Spurs vs Brighton Predictions: We're backing the draw at Tottenham

Tottenham Hotspur welcome Brighton to London on Saturday evening as both sides look to book their place in the 5th Round of the FA Cup, live on ITV4. We've asked regular tipster Joshua Jones to preview this one for us. 

Remarkably, despite playing in the same league, these two sides haven’t met in any competition for over a year since Brighton’s 1-0 home victory in January 2021.

Graham Potter’s side defeated a Spurs side managed by Jose Mourinho on that occasion, who has since been fired and replaced with Nuno Esperito Santo, who in turn was fired and replaced by current manager Antonio Conte.

The Italian has the hosts unbeaten in their last nine games that weren’t against Chelsea (to whom they lost to three separate times in January) with an impressive win at Leicester and a hard-earned draw against Liverpool the pick of the results - though they really struggled to a 3rd round victory over League One side Morecambe.

With a much tougher test on the horizon, Spurs have used the international break to prepare for it by conducting a mass exodus of midfielders in the January transfer window.

Record signing Tanguy Ndombele was one of three first team players sent on loan, returning to former club Lyon for the remainder of the season, whilst Giovani Lo Celso and Bryan Gil have joined Villarreal and Valencia respectively.

Meanwhile, they said a permanent farewell to Dele Alli after seven years at Enfield as he joined Premier League rivals Everton on an initial free transfer (that could rise to £40m based on performance incentives).

It’s a sad end to the England international’s tenure at Tottenham, whose sharp decline following a plethora of injuries has been a shame to see, but Conte didn’t spend much time reminiscing.

He instead raided former club Juventus for Uruguayan international Rodrigo Bentancur on a £17m permanent deal, as well as adding young Swedish striker Dejan Kulusevski on loan until the end of the 2022/23 season.

Brighton, meanwhile, weren’t quite as busy as their counterparts in the transfer market though they did get some business done.

Dan Burn’s £13.5m switch to boyhood club Newcastle United was the Seagulls’ only concerning departure, with the 6’7’’ behemoth leaving them light at centre-back.

Adam Webster and Lewis Dunk are Potter’s only fit options in the middle of the defence as they didn’t add any meaningful replacements in that area, so they’ll be counting down the days until Shane Duffy is fit again to provide that extra cover.

Graham Potter’s side find themselves in strong form though, and haven’t lost any of their seven games since Christmas whilst remaining unbeaten away from home since mid-November.

He should be able to welcome back influential midfield duo Yves Bissouma and Enock Mwepu back to the side, with the former returning from the African Cup of Nations while the latter looks likely to have recovered from a thigh injury that has kept him sidelined since Brighton’s 3rd round win over West Brom.

It’s likely they’ll need the pair of them to contain Tottenham’s Son Heung-min who returned to training this week after almost a month out injured and could return to assist Harry Kane up top.

Brighton draw football matches… a lot of them.

The Seagulls have seen 14 of their last 19 games in all competitions finish all square (after 90 minutes) in a run dating all the way back to September.

Graham Potter’s side boasts the 5th best defence in the Premier League this season, and know how to make themselves difficult to beat.

They aren’t turning draws into wins though because their offense is remarkably the 5th worst and, given the fact they didn’t sign a striker in January, it’s fair to expect more of the same.