Tottenham Hotspur

Q1: You must be delighted with the character the team showed to come back from 2-0 down...

Thomas: "Yes, very happy with that. We spoke about mentality before the game with the players. To go down here against a good Brighton side, away from home, on the back of our first Champions League game, it's all about mentality. Of course, we need structure and tactics and game plan and all that... we like to praise ourselves as coaches, but at the end of the day, it's mentality to stay in there when it's tough. I love the way we started the game, away from home, boom, just on top of it. I don't think Brighton were over the halfway line in the first 10, 12 minutes or whatever it was. Then they scored a goal, praise to Brighton, we can do better, and it's like this close to being offside. We keep going, keep on it and then great goal, but Vic can do better. Very happy with him, spoke to him, so I think he's had a great season for us and it happens. We keep going, we stay in the game, stick to the game plan, and I thought we looked physically strong. I thought the players looked strong and were intense throughout the game, even though we had a midweek game, which I'm very happy with the physical preparation during pre-season and everything the team has done, with big help from the performance staff. So, the mentality, the physical aspect, I thought that was key. Last year we came here and were 2-0 up, lost 3-2. Now we’re 2-0 down and come back 2-2. I think it's good. If there should have been a winner, in my eyes, I'm maybe slightly biased, I think it should have been us. I think the amount of crosses, the amount of touches in the opponent's box, the amount of nearby and also chances, was more than enough to win the game."

What did you make of Destiny Udogie's performance?

Thomas: "Exceptional. He was exceptional today. He was unstoppable, almost, going forward. Also it was a bit unfortunate, it was Wilson who had to track him on the situation, because it was a little bit of a high-pressure situation, the Brighton wonder goal, but he just completely took him out going forward. Very good, top."

What about Xavi Simons' impact from the bench?

Thomas: "Xavi came in and did exactly what we thought he could do in that 10 position. Of course, he had a good pre-season and he played two games in Germany, but he's still coming into a team and all that. On any other day, he'd score a goal. He got a great finish on the first one, great save from Verbruggen, and the other one, he mistimes. He could have got an assist to Richy, where Lucas takes the ball, he doesn't see him."

Is 10 a more natural position for Xavi?

Thomas: "I think he can play both. I think he can easily play the left winger, that can go more inside. I also think he'd have the right position to... sometimes the playmakers, they drift to the side because there's no space in the middle. So I think he can do that. But 10, obviously he can play that as well."

The team's resilience was questioned at times last season, are you almost surprised with how quickly you've managed to get that resilience in the team?

Thomas: "I'm very, very pleased with it. I think there was also a situation in the first half, the way we sprinted back on our recovery runs, that's goosebumps. It's bread and butter, but you want to be a resilient team because we play against good teams and it will be difficult sometimes. It's a good group of players. They want to perform. They are disappointed after the game. Even when we come back, they wanted to win. I think maybe this was our most complete performance so far in the season. I know we conceded two goals, but I think actually there were so many positives overall in the game. Also the high pressure, the man-man, very aggressive. As you say, that resilience in the group, that mentality, is good."

What has most impressed you about Mu Kudus?

Thomas: "I think two things. One, his work ethic has been really good. It's big for me, how hard he works in the counter-press, high pressure, the defensive side of it. But his hold-up play, when it goes into him, it just sticks. You can't get it off him. He just keeps it, he doesn't lose a 50-50 ball. The third thing is his one-on-one ability is crazy. He's so strong, so explosive. He just dominated the right-hand side."

Is Vic kicking himself about Brighton's second goal? Or isn't it as easy as it looks?

Thomas: "It's never as simple as it looks. I think that's a big thing. I think it's a great strike, but he will be kicking himself. He wants to save that one."

At Brentford, part of your success was through coaching improvement out of individual players. Do you look at a lot of your team and think you can get 10, 20, 30% improvement out of some of the individual players?

