Cartilage Free Captain

Tottenham Hotspur assistant coach Ryan Mason won’t be leaving for Brussels after all. Reports emerged Thursday morning that the 33-year old Mason and Belgian club RSC Anderlecht came to a “mutual agreement” NOT to appoint him as Anderlecht’s next head coach. Mason returns to Tottenham in his current role as (ostensibly) Ange Postecoglou’s No. 3 assistant.

Yesterday it looked like Mason was nailed-on for his first permanent head coaching position, after two stints as interim head coach of Tottenham. So why the change? We don’t know. It could be that Mason and Anderlecht officials looked at the opportunity and determined it wasn’t the right fit, or wasn’t the right time. Anderlecht are reportedly going to promote interim manager David Hubert as their next permanent head coach, likely for sake of continuity.

Anderlecht are 4-5-1 thus far in the Jupiler Pro League and sit fourth in the table, which is something of a disappointing start for a club used to competing for Belgian league titles. That’s probably why they’re looking for a new head coach, to be fair. It also means no reunion between Mason and former teammate (and Anderlecht club captain) Jan Vertonghen, which makes me a little sad.

Mason reportedly is very happy at Tottenham Hotspur and while he’s an ambitious young manager who will one day end up as head coach somewhere, that day is not today. That’s probably a relief to Postecoglou, who faced the real prospects of losing two of his top assistants to head coaching positions at other clubs, after Chris Davies left to head up Birmingham City earlier this fall. Postecoglou reportedly loves working with and developing young assistant coaches, but that’s a lot of churn for any club and I can’t imagine Mason’s departure wouldn’t have had a deleterious effect on the squad.

good morning everyone - and I hope all our Florida hoddlers are staying safe

——-

There are few noises that capture the electricity of sports quite like a home run during the MLB playoffs. But a grand slam? Deafening.

That was a grand slam from Francisco Lindor you just saw. Down 0-1 against the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS, the Mets shortstop went yard in the bottom of the sixth inning to send his team up against the Phils.

And with one swing of a bat, the NLDS was effectively decided. The Mets are going through!

It’s quite a shock on paper, but I’m not too surprised by this. The Mets were in playoff mode for a couple weeks now, notably getting that key game against the Braves to get into the playoffs themselves.

Not bad considering where they were at the beginning of the season.

What’s next for New York’s finest team? Well, that’s to be determined, but they’ll be going to California. Either San Diego or Los Angeles.

I’m mostly happy I still get to enjoy some sports with Spurs on break, but man do I miss watching Spurs. Just one more week.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Life On a Chain, by Pete Yorn

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$) does a deep dive on Alfie Devine

good morning!

There’s no club football this week, boo.

WRONG - There is club football! You just have to look a little bit. That’s right gang, I’m talking about League One, Two and the National League.

Whilst a select group of players make their way to national teams, the clubs in the lower levels of the footballing pyramid are still playing matches.

Which makes this a perfectly good time to look at what’s going on right now. Here we go:

EFL League One:

Seems like Birmingham City is going straight back up. Feels a bit like when Newcastle were relegated all those years ago. An embarrassment for sure, but they’re way above the likes of Bristol Rovers and Northampton.

And Wrexham? Mansfield Town? The latter would be much more exciting in the Championship.

EFL League One top six:

EFL League One Bottom Four:

EFL League Two:

Goodness, what’s going on with Accrington Stanley? Felt like only a season or two ago they were competing for a spot in League One. Now? Battling to stay in the league.

Not sure what else is going on elsewhere. Would like to see Port Vale and Notts County make the jump.

League Two Top Seven:

League Two Bottom Two:

National League:

It’s Barnet or Forest Green. Remember Forest Green? In the third tier two seasons ago? My oh my how they have fallen. And spare a thought for Wealdstone, who risk relegation.

National League top one:

National League bottom three:

Fitzie’s track of the day: Do The Dark, by Blondie

And now for your links:

Dan KP: Dominic Solanke always believed in England return

The Athletic ($$) on Big Ange and the contadictory nature of football fandom

Cole Palmer named England men’s player of the year

OK, that Brighton match sucked butt and we all agree on that part, right? Yeah. It did. As much as the first half was great, watching Spurs fart away a two goal lead in the second half was mind-blowingly awful and I’d never like to see that again anytime soon, thank you very much. And now we have a full two week international break to stew about it.

