‘Wake up call’ – Heung-min Son explains how Spurs will deal with latest defeat

In his post match press conference after the crushing 4-2 defeat against Brighton and Hove Albion tonight, Tottenham Hotspur captain Heung-min Son did not try to hide how disappointed he was with his team’s display.

Tottenham never looked like winning tonight, as Brighton implemented a fast-paced, high pressure approach to the game, putting Spurs on the back foot while restricting the Lilywhites in attacking areas.

The game could have been well beyond Spurs in the first half, were it not for Guglielmo Vicario‘s heroics in the first half, but goals from Jack Hinshelwood, and a Joao Pedro penalty gave the Seagulls a strong lead going into half-time.

Things went from bad to worse for Spurs in the second half, with a Pervis Estupinan wonder goal and another Joao Pedro penalty putting the game beyond doubt.

Unfortunately, late goals from Alejo Veliz and Ben Davies were not enough to spark a full comeback for Spurs, who miss out on the chance to break back into the top four.

Sonny is not happy after Brighton defeat

Speaking to the press (via BBC Sport) after the match, Heung-min Son insisted the improvement in the final stages of the game does not make up for the poor performance leading up to it.

He said: “It is a very disappointing performance. This is not how we’ve approached the season. This performance was nowhere near the level we want to play at.

“We know what our mistakes were but now is not the time to point fingers at each other because the games are coming fast.

“We have to talk about the first half and the early parts of the second half rather than the end. We know we have to play like that from minute one. We have to take the lesson again and move on.

“Every team is strong in the Premier League and if we’re not playing like the last 15 minutes in every game we’re going to struggle and this has to be a big wake-up call.

“Before they scored the goal we had good pressures and a couple of actions where we could have done better. Brighton were more clinical than us and then the penalties caused big problems for us.

“We have to be more focused on the penalty, it is a big detail. The first half was not our game and not us. We have to take a big, big session.”

Spurs Web Opinion

Strong words from Sonny, and absolutely correct. The players did not turn up tonight and have let us down. Injuries or no injuries, these players should be doing better, and it’s clear that some are not up to standard we need.