Tottenham Hotspur hustled to bounce back against Brighton from a two goal deficit and take away a point at the Amex Stadium. Although the team had dropped points, Thomas Frank felt that it had been the best overall performance of the campaign, and there were many reasons why it is the case.
Here are four things we learned from a valuable building block for Spurs.
Mohamed Kudus continues to dominate
Thirty seconds into the clash, and it was clear that a familiar freight train was on a wrecking mission.
Mohamed Kudus controlled a loose aerial ball with his chest to hold off Yasin Ayari, flicked the ball over the head of Ferdi Kadioglu, and then threw away Georginio Rutter from his vicinity. That is the Ghanaian in a nutshell: give him the ball and he will find a way to make it stick up the field.
At times, it was enough for Tottenham to just try to find the right winger, and he would do the rest. He relished the battle against a left back who had not started a Premier League fixture since November due to struggles with a toe injury and was a talismanic presence across the afternoon.
Blending bullish power with the poise in 1 v 1 situations, he had the end product to match. On a counter, he was willing to strike at the target, and Richarlison rewarded his instinct with a goal as the striker stood in the way of a shot and bundled the ball into the back of the net in the 43rd minute.
Then came the devilish delivery that caught Jan Paul van Hecke cold to produce a painful own goal.
The £55 million paid for his services from West Ham is quickly becoming something of a source of joy. At the expense of their rivals across the capital city, Spurs have a player who shifts momentum.
Xavi Simons sets alight
The transfer market might be wildly inflated, but there were the first great signs that the £51 million splashed on a creative force in the midfield might be fit to flourish in another man's absence.
There have been a couple of appearances for Xavi Simons in a Spurs shirt. He featured against West Ham and Villarreal, having to make do with a role where he drifted inside from the left as a winger.
It is not a role we should never expect to see him in again. Frank has clearly shown he wants to build a stable structure that can benefit from the presence of a Lucas Bergvall or Pape Matar Sarr in the spine. However, the half hour from Xavi in his ideal role was a reminder of what is to be gained.
With three free shots in six minutes, he immediately identified the gaps in the Brighton structure.
To top it off, the Dutchman did his best James Maddison impression in the buildup to the equaliser. He dropped deep in front of the midfield, slalomed around Diego Gomez, and got the connections ticking from centrally to the men ahead of him, finding Kudus to cross into the penalty area.
There was the odd mistake in the cameo: just after the Jan Paul van Hecke own goal, the substitute steered a no-look flick straight into harm's way, and Danny Welbeck would try to test his luck after picking up the pieces. But in the right tactical framework, a little risk is exactly what can be needed.
Destiny Udogie underscores his quality
The start of this stalemate saw some excellent work from a familiar face in the ranks at Tottenham.
Destiny Udogie picked up a knee injury against Luton Town in preseason. Frank has been in no hurry to rush him back to full fitness with the fine form of Djed Spence setting the standard at left back. Yet, a return to the lineup for the Italian illustrated an option that the side had been missing.
Spence is a right footed player who has often relied on ball carries for progression to make up for the difficulties of passing on his 'wrong' side. On the other hand, Udogie is a left footed fullback, and the positivity of his touches, coupled with full-throttle energy, pulled apart Brighton in combinations.
Frank had set out clear principles to get into the inside channels with underlaps and Udogie, used to being in these zones under old management, fit in from the get-go. A hooked touch past Joel Veltman and a well-timed shift away from Yasin Ayari were a highlight from the first phase of the fixture.
Unfazed with the task of taking on Yankuba Minteh, Udogie should be proud of his performance. He has backed up the words of his boss about the strength of the talent pool at fullback with actions over words and highlighted how hard-hitting the team can be if the use of ball possession is intentional.
Heart and fight for the occasion
It is early days under Frank, so even in a case of dropped points, lessons learnt can mean as much— or even more— than triumphs to take the team to a more competitive level for the medium term.
Last campaign, Ange Postecoglou reached a point when the team went all-in on the Europa League and eased off their ambitions in the domestic tournaments. However, a 17th place finish will not be acceptable again and Frank has to find a way to balance agendas on the home front and in Europe.
So far, so good. The Dane has watched his men keep clean sheets in two of their last three fixtures, and they have remained undefeated since the return from the international break earlier this month.
What will please the head coach even more is the resilience and attitude of the players on the pitch.
At the end of a long, hard week, it would have been easy for the side to lose their way a little in frustration that their good work from the first half was going unfulfilled. But they stuck to the script.
Tactics, pragmatism, and routines can put the players in a position to pick apart holes in opponents, while a stacked squad should give them different looks in different phases of fixtures. Yet, none of it matters without having heart and courage to keep doing the right things: this was an informative step.