The recent discourse about Brennan Johnson and Timo Werner got me thinking this week about all the polarizing players we’ve had at Tottenham Hotspur in the time since I started following the club in 2007. There have been so many of them over the years — guys who split the fanbase down the middle into supporters and detractors. They were the ones with perhaps the perception of a poor attitude, but maybe not? Or maybe they were limited players who did some good things but put in a lot more middling to crap shifts.

With Ryan Mason, one of the poster boys for polarizing Spurs players, ready to leave the club to take his first heading coaching position at Anderlecht, I thought it was a good time to distract everyone from a shit Tottenham performance into something we can talk about. Sure, we’re reminiscing about past internet arguments, but is that better than arguing about how Spurs were crap on Sunday? I think it is.

These ratings are in order from least polarizing to most polarizing. You can argue about that too.

Here are your Tottenham Hotspur player ratings to the theme of Polarizing Spurs Players in the Premier League era. There are plenty more than what’s on this list, so talk about them in the comments. And let us never mention this second half performance ever again.

God. Bobby Soldier. He was the chosen one! He was supposed to UNITE the fanbase, not leave it in darkness! Seriously, there never was a more slam-dunk perfectly outstanding striker signing, and instead of being Tottenham’s great savior he was... not. God love him, though — he was so distraught by his failure to launch and it was like watching a puppy get kicked every time one of his shots caromed off the post. As much as the fanbase was annoyed by his failure to put balls into the net, he had equal amounts of sympathy because the guy tried SO DAMN HARD and it just would not happen for him. Probably the most sympathetic polarizing Spurs player in history.

No players in this category.

Ryan Mason was the original Local Boy Comes Good, one of the first players (along with Harry Kane) to come out of the academy into the first team post-Ledley King with promises of being a lifer. Didn’t pan out that way. As a player, Mason was a try-hard who just didn’t quite have the juice, and was the first in a string of academy grad midfielders who pissed off the Carty Free masthead on the regular. Has reclaimed his image via his traumatic head injury, subsequent retirement, and move into management, where he looks like he could be a very good coach.

No players in this category.

Oh man. Nacer Chadli, aka “The Dolphin”, aka “Passer Badly” (on this site). Probably more polarizing on this blog than he was anywhere else in Tottenham fandom. The masthead was so, so frustrated with him while he was here, but he had this incredible penchant for playing like dogshit for 85 minutes and then popping up in the box for an incredible goal. I think fans liked him mostly because he scored a lot, and... y’know, fair enough I suppose.

Brennan Johnson (Community — 3.5): What can you say? Scored his sixth goal in six matches and could’ve had another one if Timo’s first minute cross wasn’t slightly too far ahead of him. Disappeared along with all service to him in the second half, but you can’t argue with what he’s doing right now.

The Winks Wars are still fresh in the community memory, so I’ll keep this one brief — he was Tottenham through and through, had a couple of incredible performances (including the Real Madrid match), but otherwise was completely out of his depth at Tottenham’s level. COYS to the core, though, at least until he was trying to angle his way out of the club.

Dejan Kulusevski (Community — 3.0): One of Spurs’ best players on the day, especially in the first half. Was starved for service in the second and looked shell-shocked as Brighton got back into the match.

Dominic Solanke (Community — 3.0): God, he was so good in that first half, pressing like a monster, setting up balls and chances for his teammates, and being a general nuisance in Brighton’s final third. Second half he barely touched the ball because Spurs couldn’t get out of their own half.

Depending on who you talk to, Gomes was either one of the best Tottenham keepers since Ian Walker, or a flappy-handed Brazilian gaffe machine who let in a howler for every reflex save he made. He was both — unstoppable on his worst day and mind-meltingly dumb on his worst day. But the one thing you could say was that he was definitely entertaining. And turned out to be a pretty good dude in the end, too.

Guglielmo Vicario (Community — 3.0): Made a couple of good saves, but I don’t think he had any chance on any of Brighton’s three goals.

James Maddison (Community — 3.0): IDK, he was quite good in the first half, playing a role in both of Spurs’ goals (though Verbruggen should’ve saved his goal) and then like the rest of the team just disappeared into the ether in the second 45.