Thomas: "Hopefully. We try to put a good structure in place. Offensively and defensively, clear principles. Keep reinforcing the right messages. For example, today we put so many crosses in. That's a big part of what we want to do. There could be a little bit more quality, we could also have a little bit more runs. So then we'll keep coaching them to run in the right gaps, for example. I think if Richy had run in the right gaps, he'd have scored two goals more today, for example. I believe any player can keep developing. That's a big part of what I believe in, and my coaching staff believe in as well."

Can you expand on why you think this was the most complete performance this season?

Thomas: "I know we conceded two goals, and it's never that black and white. So, one where Vic will say, 'I should take it'. The other, okay, we conceded a goal, that can happen. It's just Premier League, it's good. But besides that, I thought we defended well. Overall, I think the high pressure was very aggressive, and we were winning the ball back more or less all the time, which we like to do. I think in phase one, we got out every time, more or less. We controlled it up there. We created so many good opportunities, and had to counter-press and rest defending crosses. So there was a lot of the bits we like to do, so because of that, and then on top of that, the mentality to come back from 2-0 down is so important."

What can you achieve when you've got Dominic Solanke and Randal Kolo Muani available?

Thomas: "That's a good question, I don't know. Right now, I think it's about that consistency. We've played five Premier League games, I think we had four good performances, and one bad. So, can we stick with... I don't want that bad, I think it was a bad performance. So can we just get all bad performances out and consistently produce good performances? Then on a day where, whatever, there's a mistake and you need to come back, you still get a point. Or you maybe turn it around and win 2-1 or win 3-2."

What did you make of Wilson Odobert's first start?

Thomas: "Happy with it, I must admit. I thought he looked lively. Clearly, it looked like they were a little bit afraid of him. So, he got time to turn and run forward. I think he produced some crosses, some good opportunities. He was also involved in a goal, worked hard. So, a good first start."

Will Kolo Muani only miss one game?

Thomas: "Hopefully. It was a dead leg. He's actually been struggling with it for four or five days. It's just not settling as we hoped for. So, hopefully Wednesday (vs Doncaster, Carabao Cup)."

Have you been waiting for Destiny Udogie to get up to speed so he could start a game?

Thomas: "Yes, but I must admit, I've got three extremely good full-backs. I think Djed Spence has been fantastic for us. So, when another player is doing so well, then there's no reason to throw Destiny in too early. I'm pretty sure we will need all three throughout the season. That is crucial. We are playing, hopefully, around 60 games this season. That's a lot. I think Liverpool changed both their full-backs from midweek to today. So, it's a big thing. We want full-backs to come bombarding up and down, so we need everyone. I'm very happy with Destiny."

Do you enjoy games like that as a manager?

Thomas: "I think you always want to control if you can, but I liked how aggressive we were and there were some very good opportunities going forward. I liked that we looked very dangerous. That I liked a lot, I must admit."

Tyrese Hall came off the bench to score his first goals for loan side Notts County as they enjoyed a 4-0 win over Crawley Town in Saturday's League Two encounters.

On loan with County for the campaign, the midfielder made his sixth substitute appearance the Magpies as they welcomed Crawley to Meadow Lane - and he made the desired impact in his second-half cameo.

Brought on with 23 minutes remaining, Tyrese grabbed his first of the afternoon four minutes later, starting a slick counter attack before applying the finish at the end to double County's advantage.

Alassana Jatta soon added a third for Tyrese's side before the 20-year-old added his second his stoppage time, almost passing the ball into the far corner of the net with a composed finish from the edge of the area.

Watch Tyrese's first goal and celebration

George Abbott came off the bench to secure a much-needed win for loan side Wycombe Wanderers as they kicked-off a new era on Saturday afternoon.

On loan with the League One side for the campaign, George began on the bench as Michael Duff took charge of Wanderers for the first time following the departure of Mike Dodds last week with Northampton Town the visitors to Buckinghamshire.

