The Media Review: Spurs stunned at the Amex

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The media reacts to our sensational win over Spurs.

Nick Szczepanik

2024-10-07T10:45+01:00

Albion’s thrilling comeback victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday was a match that had most reporters reaching for the superlatives - once they had caught their breaths. Had the men in blue and white won it, or had Spurs thrown it away? Whatever slant the occupants of the press box put on it, there was plenty of praise for Fabian Hurzeler and his players.

Neil McLeman of The Mirror saw Albion’s victory as "a ridiculous win to leapfrog Tottenham in the table.

“Three minutes into the second half, both Micky van de Ven and Destiny Udogie failed to clear a Mitoma cross and Yankuba Minteh was free sweep home at the far post. After 48 minutes, Rutter took a short pass from the excellent Mitoma to shoot home the equaliser. The third goal summed up the difference between the two sides. Rutter wanted a loose ball in the box more than any Tottenham player and the Frenchman slid in to cross for Welbeck to head home.”

The i paper noted that “at half time, this looked the unlikeliest of possible outcomes. Brighton had been overrun, their much-discussed high defensive line as flimsy as advertised. But they hauled themselves out of the hole of a two-goal deficit and showed that they have talent - and will to win - to spare.

“Fabian Hurzeler, the head coach, denied that any tactical wizardry on his part had made the difference and preferred to praise his team’s comeback.

“It helped that Destiny Udogie mis-kicked horribly as he tried to deal with a cross by the dangerous Kaoru Mitoma only three minutes into the restart and Yankuba Minteh drove the loose ball home. After 58 minutes Georginio Rutter took Mitoma’s pass and sidestepped both Udogie and Micky van de Ven before left-footing low past Guglielmo Vicario.

The men who got us level. 📷 by James Boardman.

“And finally, in the 65th minute, Rutter showed more desire to reach the ball than any one of three opponents, somehow looping it back across goal for the unmarked Danny Welbeck to head in and spark raucous celebrations tinged with delighted shock.”

Jim White of The Daily Telegraph also revelled in the Amex atmosphere. “What a game this was, what an advertisement for attacking football,” he wrote. “Though possibly not for the art of defending. At the end, the Amex was throbbing with delight, the fans heading for the exits swathed in grins, shaking their heads at the ridiculous level of entertainment on offer.

“This was a clash of the Premier League’s principal boom-or-bust sides, two teams who have no conception of the idea of sitting back on a lead. Two teams, moreover, whose brilliance in attack is more than compromised by their fragility in defence.

“Brighton coach Fabian Hurzeler claimed afterwards that he had made no tactical tweaks to his side at half time, telling them instead to trust the process and things would turn around. But the fact is the German manager precisely knew how to exploit Spurs’s shortcomings because his side share them.

“The wonderful thing about this game, though, was that both sides share a hugely watchable characteristic: they do not do settling for a draw. The Amex was roaring as Brighton piled forward. The sense everywhere was that 2-2 was not the end of things.

“As it proved when, magnificently, Rutter span through a couple of lacklustre attempted tackles and chipped in a cross which Welbeck, entirely unencumbered by defenders, nodded past Vicario. What entertainment this was. What fun. What unbridled delight.”

Matt Barlow of The Daily Mail agreed. “End of the pier football, we might call it. Breathless and raucous. Fast, frenzied and littered with errors. Blurring the senses, spinning the mind and serving up a couple of hours of brilliant and chaotic entertainment by the seaside.

“Tottenham were two up and cruising. How they contrived to lose from here is a mystery. Answers on a postcard. Brighton certainly deserve credit. They had been flat, too passive at the start of the game. They let the visitors dominate but they came out fighting in the second half.”

Danny Welbeck slid in to meet Kaoru Mitoma's cross, but sent it wide. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

More plaudits came from David Hytner in The Guardian, “Credit to Fabian Hürzeler, the Brighton head coach, and to every player in the blue and white. They refused to believe that defeat was their destiny, even if they surely could not have envisaged the extent of the Spurs capitulation.

“Brighton located the necessary levels of intensity, of ruthlessness, with Kaoru Mitoma the spark; a blur of quick feet and direct movement. He was virtually unplayable.

“Earlier in the year, when Hürzeler was in charge at St Pauli, [Spurs boss Ange] Postecoglou had invited him into Spurs to share some of his knowledge. ‘If someone knocks on your door and wants a cuppa, let them in your house,’ Postecoglou said. ‘He’s not going to take your furniture or steal your cutlery.’ Here, Hürzeler plundered extensively, Brighton jumping above Spurs and up into sixth place in the table. Their £150m summer squad rebuild has its latest dividend.”

In The Sun, Tom Barclay wrote that “at half-time in this bonkers game, Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler looked to have been schooled completely by wise old Ange Postecoglou.

What a turnaround. 📷 by Bennett Dean.

But the remarkably young Albion chief showed no respect whatsoever for his elder by masterminding a stunning second-half fightback.

“The 27-year, 138-day gap between the pair was the fourth biggest in Premier League history between two competing permanent managers. That gulf in experience seemed to show as Spurs dismantled Brighton’s high line to take a 2-0 lead into the break thanks to strikes from Brennan Johnson and James Maddison.

“But Hurzeler’s men hit back with three goals in 18 minutes during the second period through Yankuba Minteh, Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck. It underlined the faith Brighton had in giving Hurzeler such an early shot.”