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Premier League: Tottenham vs. Brighton – Tottenham Hotspur, seeking their fifth straight Premier League home win, will host Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday afternoon in North London.
The Seagulls defeated M23 derby rivals Crystal Palace 4-1 last Saturday, while the Lilywhites blew two one-goal leads in a thrilling 2-2 draw with Everton.
After scoring twice against his old haunt last weekend, Richarlison, a Tottenham forward and former Everton player, cut a particularly sombre figure.
However, his Lilywhites colleagues’ looks were as dejected after full- time on Merseyside.
The Brazil international defeated Jordan Pickford with two outstanding finishes after an unconventional Jack Harrison equaliser in the first half. Four minutes into injury time, Jarrad Branthwaite’s close-range, game-winning goal against Tottenham came from another set piece.
Guglielmo Vicario, who Everton was repeatedly attempting to corner, believed that Harrison was illegally impeding him.
As a result, Ange Postecoglou questioned the officials’ “reluctance” to call fouls on goalkeepers during his post-game press conference. This controversy surrounded the Toffees’ first goal.
After Aston Villa destroyed Sheffield United 5-0 later in the day, Tottenham dropped to fifth place in the Premier League table—albeit only two points behind the Lions, whom they will pass with a victory before Unai Emery’s team plays Manchester United on Sunday.
A similar incident befell the North London crop in their FA Cup loss to Manchester City.
The Lilywhites supporters will not be pleased to learn that they have only won one of their last four games while giving up seven goals.
Moreover, they haven’t maintained a Premier League clean sheet at home since October. Nevertheless, their last four top-flight matches at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have all resulted in victories.
Tottenham would also tie the second-longest streak in the history of the league if they scored in their 36th straight Premier League game.
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However, Brighton did not require any offensive lessons when they hosted the Lilywhites in December or when their bitter rivals Crystal Palace visited them the previous weekend.
The Eagles had no fun at the Amex Stadium without Eberechi Eze or Michael Olise, save for a short nine-minute appearance before injury struck again.
Lewis Dunk, Jack Hinshelwood, Facundo Buonanotte, and Joao Pedro all made the net bulge in a fun derby day for the men in blue and white.
Despite their well-documented unreliability, Brighton responded well to their terrifying 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Luton Town.
Currently ranked eighth in the league, they are just one point behind West Ham United in the seventh and last continental spot.
Though they have alternated between scoring at least four goals in one game and drawing a blank in the next over their past seven fixtures, Roberto De Zerbi’s team’s thrashing of Palace continued an odd goalscoring run.
This bodes poorly for the more superstitious Seagulls supporters travelling to the capital this weekend.
The visitors’ confidence is further damaged by their losing streak of five away top-flight games and their inability to score in their last two.
Although they defeated Spurs four times on the South Coast in December, they have never defeated the Lilywhites in back-to-back league games.
Tottenham Hotspur Premier League form:
W L W D W D
Tottenham Hotspur form (all competitions):
W W D L W D
Brighton & Hove Albion Premier League form:
D W D D L W
Brighton & Hove Albion form (all competitions):
D W D W L W
Tottenham should be encouraged by the return of captain Son Heung-min and former Brighton player Yves Bissouma for the visit of Brighton, as South Korea and Mali have been eliminated from the Asian Cup and Africa Cup of Nations, respectively.
However, Bissouma will require a once-over after astonishingly overcoming malaria during the continental tournament.
Giovani Lo Celso’s thigh issue may resolve in time for the Argentine to play as well, but Ryan Sessegnon is anticipated to miss the game due to a similar issue, and Manor Solomon is still under the care of the medical staff after experiencing a setback in his recovery from knee surgery.
Despite some encouraging performances from the RB Leipzig loanee in recent weeks, Son’s return will put Timo Werner’s spot in the starting lineup in jeopardy.
Dejan Kulusevski, on the other hand, should be called back to the starting lineup in favour of Brennan Johnson, who played for just over an hour at Goodison Park.
This weekend, Brighton should welcome back to domestic action Japan’s Kaoru Mitoma, an explosive attacker who made a comeback from an ankle injury to play in his team’s final two Asian Cup matches.
But fellow winger Simon Adingra is getting ready to play for Ivory Coast against Nigeria in the AFCON final, and James Milner (thigh) and knee victims Julio Enciso, Solly March, and Joel Veltman are still out of the running.
In-loan Ansu Fati, an attacker for Barcelona, returned from a calf injury late in the crushing of Palace, but it would be surprising to see De Zerbi make any changes to a winning team, unless there’s a chance to move Danny Welbeck up front from Evan Ferguson.
Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup:
Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Sarr, Hojbjerg; Kulusevski, Maddison, Son; Richarlison
Brighton & Hove Albion possible starting lineup:
Verbruggen; Van Hecke, Igor, Dunk; Hinshelwood, Gross, Gilmour, Lamptey; Buonanotte, Pedro; Ferguson
Our prediction for this match 3-1 or 2-0 won by Tottenham
