Brighton fight back from two goals down to beat Tottenham in Amex thriller

Brighton scored three times in 18 second-half minutes to fight back from two goals down to stun Tottenham and claim a 3-2 win after an entertaining encounter at Amex Stadium.

Spurs were on course for a sixth consecutive victory in all competitions when Brennan Johnson and James Maddison struck before half-time to put Ange Postecoglou’s men in control.

That made it six goals in six matches for Johnson, but Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler introduced Pervis Estupinan at the break and the Seagulls were transformed with Yankuba Minteh able to reduce the deficit in the 48th minute.

The impressive Georginio Rutter levelled 10 minutes later with a fine finish before ex-Arsenal forward Danny Welbeck completed the comeback when he headed home what proved the winner after 66 minutes.

Victory for Brighton earned them another scalp after they beat Manchester United in August and took points off Arsenal, but Spurs were brought back down to earth after a decent run to show there is plenty of work left to do for Postecoglou.

This match had been titled the ‘high-line derby’ due to the bold approach adopted by both managers with their defensive lines and it took barely 20 seconds for the risk element to be exposed by Tottenham.

Dominic Solanke sent Timo Werner away, but his cross evaded the unmarked Johnson.

Chances kept on coming for Spurs with a back-pedalling Lewis Dunk able to deny Dejan Kulusevski before Maddison had a shot deflected wide by Adam Webster, who was forced off soon after through injury.

Spurs thought they had scored with 21 minutes played when the watch of referee David Coote signalled the ball had crossed the line from a Werner header.

However, Pedro Porro, who provided the cross, was adjudged to be offside thanks to the Brighton high line.

That same defence did get breached two minutes later and it was a familiar scorer for Tottenham.

After Rutter was tackled near the halfway line, Maddison passed into Solanke, who smartly slipped in Johnson and he stroked into the bottom corner with his left foot to score for a sixth consecutive match.

Brighton did regroup and Guglielmo Vicario punched away a dangerous cross by Kaoru Mitoma before the Japanese winger almost created the leveller for Welbeck, but he side-footed wide from close range.

It was a gilt-edged miss and Tottenham punished the hosts’ profligacy with eight minutes of the first half left.

Solanke was again involved as he turned and played in Werner, who this time cut back for Maddison and his low effort went through the hands of Bart Verbruggen to put the visitors’ 2-0 up.

There was still time for Welbeck to head another chance wide before Johnson fired over at the conclusion of an end-to-end half.

Hurzeler had seen enough and introduced Estupinan at half-time, which had an instant impact.

Estupinan combined with Mitoma and his cross from the left was horribly miscued by Destiny Udogie, which allowed Minteh to drill home from seven yards in the 48th minute.

Brighton were in the ascendancy and after Vicario tipped over Joel Veltman’s cross, he got down low to deny Mitoma.

Spurs briefly threatened after with Solanke unable to get on the end of Kulusevski’s centre, but one-way traffic resumed and the equaliser arrived after 58 minutes.

Mitoma cut inside and played into Rutter, who got the better of Micky van de Ven and rifled into the bottom corner for his second goal since a summer switch from Leeds.

Eight minutes later and the comeback was complete with Rutter again central to it.

Rutter was able to turn away from Udogie too easily and then beat Rodrigo Bentancur to the ball to cross in for Welbeck to head in unmarked from a matter of yards.

Postecoglou responded with a flurry of substitutes and while Werner blazed over and Udogie had a low effort saved by Verbruggen, they never looked like equalising.