Tottenham travel to Brighton on Thursday, hoping to keep their top-four status, live on talkSPORT 2.
Spurs have begun to recreate their early-season form, winning against Newcastle, Nottingham Forest, and Everton to end their slide down the standings.
Ange Postecoglou will be eager to get his team back into title contention.
A journey to The Amex is difficult, however, and despite their fluctuating form, Robert De Zerbi’s side remains a formidable team to face.
Brighton vs. Tottenham: Difficult without Harry
Tottenham appeared to have moved on from Harry Kane after their best start to a Premier League season in history.
However, his absence has been felt in recent weeks, and the match against Brighton marks a new challenge without their all-time leading scorer.
Spurs have scored in six of their last eight league encounters with the Seagulls.
And Kane has scored at least once in each of those contests.
The last time they scored against Brighton without the England captain was in a 1-0 victory in April of 2019.
So all eyes will be on Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski to fill the vacuum left by one of the world’s top scorers.
Brighton have lost their last two Premier League home games against Tottenham without scoring; they had only lost once and scored in their previous four meetings at the Amex Stadium (W2 D1).
Tottenham completed the league double over Brighton last season, the seventh time they have won successive league meetings against the Seagulls, but they have never won three in a row.
Team news for Brighton vs. Tottenham
Brighton’s Joel Veltman was injured against Arsenal, and the defender is expected to be out for several months.
In the treatment room, he has joined Julio Enciso, Tariq Lamptey, Adam Webster, and Pervis Estupinan.
Ansu Fati, on loan from Barcelona, is also anticipated to be out until February, and Solly March is recovering from a significant knee injury.
And Kaoru Mitoma is sceptical.
For Tottenham, James Maddison is getting closer to returning from injury, with a return to training a significant boost for Postecoglou.
Destiny Udogie will be reinstated after serving his ban against Everton before Christmas.
Yves Bissouma, on the other hand, will continue to serve his sentence after receiving a straight red card against Forest.
Spurs‘ injury list is also still lengthy, with Micky van de Ven, Ryan Sessegnon, Manor Solomon, Ivan Perisic, and Rodrigo Bentancur all sidelined.
Brighton have failed to win their last league game in each of the last three calendar years, falling to Arsenal at home in 2020 and 2022, and to Chelsea in 2021.
Tottenham have won just one of their previous ten Premier League away games (W6 D3), following a seven-game winless streak away from home between February and May (D2 L5).
Tottenham‘s Ben Davies has forced to fill in at center-back after Micky van de Ven suffered a catastrophic injury earlier this season.
The Welsh international has impressed, and Postecoglou has heaped praise on him.
“Ben’s still getting used to it,” he explained. He’s done exceptionally well.
“Centre-back is still one of the few positions where you need guys with outstanding attributes in there, especially in our structure.”
“We’ve been extremely fortunate in having him fill in for us there.”
“He’s really good at absorbing information, and he understands the game, not just his own role, but how we want to play, and that’s helped him.”
“Having Romero next to him helps in that sense and Vic[ario] because he’s taken a bit of a leadership role back there as well.”
Since a 3-1 loss to West Ham in August, Brighton has gone unbeaten in their past seven Premier League home games (W3 D4). Indeed, three of Brighton’s previous four home league losses have come against London clubs (Arsenal, Fulham, and West Ham).
Tottenham have only failed to score in one of their 20 Premier League away games in 2023, scoring in each of their last 15 away games since a 1-0 loss at Wolves in March.
talkSPORT will provide coverage of the Brighton vs. Tottenham match.
This Premier League match is scheduled for Thursday, December 28.
The game begins at 7:30 p.m. at Amex Stadium.
The game will have EXCLUSIVE live commentary on talkSPORT 2.
Commentary will come from Alex Crook and former Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy.
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