‘Best performance of season’ – Spurs showing fighting mentality

Tottenham fans must have been concerned that a term used to describe their inconsistency would make its debut of the season on Saturday at Brighton.

After a strong start to the campaign, the Seagulls, who were 2-0 up after 30 minutes, did have the impression that they were very “Spursy,” because they were playing at the same ground less than a year earlier, going from 2-0 up to lose 3-2.

However, it was a feeling that didn’t last too long in the eyes of the Tottenham supporters, thankfully.

Richarlison and Jan Paul van Hecke’s goals earned a point for Thomas Frank’s side in a comeback. They also had plenty of chances to take more money than that.

Amazingly, this was the first time in three years that Tottenham could have avoided defeat in a league game when they were leading by two or more goals, which suggests a change in their mindset under Frank.

The Spurs manager told BBC Match of the Day, “I believe this is our best performance of the season.”

“I actually believe that if there had been a winner, it would have been us,” he said.

After Tottenham rallied to defeat Villarreal 1-0 in their second game of the season to claim their fourth victory in their first five games, Lucas Bergvall praised their “clean-sheet mentality.”

The Spurs players displayed a different mindset when Brighton quickly wiped out the clean sheet opportunity on Saturday.

Despite having a statistically poor ability to recover from two-goal deficits, they never gave up and appeared to believe they could get something from the game.

I was so impressed by the way we presented our ideas, Frank continued.

We demonstrated the mentality to stay in the game, to advance, to push, and to win a deserved 2-2.

Tottenham’s midfielder Joao Palhinha said, “We can at least take the mentality that we had fighting for the result.”

He continued, “This mentality needs to exist always, regardless of the outcome.”

Tottenham received 45 touches of the ball inside the opposition box versus Brighton, compared to Brighton’s only 17.

Only three of their 11 shots on goal were on target, which is unusual.

Making the opposition goalkeeper work appears to be a skill Tottenham have, for the time being, regressed in despite their recent defensive and mental improvements.

This team needs to improve a lot, Palhinha continued.