And it turned out to be the perfect start for Duff as Daniel Harvie put them ahead with 17 minutes on the clock before he turned to George on 62 minutes.

Brought on with just under half-an-hour to play, the midfielder came up with the goods for his new manager as, just 10 minutes after entering the field, he produced an incredible goal.

Controlling a clipped ball into the box on his chest, the 20-year-old took the ball down, turned towards an onslaught of defenders, held them off, managed to squeeze past a few before firing the ball past the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner of the net.

Similar to Alfie Devine across the country in Derby, the conditions were perfect for a celebratory knee slide, and George duly obliged!

Watch George's goal and the celebratory scenes

Alfie Devine scored one of the goals of his young career so far, before delivering an all-timer of a knee slide on Saturday afternoon.

In action for loan side Preston North End, Alfie thumped home to score the winner for the Lancashire side in a 1-0 victory at Derby before celebrating in style.

The midfielder, who was making his seventh appearance for Preston as they travelled to Pride Park, picked up the ball on the edge of the 'D' with 29 minutes on the clock, took one touch before rifling the ball in the top left-hand corner of the net.

A stunning strike, he then matched it with the celebration, running into a knee slide on the perfectly conditioned turf to travel a good nine yards - one of football's most pleasing sights!

Watch Alfie's silky strike and knee slide

That was Alf's second goal of the campaign so far, having already struck against Leicester at Deepdale on Matchday Two. The result lifts his side up to eighth as they keep tabs on the Championship play-off places.

Luka Vuskovic bagged his first goal for loan side Hamburger SV on Saturday in a 2-1 win over Heidenheim.

On loan at the newly-promoted Bundesliga outfit for the 2025/26 campaign, 18-year-old Luka emphatically thumped home on the volley on 42 minutes to give his the lead.

Hamburg later doubled their advantage through Rayan Phillipe before Adam Kolle gave visitors Heidenheim late hope.

Holding out for the win, it marked Hamburg's first Bundesliga victory in seven years following their hiatus in 2.Bundesliga. For Luka, it was his second appearance for Die Rothosen.

The defender reported after the game 'I think I broke two fingers' after he missed an earlier chance in the game and let his disappointment be known to the woodwork.

Thomas Frank gave us the reasons for Ben Davies and Randal Kolo Muani’s absence at Brighton - and reports that both could be back in contention for our Carabao Cup third round tie against Doncaster Rovers at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday evening (7.45pm UK).

Both players failed to make the matchday squad as we came from 2-0 down at the Amex to secure a 2-2 draw thanks to Richarlison’s close-range strike and a late own goal from Jan Paul van Hecke.

Speaking on our Review Show afterwards, Thomas told us: “Kolo Muani got a dead leg unfortunately - that kept him out of this game. He was actually struggling with it last week. Hopefully he will be available for Wednesday (Doncaster in the Carabao Cup). Ben got a slight twist to the knee. It shouldn't be anything serious. Hopefully, he will be also available for Wednesday.”

Speaking on our Review Show, Thomas reflected: “I think the headline from me is ‘mentality’. I said it to the players beforehand, a game like this is pure mentality. Of course, we need all the tactics, structure, details, all that, but to really want to achieve something, you need to be so strong here.

“When you go away after a Champions League game, that demands everything from you - and then we decided to really test ourselves by getting down 2-0! The way we started the game - wow. Coming away from home against Brighton, a good team, we were just completely dominating them, then out of nowhere, ‘boom’, they score a goal where we can also do better, but it's also a marginal offside.

“I actually think we keep going and a little bit out of nowhere again they score the second, of course, Vic needs to do better, but he’s been so good for us, it can happen, we know that. The way we kept going and controlled the game more or less from the start to the end, getting the two goals, that I think is very impressive. So, the mentality and the physicality of this team looks strong, intense. I thought that was us today.”

