Johnson the Tottenham hero in dramatic win over Brighton

Postecoglou’s substitutions pay off in another thrilling Spurs game as returning hero Son sets up team-mate to score in 96th minute

No wonder they love Ange Postecoglou at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Every match, every incident, every intervention, it seems, comes freighted in drama. In the 96th minute of this pulsating game, Spurs substitute Son Heung-min sprayed a magnificent ball across the face of the Brighton goal. And there was another replacement, Brennan Johnson, arriving gleefully to thump home the winner. Cue bedlam in the stadium, as Tottenham seized the points at the last that took them back into the top four.
“All my teams historically have always done that,” said Postecoglou of the breathless conclusion. “The way we approach it is that the clock and scoreboard shouldn’t dictate how you play, you should always be looking for goals. No instructions from me, this is what we do anyway.”
What a terrific game this was. A non-stop blur of action, effort and skill. Plus an awful lot of mistakes. It was played at a pace which was at times ridiculous, the ball spinning from one team to the other with barely time to draw breath. It was probably as well for his blood pressure that Brighton’s excitable manager Roberto de Zerbi was absent from the fray, recovering from dental surgery. Though for him root canal work would have been preferable to this most painful of defeats, the points snatched from his team’s grasp at the death. You imagine had he been here, his response would have been noteworthy.
He would not have been allowed to make his considerable presence felt regardless: he was serving another touchline ban. But his team played as he would have wished, with real ambition and effort. Though sadly for them, no reward.
“We lose the game, but not the quality of the match,” said his second-in-command Andrea Maldera. “We know we lose, but we are proud about the players.”
And so they should be. Brighton did everything right here. Except for one thing: holding on to the final whistle.
Both sides had been strengthened by first choice players returning from the Asian and African Cups. But while Kaoru Mitoma returned from international duty straight into the Brighton starting XI, Postecoglou preferred to keep Son on the bench.
And it was Brighton who quickly made the first incursion. Pressing relentlessly, they won the ball off James Maddison inside the Spurs half. It was played forward to Danny Welbeck, whose heels were rapped by Micky van de Ven. For once VAR did not take issue with the referee’s speedy decision, and Pascal Gross scored from the spot.
Spurs, though, as Postecoglou rightly insists, are not a team to lie back and contemplate defeat. They poured forward at pace. Maddison and Richarlison constantly created chances for each other. The problem was, largely thanks to the presence of Jason Steele in the Brighton goal, neither could take advantage. Though the manager, never one to verge towards complacency, was unhappy with some of their decision making.
“I was disappointed in the way we went about things in the first half,” he said. “The response, though, was positive.”
He was right there. From the start of the second half, Spurs poured forward. Lewis Dunk, redoubtable in the Brighton defence, made several magnificently timed interceptions. But one of them, blocking Pape Sarr’s cross to Richarlison, hit the post. The ball bounced out to Sarr, who slotted the equaliser. Before Brighton could restart, Postecoglou took the opportunity to bring on Son and the script appeared to be set. The fans roaring his return certainly thought so: their Korean hero would make the difference.
But Brighton refused to be cowed. De Zerbi’s stand-in made a positive substitution himself, bringing on the excellent Ansu Fati. And the visitors suddenly found themselves awash with chances. Mitoma, Fati and Tariq Lamptey all might have scored. Indeed Welbeck should have done, when he was put in by Mitoma, but he shot wide.
And then, just as things seemed to be locked in stalemate, up stepped Son. His pass to Johnson —  dispatched with the side of his foot from the left of the penalty area — was such an invitation to score, it can only be described as gilt-edged. Johnson, certainly, was not going to turn it down.
“That ball Sonny plays was world class,” said Postecoglou . “You don’t get that if you can’t put a player of his quality on the pitch.”
The fans left the stadium relishing their frontman’s return, chanting his name, electrified by what they had seen. That is what happens at Tottenham these days: entertainment.