Mason moves make the difference for lucky Tottenham against Brighton

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good, on Saturday Tottenham produced some of their own luck with second-half changes to beat Brighton 2-1 and stay in the top-four race.

It was an ugly afternoon for Tottenham Hotspur, as it is for most Premier League teams facing a strong, possession-oriented Brighton & Hove Albion team. Despite holding less than 36% possession, Spurs got a little luck and then created some of their own to win a critical three points against a Gulls team who are hot on Tottenham’s tale.

Tottenham saw a little Son from last season as South Korean hits a major milestone

When the opposition holds more than 60% possession, goals will almost always be against the run of play, as was the case for Spurs Saturday. And even though Tottenham was thoroughly outplayed in the first half, Spurs spent much of the 45 minutes nursing a lead, thanks to a magic moment we have not seen enough of this season.

Tottenham had a little possession and was coming in for a second attack on the left side with Ivan Perisic. As a second defender came over to the Croatian, he slipped the ball back inside to Heung-min Son near the corner of the penalty area.

Although more than 20 yards out, there was only one thing on Sonny’s mind as the defense was slow to step up and close. With a couple of touches to get the ball out of his feet and in front of him, Son bent the kind of curler commonplace last season when he won the Golden Boot but have been few and far between this campaign.

More significantly, for Son as an individual, it was his 100th goal in the Premier League, making him the first player from Asia to reach that milestone.

The moment reminded everyone what the Korean could do with just a little time and space around the box if facing the goal. Seeing Sonny get hot down the stretch would help with Spurs’ top-four push, but he never really saw the ball in a similar position again the rest of the match, as Spurs sat back and defended again.

Goals from Brighton were inevitable, given the circumstances

Tottenham is far from the perfect team, and we all know despite being prone to get opened up when they are on the front foot, Spurs are not good enough to defend for 90 minutes at this point. That said, after the goal, Tottenham spent most of the remaining 80 minutes defending their goal, with 37% of the match spent in Spur’s defensive third.

Before the first half was over, Spurs’ zonal marking on set pieces once again bit them, as the most dangerous aerial threat on Brighton’s team – Lewis Dunk – was completely unmarked at the back post on a corner for an easy header to level the score at 1-1.

Brighton got 17 shots off and put the ball in the back of the net three times; fortunately, only one of the three goals stood in the end after some intervention from VAR.

VAR on Spur’s side for once

Every team can point to games where VAR was seemingly against them, and if you are a Brighton fan, this game was probably one of them. Twice, VAR was involved in goals not standing for the Gulls, and on neither instance was Stewart Atwell – the referee – asked to look at the monitor.

On the first goal, VAR was likely in the right, as there was insufficient evidence to overturn the call on the field. The assistant referee had flagged Kaoru Mitoma for a handball while controlling the ball for the goal. Had the assistant referee not raised the flag, the goal likely would have stood as the video replays were poor, but instead, Spurs caught a break.

The second goal was probably even more controversial for Brighton fans, as a shot from distance had deflected off Alexis MacAllister’s hand/arm and beat Hugo Lloris. MacAllister was turning his body away and had his hand down by his side, but the ball clearly struck his arm, which created the goal, so by the letter of the law, Spurs held on.

As if two goals being ruled out was not enough, there was a late second-half shout for a penalty as Pierre Hojbjerg – who looks completely spent – stepped on  Mitoma’s foot in the box, but no penalty was given.

With VAR seemingly behind them, it took an unlucky break to lead to what may have been some good fortune for Spurs.

Mason makes luck for Tottenham with progressive changes

Tottenham was not always lucky regarding the refereeing on Saturday, with interim manager Cristian Stellini particularly unlucky in the process. After some hectic play on the field that included what looked like Dunk going down tissue soft in the box to draw a foul, there was a ruckus on the sidelines.

From what NBCSports had to say and what the cameras could show, Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi had started some things, and then it spilled over with several assistants from both teams getting into each other’s faces for a lot of talking, spit and tough looks. As the commotion settled, Atwell came over and showed a red card to both De Zerbi and Stellini.

Stellini, in particular, was unlucky as he had stood there watching the foolishness, asking for calm.

Ultimately, his red was for a failure to control his staff, which was likely true, and it may have saved Spurs’ season as Ryan Mason took charge and changed the substitution pattern for the positive.

Good things happen on the attacking end when attacking players are introduced

We can return to last season and Steven Bergwijn saving Spurs against Leicester. That only happened because Antonio Conte was desperate, and Tottenham needed goals. Conte’s preference, and what we have likewise seen from Stellini, is to substitute in the back and work to ‘secure’ the points rather than win them.

On Saturday against Brighton, after Stellini was down the tunnel, Mason zigged at the point our Italian leadership would have zagged.

Bringing on Pape Matar Sarr for Skipp was nothing new, but introducing Arnaut Danjuma was

Danjuma for Dejan Kulusevski – who ran himself to death – was not necessarily a big move tactically, as it was more or less a like-for-like. Rather, bringing on an attacker, instead of Davinson Sanchez or some other defender, sent a message to the team that they could win the game, which they did only a minute later.

Danjuma’s contribution to the goal was simple enough; he ran hard at Brighton to keeper Jason Steele, making him play the ball out of the back sooner than he or the rest of his team wanted. Spurs intercepted the ball two passes later, and Hojbjerg somehow popped up down the right wing.

Kane’s strike from Hojbjerg’s cutback cross gave Tottenham the goal they desperately needed and secured three crucial points as Spurs continue to chase Newcastle and Manchester United for a spot in the top four.

Three points back with eight games to go is not a great place to be, but it is better than five points back, especially considering both Uniteds have a game in hand on Spurs. Not all wins are pretty, and sometimes you need to get lucky Spurs got a bit both against Brighton and remain in the top-four chase, thanks to Mason rolling the dice.