and the defence held out to the death. Hughton said, 'against these sides you've got to give everything. It's about concentration - not allowing the quality they've got to have really good opportunities. We had some good spells and that's what you have to do because that eats up the time as well.' Brighton fans were overjoyed at the final whistle and many felt this vital point gained would be enough to get Seagulls over the cut off line as of now. Stats; shape 4411-4231, ht 0-0, goals 50-48, poss 36%-64%, on target 5-6, off target 2-5, corners 3-4, fouls 6-5, yellows1-0, subs 2-3. Gate 30,440. 1 Ryan, 2 Bruno, 22 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 3 Bong, 11 Knockaert, 6 Stephens, 7 Kayal, 19 Izquierdo (20 March 77), 13 Gross, 17 Murray (16 Ulloa 74). Prem P34 . W8 D12 L14 . F32 A47 . Pt36 Po13 = 1.05pt/gm . Wins = 23.5%, Loss = 41.1% * * * * * Falmer years: from 2011 to 2017 - no home meetings. Withdean Era: from 1999 to 2011 - no home meetings.
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