Harry Kane Scores As Tottenham Beat Brighton 1-0

Harry Kane scores as Tottenham beat Brighton 1-0.

Spurs suffered a derby defeat at rivals Arsenal last Saturday but worse news was to follow on Thursday when it was announced that club fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone had passed away at the age of 61.

It left everyone at Tottenham stunned, especially Antonio Conte who had known the highly-respected Italian for almost three decades but his players honoured Ventrone in the best possible way by ensuring they got back to winning ways in the Premier League.

While it spoiled Roberto De Zerbi’s home debut, the new Seagulls boss would have been encouraged by a fine display from his side, who have dropped to sixth in the table.

This was De Zerbi’s first match at the Amex Stadium but another Italian took centre stage ahead of kick-off with a minute’s applause taking place for Ventrone.

The recent death of Spurs’ fitness coach had occurred during an already tough week where defeat at Arsenal was followed by a stalemate against Frankfurt.

Conte ripped up his playbook as a result and switched to a 3-5-2 formation with Matt Doherty and Yves Bissouma handed rare starts.

It immediately paid dividends with Son Heung-min testing Robert Sanchez early on and Doherty firing over from a Ryan Sessegnon cross in the 11th-minute.

Rodrigo Bentancur was the next to go close with a firm effort that was tipped wide by the Brighton goalkeeper with 21 minutes on the clock and, from the resulting corner, the deadlock was broken.

Son’s first delivery was cleared but Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg gave the ball back to the South Korea international, who cut inside Leonardo Trossard and picked out Kane to head home.

It was an intelligent header by Kane, who stooped low to flick in for his eighth goal of the season and pointed to the sky in memory of Ventrone.