Timo Werner (Community — 2.5): Put the early cross too far in front of Johnson for the first minute chance, but generally looked pretty good in the first half as he made Veltman look like a statue. That inconsistent final ball is still a thing, but likely will be as long as he’s here. Like the rest of Spurs’ attackers, was completely absent in the second half.

Have we ever had a non-polarizing Guy Named Gio on Tottenham’s team? I can’t think of one. The two most polarizing were clearly Lo Celso and Dos Santos, and for different reasons. Lo Celso was due to his penchant for getting injured all the time and for only seeming to show up for Argentina games. Dos Santos was rarely played by Harry Redknapp (despite fan howls) and was known as a dismissive locker room character and a major, major club-hopping party boy. Neither lived up to their promise.

Pedro Porro (Community — 2.5): Probably the best player on Spurs’ back line vs. Brighton and it’s not like he was especially great. Gave Mitoma way, way too much space on his flank and got bypassed regularly. Mitoma’s a load, but he’s defended better players more effectively. Decent going forward in the first half, at least.

Jenas may now be primarily known as a football pundit (at least until he got caught sexting people and got canned by BBC) but back in the day he was a highly polarizing Tottenham player who people either loved or despised. This classic YouTube video from 2010 made by the GOAT Spurs blogger Spooky pretty much sums up my feelings about his Spurs tenure. Those who know, know.

Cuti Romero (Community — 2.0): I don’t know what’s going on with Cuti, but he has been weirdly bad at points this season. There’s really no reason he should’ve let Dat Guy Welbz get past him as easily and often as he did. It’s like he switches off at points, or his OS hits a memory fault or SOMETHING. But it’s bad and I’d like him to stop doing it.

Micky van de Ven (Community — 2.5): Look, all players have bad games, and Micky’s been one of our most consisted performers this season. That said, this match was just awful — got skinned several times, completely lost in both of Brighton’s first two goals, and looked lost.

Destiny Udogie (Community — 1.5): Young players are expected to be inconsistent, and this is one of those games where he just didn’t have it. Flubbed the clearance on Brighton’s first goal, didn’t close down Ritter for the second, and got nutmegged in the buildup for the third. Just a truly historically poor match. I feel for him. It was real bad.

Rodrigo Bentancur (Community — 2.5): I understand that we want to maximize Lolo as much as possible before his eventual multiple match suspension, but he was the wrong choice for this match. Struggled mightily with Brighton’s midfield press, and looked like he gave up midway through the second half.

Ange Postecolgou (Community — 2.0): Is this a little low? Perhaps, but I’m still mad at Ange for not being proactive with his subbing in order, as he admitted post-mach, to make a point. Maybe making more timely subs wouldn’t have made a difference, but we’ll never know now, will we?

I mean, there’s no other choice for this category, is there? There have been a lot of polarizing players over the past 20 years or so but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that so thoroughly divided opinion, or cause a significant split in the fanbase both pro- and anti-, as Tanguy. He’s good! No, he’s shit! No, he’s been marginalized! No he hasn’t! He’s lazy! No, he’s adjusting! I’m glad he’s gone if only because now I don’t have to moderate article comment sections about him anymore. Apart from this one, I guess.

No Tottenham players were as bad as... ok, never mind, I’m not starting anything.

Benoit Assou-Ekotto Memorial Non-Rating

International breaks are weird things. Sometimes it’s two weeks of radio silence, where things just don’t happen and the news cycle, apart from news about Nations League and other irrelevant crap, just slows to a crawl. And other times you get some wild news.

This is one of the latter. According to Belgian journalist Sach Tavolieri, Tottenham Hotspur assistant manager and two-time interim head coach Ryan Mason is currently in advanced talks to become the next manager of R.S.C. Anderlecht!

Wow. We know Mason is a young, ambitious coach who has designs to be a full manager, but I think we all assumed that would happen somewhere in the Championship or League One, and not in Belgium. But this is a potentially very exciting appointment for Mason, and for Anderlecht. Mason is replacing former Danish head coach Brian Riemer, who was let go in late September, and would be joining not only a club that’s playing in the Europa League but one that will hopefully challenge Union Saint-Gilloise for the Jupiler League title. Anderlecht has also been something of a springboard for former players breaking into management — particularly Vincent Kompany, who turned a successful stint at his former club into, eventually, the head coaching position at Bayern Munich.

