Spurs 2-1 Brighton

The report...

Goals from Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane gave us a battling 2-1 win in a hard-fought clash with Brighton & Hove Albion at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Son scored a sensational right-foot curler to open the scoring, becoming the first Asian player to reach 100 Premier League goals in the process, before Lewis Dunk headed the visitors level in the 33rd minute. But we weren’t to be denied in a game that was tetchy at times, Kane firing home the winner in the 79th minute to give us a much-needed three points, although Brighton will point to two disallowed goals as to why they might have deserved a share of the spoils.

It was an entertaining contest throughout the 90 minutes, with plenty of drama along the way. Just five minutes in, Eric Dier had to clear from inside our six-yard box after Kaoru Mitoma got on the end of a deep corner, but we grabbed the lead on 10 minutes with a beauty. Brighton thought they’d cleared a corner but Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg won back possession 20 yards from goal, Son picked up the ball and curled the most sumptuous right-footed shot past Jason Steele and into the top corner.

We were having some decent possession in the final third without really making the most if it, however Brighton were doing likewise and had the ball in the net on 17 minutes through Mitoma but, after a VAR check, it was ruled that he controlled the ball with his arm before volleying home. The visitors then had two chances within seconds, both shots from distance which Hugo Lloris saved superbly, the first from Alexis Mac Allister and then from Moises Caicedo, the latter the merest of a fingertip to divert it onto the post. Just before the half hour mark, Dunk got across to block Hojbjerg’s angled drive but soon after, Solly March delivered a deep corner and Dunk was unmarked at the back post to head home.

It was us with the first opportunity of the second half, Kane clipping a lovely ball over the top for Ivan Perisic only for Steele to save the Croatia international’s shot while Brighton had another ‘goal’ ruled out for handball by VAR, Danny Welbeck’s shot hitting the arm of Mac Allister on its way past Lloris.

The game was real end-to-end stuff and we went close twice with Kane and Dejan Kulusevski blazing over the bar, while Brighton had penalty appeals waved away following a challenge from Hojbjerg on Mitoma - both managers shown red cards in amongst it all after a coming together between personnel on both benches. But we were back in front 11 minutes from time with a well-worked goal, Son finding Hojbjerg down the right and his cut-back was thumped home by Kane from just inside the area. Brighton threw everything at us in the final stages but we held firm despite a number of close shaves, to pick up our fifth home win on the trot in the Premier League.