On hearing the stat on 44-17 touches in the opposition box, Thomas added: “That's a fantastic stat, and I don't even know but the crossing stats (must be) the same, so you just see we were up there, and sometimes in a game like this, you score four goals, because the cross is just a little bit better, we just run a little bit more clever or a little bit more determined, whatever it is.

“Today, we didn't get the benefit of it, but I'm a big believer if you're consistent in your messages, you keep doing the right thing, some games will just be fantastic I think, overall, it’s maybe the best so far.”

An excellent fightback saw us come from two goals down to pick up a battling point on the south coast on Saturday afternoon.

Despite a good showing in the first period at Brighton’s Amex Stadium, we found ourselves trailing 2-0 just before half-time after Yankuba Minteh raced clear to open the scoring early on and Yasin Ayari’s screamer doubled the Seagulls’ advantage.

But we gave ourselves a lifeline in the 43rd minute when Richarlison finished from close range for his third goal of the campaign and finally levelled it up after a dominant second period, Jan Paul Van Hecke putting through his own net with eight minutes left. The result maintains our solid start to the new campaign, just the one defeat in our opening five Premier League matches and only three goals conceded.

Thomas Frank made three changes to the team that started against Villarreal in midweek with Joao Palhinha, Wilson Odobert and Destiny Udogie recalled – the latter two making their first starts of the season. The opening few minutes were played almost entirely in the Brighton half and we had a couple of half-chances which were denied by some good defending from the hosts. Instead, Brighton hit us with a quick break in the eighth minute, Minteh set free by Georginio Rutter and he streaked clear of our defence, rounded Guglielmo Vicario and slotted into an empty net.

We were continuing to play some good football to get into the final third without testing Bart Verbruggen although Richarlison went close when firing into the side netting on 24 minutes. Vicario then kept out an Ayari drive and Bajan Gruda hit one over from distance before Odobert skewed a half-volley wide at the other end as the game started to open up and just after the half-hour mark, Brighton doubled their lead. Lucas Bergvall’s clearance fell to Ayari and his fierce 25-yard shot flew past Vicario.

But we were back in the contest two minutes before the break. Palhinha won the ball in midfield and we were on the attack, Rodrigo Bentancur and Odobert combining for Mohammed Kudus, whose shot fell at the feet of Richarlison and he swept home from close range to leave us just one behind at the interval.

Similar to the first half, we were quick out of the blocks at the start of the second period too, enjoying plenty of possession in the opposition half with the final ball just letting us down. At the other end, Lewis Dunk tried to score with an audacious quick free-kick from inside his own half but it sailed over Vicario’s crossbar. We made our first change on 61 minutes when Xavi Simons replaced Bentancur and the Dutch international forward was quickly in the action, hitting a 20-yard drive just wide before forcing Verbruggen into a fine save stretching to his left. Unfortunately, he then scuffed a great chance wide after great work down the right from Kudus.

The pattern of the game was set, us on the front foot and pushing Brighton back while the home side tried to hit us on the break whenever they could. It wasn’t that often though as we were dominating the game and Richarlison had another sight of goal with nine minutes left but shot tamely at Verbruggen. The deserved equaliser finally came moments later, Kudus delivering a teasing cross which was missed by Dunk, it may have come off Palhinha but it definitely hit van Hecke, wrong-footing Verbruggen and nestling in the back of the net. The closing stages saw penalty appeals waved away after Simons went down in the area while, for Brighton, Ayari went for the spectacular 10 yards out when Danny Welbeck was better placed. In stoppage time, Kudus cut inside and hit a left-foot drive which flicked off Dunk and flew just over the bar, the final chance of an enthralling contest.

Our Under-18s suffered a late collapse after the dismissal of Samal Bangura to crash to a 4-2 defeat at Southampton on Saturday lunchtime.

Under pressure in the early going at Staplewood, we recovered from conceding after just 60 seconds to lead 2-1, Reiss Elliott-Parris scoring from the penalty spot before Armend Muslika bagged his fifth goal in five league games in the second period.

