Premier League 2018/19: Tottenham vs Brighton

Tottenham Hotspur hosted Brighton & Hove Albion looking to maintain their fine start in their new stadium. Yet to concede a goal after three matches at their new home, Spurs were looking to take advantage of Arsenal and Chelsea dropping points as they seek Champions League qualification for a fourth successive season, as well as the honour of calling themselves the top club in London.

Brighton came into the fixture with their own issues, as a run of poor results has turned a seemingly solid second Premier League season into a scrap to avoid the drop. With a point secured at Wolves in their last game, a similar result would do the Seagulls wonders in their bid to keep their distance from Cardiff in 18th place.

This tactical analysis will examine how Spurs looked to break down a deep-lying Brighton defence, and how the Seagulls looked to contain Mauricio Pochettino’s men.

Lineups

As expected, this game was yet another attack vs defence exercise that seems to characterise a lot of games that feature a lower-half team visiting one of the top six. What was perhaps unexpected however was the complete lack of ambition shown by Brighton to offer a counter-attacking threat to Spurs. This is not a criticism of their strategy; Chris Hughton set them up to take a point off of Spurs and they almost got what they came for.

Lined up in a very deep 4-5-1 system, the Seagulls protected their goal at all costs ensuring a majority of the game was played in front of them. Wingers Jurgen Locadia and Alireza Jahanbakhsh would both drop deep to create a chain of five across the midfield, and the back four would remain extremely narrow.