Brighton 2-2 Spurs | Thomas Frank’s verdict | OneFootball

Thomas Frank felt it was our best performance of the season so far as we came back from 2-0 to draw 2-2 at Brighton in the Premier League at the Amex on Saturday.

Possession stats of 64 in our favour, 44 touches in the penalty box to Brighton’s 17 and 10-2 on corners give an indication of our dominance, although a key stat - efforts at goal - was edged by Brighton, 12-11.

We started impressively but the home side caught us on the break on eight minutes as Yankuba Minteh raced from half-way, skipped around Guglielmo Vicario and slotted home. It was 2-0 on the half-hour as Yasin Ayari pinged one from 25 yards. Our dominance continued and Richarlison pulled a goal back just before the break.

After knocking at the door – Bart Verbruggen brilliantly turning away Xavi Simons’ low curler – we finally levelled on 82 minutes when Mo Kudus’ cross just evaded Lewis Dunk, slightly glanced on by Joao Palhinha and cannoned home off Jan Paul van Hecke. There was still time for Kudus to fire into the side-netting, while Brighton had chances on the counter without seriously testing Vicario again.

Speaking on our Review Show, Thomas reflected: “I think the headline from me is ‘mentality’. I said it to the players beforehand, a game like this is pure mentality. Of course, we need all the tactics, structure, details, all that, but to really want to achieve something, you need to be so strong here.

“When you go away after a Champions League game, that demands everything from you - and then we decided to really test ourselves by getting down 2-0! The way we started the game - wow. Coming away from home against Brighton, a good team, we were just completely dominating them, then out of nowhere, ‘boom’, they score a goal where we can also do better, but it's also a marginal offside.

“I actually think we keep going and a little bit out of nowhere again they score the second, of course, Vic needs to do better, but he’s been so good for us, it can happen, we know that. The way we kept going and controlled the game more or less from the start to the end, getting the two goals, that I think is very impressive. So, the mentality and the physicality of this team looks strong, intense. I thought that was us today.”

On hearing the stat on 44-17 touches in the opposition box, Thomas added: “That's a fantastic stat, and I don't even know but the crossing stats (must be) the same, so you just see we were up there, and sometimes in a game like this, you score four goals, because the cross is just a little bit better, we just run a little bit more clever or a little bit more determined, whatever it is.

“Today, we didn't get the benefit of it, but I'm a big believer if you're consistent in your messages, you keep doing the right thing, some games will just be fantastic I think, overall, it’s maybe the best so far.”