James Maddison has made an honest admission about Tottenham’s mentality following their 3-2 defeat against Brighton.
Maddison scored in the first half to make it 2-0 after Brennan Johnson had given Tottenham the lead.
However, Tottenham, remarkably, ended up losing 3-2 as Yankuba Minteh, Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck scored for Brighton.
The defeat saw Tottenham’s impressive run of five consecutive victories in all competitions come to an end.
Maddison was left concerned with the manner in which Tottenham capitulated.
James Maddison made an admission about Tottenham’s mentality after losing to Brighton
Asked whether Tottenham may have got carried away with their first half performance, Maddison told Sky Sports: ‘Yeah it could have been definitely.
‘Brighton are a good side and have good players. But in adversity in the Premier League you’ve got to stay strong, you’ve got to weather the storm a little bit.
‘The best teams stay strong in that moment and weather the storm – we definitely didn’t do that.’
Maddison added that Tottenham were unable to cope with the change in momentum during the game.
Although Tottenham were wary of complacency at half time they still ended up being beaten.
He said: ‘We couldn’t deal with the momentum shift. We lost control of the game when the first goal went in.
‘We dealt with momentum poorly and couldn’t get any control of the game – when they were coming at us it felt like attack after attack. We couldn’t deal with it and they managed to score three goals.
‘We have been on a good run, but it feels like a couple of steps back today. We were saying all the right things to not get complacent, but words mean nothing if you don’t go out and show it.’
Maddison had scored in the first half to make it 2-0 but Tottenham subsequently fell apart
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou was left dejected after watching his team fall apart
Tottenham will have to wait until after the international break to attempt to bounce back, with their next game coming at home to West Ham on October 19.
Postecoglou’s team are currently in ninth place in the table having won three, drawn one and lost three of their games so far.
The 3-0 win away to Manchester United last weekend was seen as a major step in the right direction for Tottenham.
However, they were unable to build on that and now must prove that they ae capable of performing consistently.