‘There were no surprises’ – Eric Dier opens up on ‘sloppy’ defeat to Brighton

Eric Dier has admitted Tottenham let their standards slip in the defeat to Brighton but insists the club will put the ‘frustratin’ display behind them. 

The Seagulls claimed a 1-0 win at Spurs on Saturday courtesy of Leandro Trossard’s 90th-minute winner, to keep Spurs on their toes in their pursuit of a place in the Premier League top four. 

While the visitors executed their game plan to perfection, Spurs struggled to get into any rhythm which condemned them to having no shots on target throughout. 

Dier believes Tottenham defended well enough for the majority of the encounter to at least earn a point but switched off at a crucial moment to leave them going home empty-handed. 

He told the club’s official website: “It was a frustrating day, we didn’t start well, we were a little better in the second half but still below the standards we’ve set recently. 

“We knew what Brighton were going to try to do and they did it, so there were no surprises, and we’d prepared for that all week. It’s on us to do better.

“I thought we were very sloppy from the beginning, made silly mistakes, defended well until the goal, really, and you just think, ‘If you can’t win, don’t lose’, but we made that mistake and it’s very frustrating.”

The 28-year-old also suggested he and his Spurs teammates would have to dust themselves down quickly ahead of a tricky match-up against an in-form Brentford. 

He added: “We have to react to this now, there’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves, we have to understand how we need to do better – I think we know – take that into this week and into the next game.

“There is a lot of football to be played still. A lot changed in the last three games, and a lot will change in the next three.

“We need to be ready for the next game, approach every game like a final and that’s something we had been doing up until [Saturday], we weren’t right today and paid the price.”

Spurs Web Opinion 

Brighton arrived with a plan to not let Spurs get the ball down and play with a flow and it worked having stayed switched-on all the way through. Spurs didn’t do enough to earn anything from the match but, hopefully, that is just a blip in what has been a very good run of recent form. 

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