Tottenham Hotspur‘s relegation woes deepened as they twice threw away the lead to draw 2-2 at home to Brighton on Saturday.
In a nervous North London encounter, Pedro Porro opened the scoring on 39 minutes, making a run behind the Brighton defence and getting his head to the ball ahead of Bart Verbruggen, after being found by an excellent Xavi Simons pass.
The lead didn’t last long, with Kaoru Mitoma dispatching a wonderful volley at the far post deep into first-half stoppage time. However, after a tense second half of close calls at both ends, Simons put Tottenham back ahead with a stunning strike off the post in the 77th minute.
That looked like being a huge moment in Tottenham’s season, but they were stung right at the end when Georginio Rutter blasted home in the 95th minute after Kevin Danso was dispossessed in his own box.
De Zerbi inspires endeavour and aggression, but Spurs stung again
De Zerbi’s first home game in charge of Spurs was always going to provide an important indicator as to what style of play he would employ and what response he’d get from the players, as they seek a path out of relegation trouble.
Spurs fans should have been walking away delighted on the evidence of Saturday’s performance, right until the end.
Both Tottenham goals came as a result of relentless, targeted pressing in the Brighton third, with Conor Gallagher winning the ball back for the first, and his replacement, Lucas Bergvall, doing so on the second with his first touch of the match.
That was the theme throughout, with Tottenham hunting in packs in the final third and running relentlessly, while they needed no second invitation to drive forward on the break, with full-backs Porro and Destiny Udogie providing great thrust — especially in the first half.
But for all the effort and endeavour from Tottenham, the clear cracks in this team showed themselves again.
It was a moment of passive defending that allowed Pascal Groß to pick out Mitoma for the equaliser, while Danso will be up tonight, wondering why he didn’t just clear his lines as he was pickpocketed by Jan Paul van Hecke on the second equaliser.
There were a few more scares through, too — not least Micky van de Ven twice coming close to scoring an own goal within seconds as he tried to clear the ball off his own line. Hearts were in mouths when Ferdi Kadioglu hit the side-netting in second-half stoppage time, as well.
There were so many positives to take from Saturday’s performance, but the reality is that Tottenham remain in the bottom three with just five games to go. Can De Zerbi close the back door to make these promising performances worth something? That is the question as Spurs fight for their Premier League lives.
Xavi Simons finally arrives
There’s no doubting who the star of the show was here: Xavi Simons.
The Netherlands international arrived at Spurs to much fanfare last summer, but has flattered to deceive for large portions of this campaign. However, Roberto De Zerbi restored him to the starting line-up here, and was repaid for his faith tenfold.
Simons came up with two obvious and crucial moments of immense quality to decide this match, delivering an inch-perfect assist to Porro in the first half and slamming a piledriver into the back of the net in the second.
But they were just two snapshots of a lively performance from Simons, that also yielded four dribble attempts (two successful), four shots, and a heatmap that showed him popping up all over the pitch to cause trouble.
It wasn’t a perfect performance from Simons. In fact, there were a few occasions where he was guilty of trying to do too much. But it was that willingness to take risks that ultimately yielded what should have been a monumental goal for Spurs.
Tottenham Hotspur’s remaining Premier League fixtures:
- 25/04/26: Wolves (A)
- 03/05/26: Aston Villa (A)
- 11/05/26: Leeds (H)
- 17/05/26: Chelsea (A)
- 24/05/26: Everton (H)