But a straight red card shown to substitute Bangura for appearing to lash out at an opponent in the 73rd minute left us with a battle on our hands and we were ultimately punished, conceding three times in the last five minutes as the hosts galloped to victory.

We made life difficult for ourselves from the off, the Saints needing just a minute to take the lead. A cross was knocked back across goal by Broghan Sewell, Cameron Thomas blocked it on the line but Jake Vallance was on hand to prod home the loose ball from close range.

Elijah Upson blocked well from Hansel Sdjei-Afriyie as Southampton continued to threaten but after finding himself largely frustrated in the attacking areas, Elliott-Parris got us back on level terms from the spot 10 minutes before the break after Thierry Rohart-Brown was penalised for a high boot on Leon Myrtaj in the box.

Muslika’s left angled shot glanced off the crossbar in the opening stages of the second half, but he wasn’t to be denied on 63 minutes as he latched onto the ball just outside the box and unleashed a fierce strike which took a big deflection off defender Vallance and sailed into the net, continuing the attacker’s impressive start to the season.

Max Little fired just beyond the far post as Southampton went close to a leveller, but a key moment arrived 18 minutes from time when Bangura – on at the break for his return to action after a short injury lay-off – seemingly struck out at an opponent and was promptly shown a straight red card.

With 10 men, we tried to defend in numbers, Ezra Agyekum making a fantastic goal-saving block from Korban McMullan, but you sensed the hosts were in with a chance and they duly equalised on 85 minutes when Fabio Sainsbury’s angled shot went in off the far post.

Just a minute later, the game was turned on its head as Harry Gathercole drilled low inside the near post and after we changed shape in an attempt to conjure up a late leveller, we were undone again on 89 minutes when Gathercole latched onto a cross-field ball and lashed high into the net, capping off a miserable ending to the game from our perspective.

‘Lessons to be learned’

Interim Under-18s Coach Joe Staunton underlined how the sending-off altered the outcome on the south coast, telling us: “We got ourselves into a favourable position where we were 2-1 up, finding a bit of rhythm and control and producing a couple of half-chances with good moments, but then an individual moment has ultimately cost us the result and made it difficult to find a way to hold onto the lead.

“It was a really slow start to the game – conceding a goal right in the early stages gives you an uphill battle but we found a way to get ourselves back into it and started to improve as the match went along, then obviously it was disappointing to go down to 10 men and we didn’t quite find a way to endure the suffering that was coming and conceded three goals towards the latter stages, so Southampton were deserving winners in the end.”

Asked what the players can learn from a tough outing like this, Joe added: “Every opportunity to play is an opportunity to learn whether you win, lose or draw, but quite often you can learn more from losing. We’re not hiding behind the fact that we’re disappointed because obviously we are, but with the sending-off there’s a lesson to be learned in terms of how you can react to the contact within the game and certainly a lesson to be learned on how to play when you’re underloaded and effectively try to run out the game with 10 men.”

We can confirm the starting line-ups and substitutes for our Premier League with Brighton (kick-off 3pm UK).

Thomas Frank has made three changes to his side following our midweek win over Villarreal in the Champions League.

There's a changes at full-back with Destiny Udogie coming in for his first start of the season. He replaces Djed Spence, who begins on the bench.

There's one change in midfield as Joao Palhinha returns to the starting XI with Pape Matar Sarr amongst our substitutes.

Finally, there is a switch in our forward line with Wilson Odobert also getting his first start of the campaign as Xaxi Simons is an option from the bench.

Our full line-up is as follows...

Starting XI: Vicario, Palhinha, Richarlison, Udogie, Bergvall, Romero (c), Kudus, Pedro Porro, Odobert, Bentancur, van de Ven.

Substitutes: Kinsky, Danso, Xavi, Tel, Gray, Johnson, Spence, Sarr, Scarlett.