And there’s one more connection — Anderlecht’s club captain is none other than Tottenham Hotspur legend and central defender Jan Vertonghen, meaning Mason would be reuniting with one of his former teammates from his playing days.

Thankfully, Anderlecht is not one of the teams that Spurs drew in the Europa League group stages because that could potentially be awkward. But like Spurs they are 2-0 in the competition and are in the top 8, and there’s a chance they could face each other in the knockouts if they both progress to the next stage of the competition.

Mason has been considered a young future manager on the rise. He joined Tottenham’s academy coaching staff shortly after being forced to retire early from the game when he sustained a significant head injury while playing for Hull City. He has risen quickly through Tottenham’s coaching ranks while at the club and has twice served as an interim manager after the club sacked Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte/Cristian Stellini. He has made no secret of his desire to be a full manager somewhere, and this would be his big chance.

Mason ending up at Anderlecht could have some knock-on effects as well — Mason’s familiarity with the Spurs academy and his friendly relations with the club could potentially signify Anderlecht as a prominent Belgian club to which Spurs could potentially loan players. Mason’s penchant for coaching attacking football and his familiarity with Ange Postecoglou’s tactics could make his Anderlecht team an enticing destination, especially for young players who need first team experience.

He’ll have to prove himself first, but Anderlecht is a team with resources, European pedigree, and really cool purple kits. It’s a plum of a job, and if he gets it I’ll be rooting for him.

good morning!

It’s finally October, which means it’s time for [ice] hockey season in [North] America.

This is an exciting NHL season. We have the 50th anniversary of the Wasihngton Capitals (as seen on a WMATA bus), the inaugural season of the Utah HockeyTeam and your most recent Stanley Cup Champions: the Florida Panthers.

Tuesday’s action begins with a triple-header. First we have the St Louis Blues against the Seattle Kraken, followed by Bruins-Panthers and closing it out with Blackhawks-Utah. That’s right - two expansion teams in one night. Can you handle it?

I’m not sure which sports outlet to cite for with preseason predictions, so I’m going with four: ESPN. Sportsnet, Daily Faceoff and Deadspin.

On average, your hoddler-in-chief’s beloved San Jose Sharks are projected to finish 32nd in the league. That’s right - all four outlets projected the Sharks to finish dead last.

That puts them right back where they were when the 2023-24 season ended: 32nd. Ended at the bottom. Started at the bottom. Now we’re here. At the bottom.

The Sharks have been bottom-dwellers for years now. They haven’t been competitive since the 2018-19 season. I remember that season well. I thought once the Sharks beat the Vegas Golden Knights that the Stanley Cup would be theirs.

Instead, the Sharks failed to reach the finals. A few years later it was the Golden Knights hoisting Lord Stanley, while the Sharks were dealing with one of their worst-ever seasons.

This team is practically unrecognisable from the 2018-19 squad. Only Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Logan Couture remain (Barclay Goodrow doesn’t count because he’s returned from the NY Rangers).

There’s not much hope for the Sharks this year unless you count the lottery. So I’m not really sure why I’ll bother watching them, and will almost be thankful they exist on the other side of the country.

I guess we should be excited about the additions of Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith, but the fruits of those additions likely will not appear until much later.

It’s going to be a long, long season. But hey, I’m gonna tune in anyways.

Fitzie’s track of the day: September Gurls, by Big Star

And now for your links:

Dan KP: Ange Postecoglou has his ‘Antonio Conte moment’ but there’s a difference

Alasdair Gold’s Tottenham loanee roundup

Jack P-B ($$): Were Tottenham punished by mistakes or is Angeball ‘inherently fragile’?

Harry Kane given green light to play for England

good morning !

Here’s a snippet of some thoughts running through my head this day, beginning at 4.30am:

Goodness, it’s much too early to be awake. How I’d give anything to be back in bed. Instead, I’m in a car listening to some generic rock and roll heading to Denver International Airport.

My short trip over, it’s time to get back to DC.

“What time is the Spurs match today?” I thought to myself. Still a few hours away, apparently. At least this gives me some hope that I can watch it when I land.

Thankfully I have some coffee with me in the vehicle. It’s a long morning. And, you know what, I’m not that interested in a reading a book this time of day.

I saunter through the airport. First the TSA, then the main concourse.

