They are all my sons, Roberto de Zerbi had said of the Tottenham Hotspur players he has inherited and in whom he had already diagnosed a kind of trauma.
They are all his sons and, like the doomed, sabotaged pilots in Arthur Miller’s play, they are all spiralling towards the vast, swallowing ocean below.
This ocean is called the Championship and Spurs are still hurtling towards it at breakneck speed. The spectre of it, the fear of it, the idea that a club like this with its magnificent, steepling stadium and its champagne bars and its high-end restaurants could be hosting Lincoln City and Stevenage next season has spread a slow paralysis over its superstar players.
For a few minutes on Saturday evening, the fear loosened its grip and a wonderful catharsis enveloped this beleaguered corner of north London when Xavi Simons scored a quite magnificent goal that appeared as though it would deliver them from the relegation zone and give them their first win of 2026.
But then they plunged downwards again. Four and a half minutes into added time, substitute Georginio Rutter swept home a pull-back from Jan Paul van Hecke to make the score 2-2. When the final whistle went, many of De Zerbi’s boys in white fell to the turf, distraught.
Kevin Danso, who had lost the ball ahead of the equaliser, was inconsolable. To all their other football traumas this season, they have added one more.
A match that had offered some light ended in darkness. A point is better than nothing but Leeds United had won earlier in the afternoon. They are safe. Nottingham Forest are at home to Burnley on Sunday and will move five points clear of Spurs if they win. West Ham, who are at Crystal Palace on Monday night, are Spurs’ only hope.
De Zerbi’s team, don’t forget, have not won in the Premier League since they beat Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Sunday December 28. Only Sheffield Wednesday across the top four divisions have scored fewer points than Spurs in 2026. Their dive has been steep indeed.
Spurs made a strong start and dominated the early stages. Destiny Udogie went down under a challenge from Yankuba Minteh but the referee waved play on. Xavi Simons had a shot deflected wide. Randall Kolo Muani blazed an effort too high.
All the energy was coming from Spurs. Their pressing was relentless. Their passing was incisive and bold. Brighton, who had won their last three Premier League games, could barely get a kick.
But the visitors slowly began to gain a foothold in the game and 12 minutes before the interval, they came within inches of taking the lead. Minteh curled a cross to the back post and when Jack Hinshelwood headed it across goal, the ball bounced towards the far corner.
Micky van de Ven desperately tried to hook it away but could only slam it against the post. The ball bounced out, hit him on the thigh and rolled across the face of goal before it was hoofed clear.
It was an escape for Spurs but it changed the mood. The supporters saw familiar vulnerabilities again. Brighton attacked once more. Pascal Gross floated a free kick into the box and Danny Welbeck escaped his marker only to glance his header straight at Kinsky. The mood inside the stadium, suddenly, was fretful.
But then, finally, Spurs gave their fans something to cheer. Xavi Simons got the ball on the edge of the Brighton box, turned and floated a delicate chip into the box. Verbruggen came for it but Pedro Porro got to it ahead of him and nodded it into the empty net.
The stadium exploded in a massive scream of relief and joy. It felt like a great liberation. And a minute later, they nearly doubled their lead. Solanke slipped a clever pass through to Simons and Simons turned inside his marker, and bent a low, deliberate shot around Verbruggen.
MATCH FACTS:
Tottenham Hotspur(4:2:3:1): Kinsky – Porro, Danso, Van de Ven, Udogie 6(Spence 76 6) – Bentancur 6(Palhinha 67), Bissouma 6(Gray 57) – Kolo Muani 5(Tel 57), Gallagher 7(Bergvall 76 6), Simons – Solanke.
Head coach: Roberto de Zerbi 7
Brighton & Hove Albion(4:2:3:1): Verbruggen 7 – Wieffer 6, Van Hecke 7, Boscagli 7, Kadioglu 7 – Ayari 6, Gross 8 – Gomez 6(Mitoma 20 7), Hinshelwood 6(O’Riley 75 6), Minteh – Welbeck 6(Rutter 75 6).
Manager: Fabian Hurzeler 7
Referee: Stuart Attwell 8
The ball came back off the face of the post and when Porro rifled the rebound goalwards, the Brighton keeper made a superb reaction save to tip it over the crossbar. Porro held his head in his hands.
But just when everything was going so well, Spurs conceded. It is, the home fans would tell you, the story of their season. In added time at the end of the half, Gross was given too much time to loft a deep cross to substitute Kaoru Mitoma at the back post and Mitoma met it with a crashing left-foot volley that flew into the roof of the net. It was a stunning finish.
Brighton nearly scored again before the interval. The provider, once again, was Gross and this time, his cross was met by Hinshelwood. His header was firm and true and the stadium waited for the net to bulge. It flew just wide.
Brighton started the second half as they ended the first. Spurs defended desperately. Two goalbound shots thudded off the torsos of Spurs defenders. Their fragile confidence was being picked apart. De Zerbi was booked for rushing out of his technical area to impart instructions.
Fourteen minutes from time, there was a flurry of substitutions. Lucas Bergvall was one of them. With his first touch, he dispossessed the dawdling Jan Paul van Hecke and played the ball to Simons.
Simons took a touch and turned. He stepped inside Mats Wieffer and let fly with a quite brilliant right-foot shot that sped high through the air, across Verbruggen and in off the far post.
This glorious stadium that does not have a team to match, has never felt catharsis like it. The home bench cleared of its delirious staff.
De Zerbi hurtled down the touchline. Simons raced into the crowd, tearing off his shirt. When he finally emerged, he stood on an advertising hoarding like the conquering hero Spurs have so desperately needed.
What remained of the game after that was a torture of nerves for the home fans. They begged all their sons to hold on, these sons who had suddenly given them hope, but they could not. Rutter scored the equaliser. That ocean of nothingness called the Championship is growing closer and closer.