“Hmm, do I want to eat something? Sorta, but what?” Even at 5ish in the morning a McDonald’s meal sounds a little rough. I walk for about 15 minutes to an airline’s dedicated terminal to only find a CNBC news stand. Rotten luck. I unwrap a Clif Bar. Breakfast.

Are lineups out yet? No?

Sometime after 6am I depart. A friend recommended the new Leon Bridges album. I’ve got nothing else to do for a couple hours so I listen.

Apparently the flight is running well ahead of schedule. Gives me some hope to watch the Spurs game. I check my watch. Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get to watch the final 15-20 minutes.

We land in DC. I immediately open the Premier League app. Five minutes into the match, nice. I’ve got a real chance.

Halftime comes and goes. I’m still on the Metro.

After I hop off and head to get lunch I check the Premier League app again. 2-1 Spurs. Not great. I pick up my lunch. 2-2. Bad.

I turn on the television around the 70th minute. 3-2 Brighton. Worse.

So now after watching a pretty disappointing 20 minutes of Tottenham football, I enter the international break pretty disappointed. I try to remind myself this is hardly the first big lead blown by Tottenham. Feels bad though.

Not thrilled with the points haul. I try not to worry about the Top Four. I mean, we’re winning the Europa League right?

Two weeks until the next Tottenham game it is then.

Kick off 7.30am ET. No rest for the weary Spurs fan.

Fitzie’s track of the day: That’s What I Love, by Leon Bridges

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$) on Tottenhams’ collapse and what else went wrong

Dan KP: Spurs’ key flaw again on display in Brighton loss

Tottenham Hotspur blew a 2-0 halftime lead to Brighton today at the AmEx and lost 3-2 on Sunday, an infuriating result that I’m sure ruined more than one weekend if you’re a Spurs fan reading this article. That fact is certainly not lost on manager Ange Postecoglou, who was blunt in his assessment of Spurs’ second half performance, calling it “unacceptable” in the post-match press conference and putting a pretty fine point on the fact that at the end of the day Spurs simply didn’t do what they needed to do to put the match to bed when they had the chance.

“Look, we didn’t do what you need to do at this level, it’s kind of non-negotiable. We just weren’t competitive. We didn’t win our duels, we lacked intensity, we didn’t deliver the things you need to at this level, the basics of the game, and paid the price for it.

“I’m not really sure [if Spurs were complacent]. But wherever it comes from, it doesn’t really matter, it’s irrelevant. It’s unacceptable at the end of the day. You can kind of understand that you’re not going to win every game. But there’s the manner you lose games. And that’s the first time since I’ve been here that we’ve lost the game in that manner. And like I said, unacceptable.

“All of it it’s disappointing. Like I said, there are certain elements of this team that have been pretty consistent throughout my tenure, and that is one, even on our not-so-good days we’ve always fought and been competitive. I think that’s been a non-negotiable. Like I said, today’s the first day I actually felt like we didn’t deliver in those areas. Whether that’s defensively, whether that’s with the ball. Like I said, sport is as much about competition as it is about anything else. And if you don’t compete, you allow the opponent to overrun you in that manner, you’re not going to get anything out of it.”

So he’s not wrong, and frankly this is the kind of answer I was hoping we’d get from Ange about this match, because it both looked and felt like a capitulation. I’m pretty upset after watching that second half performance, and I’m not really looking for Ange to sugar-coat the match or how Spurs played. They were pretty awful in that second 45, individually and collectively, and there’s really no excusing it.

That said, Ange certainly isn’t without blame in this match, and I was also hoping he’d take some personal responsibility. Ange was asked about substitutions, and he gave a kind of infuriating answer.

“Yeah I could have [made earlier subs]. But... all these things... are totally irrelevant to me. Substitutions and all those kind of things. If you’re not competitive, it doesn’t matter what you do, you’re not going to get rewards, you don’t deserve to win. We didn’t deserve on our second-half performance, irrespective of subs or anything else, to get something out of the game. But I think if you do get something out of the game, you’re falsely rewarded and I don’t want to get falsely rewarded.

...

“Look, it’s not a couple of positive results. It was five wins, let’s just keep things in context here. I understand the extremes of what we do. What I’m saying is that we didn’t do the basics of everything we’ve done to get to this point, good, bad or otherwise. Even when we didn’t win at Newcastle, we played well and fought hard to the last second to win that game of football. We didn’t do that today and every time we’ve played that’s been an element of our game but I didn’t see that today. Why has that happened? The reasons, we can go into a million different aspects and in the cold light of day there may be some logic to it and it may be what you’re saying. Again for me that’s irrelevant. It’s for me to address and fix and the responsibility falls at my feet and that’s what I need to do.”

OK, I understand the impulse here — the manager doesn’t play the games and the performance ultimately falls on the shoulders of the players on the pitch. That said, it feels a little hard to accept the (absolutely correct) premise that Spurs lost because they sleepwalked through the second half when Postecoglou had and bypassed the opportunity to substitute those players with ones that might have changed the game. At this point in the season, Tottenham need points in the table regardless of whether they’re “falsely rewarded” for eking out a result or not. If you win by playing poorly, then address that in training. At worse you’re “falsely rewarded” with one or three points, which is better than zero.

Not making substitutions and hoping your players magic their way out of a bad performance doesn’t really feel like an answer to me, it’s deflection. Postecoglou is the manager of this football team and he has agency. I know he’s not unaware of that fact, but it’s on him to use the tools at his disposal — including subs — to fix those issues. Ange not making timely wins is not the reason why Spurs lost, but it’s at least partially the reason why they did not get a (undeserved) result.

It’s never fun to do player ratings after a Tottenham Hotspur loss, especially after one where you blow a 2-0 halftime lead. That’s exactly what Spurs did today against Brighton at the American Express Stadium. Spurs shipped three goals in the second half and looked easily second best in a 3-2 loss at the AmEx, snapping a five match winning streak and halting any momentum Spurs might have had heading into the international break.

This one was no fun. It’s time to rate the players.

Rate the players from 1⁄2 to 5 stars. If the player doesn’t deserve a rating due to minutes played, DO NOT RANK. I will round the stars up/down to the nearest half-star for the player ratings later this week.

It was an ugly, rainy afternoon on the south coast of England as Tottenham Hotspur took on a Brighton side that was winless in its first five Premier League matches. But despite taking a 2-0 lead into halftime, Tottenham couldn’t maintain the intensity and defensive solidity they showed in the opening 45 minutes. Spurs shipped three goals in the second half — to Yankuba Minteh, Georginio Rutter, and a late winner to former Gunner Danny Welbeck and limped to a disappointing 3-2 loss at the AmEx Stadium.

The match started out brightly for Tottenham, with Spurs getting a huge chance inside the first minute. Timo Werner and Brennan Johnson got space behind Brighton’s back line, and Timo put in a cross to an open BJ that was just a foot too far ahead for Johnson to convert. Tottenham had plenty of those opportunities in the opening 45, with Werner giving Veltman a torrid time on the left flank.

Brighton was forced into an early substitution after Webster pulled his hamstring on a goal kick and had to come off for Igor.

Spurs broke through in the 24th minute behind, you guessed it, Brennan Johnson. The high press forced a turnover inside Brighton’s half, James Maddison was able to pick out Solanke, who put a lovely through ball into the path of Johnson, who one-touched it home Great goal!

Spurs doubled their advantage late in the half thanks to James Maddison. Solanke again was the playmaker in this one, this time adding the hockey assist to Timo Werner, who played Madders in centrally. The shot should’ve been saved by Verbruggen who botched a routine stop, but it still counts and Spurs led 2-0.

Brighton had a few chances in the first half, mostly thanks to Kaoru Mitoma, who was excellent on the day. Their best was a square ball to an open Danny Welbeck who somehow shanked an easy shot wide of the post.

Brighton got back into the match early in the second half when Yankuba Minteh capitalized on two whiffed defensive clearances from Micky van de Ven and Destiny Udogie, tapping in a cross at the back post to make the match 1-2.

The discomfort didn’t stop for Spurs. Mitoma picked out Georgino Rutter on a counterattack in the 58th minute, who took a hit in the box but stayed upright and put a shot past Vicario to level the score at 2-2. And it got worse — Brighton completed the comeback thanks to Welbeck, who made up for his early miss by heading home Brighton’s third goal in the 66th minute.

Postecoglou made a few late subs, bringing in Pape Sarr and Yves Bissouma in the 78th minute and Mikey Moore at 85’, but despite snatching at a couple of late shots there wasn’t enough time to get an equalizer, much less a winner. The match ended a disappointing 3-2 to Brighton.

Match reactions: