It was on this day last year that Brighton ensured their promotion from the Championship. On Tuesday night at the Amex Stadium they took a small step towards retaining their Premier League status for another season.

The fiendish nature of their run-in has been well-documented and Chris Hughton’s team must still face the Manchester clubs, Liverpool and Burnley in their final matches.nfl jerseys for cheap They needed something, anything, to allow them to breathe a little easily after a worrying run of one point from an available 15. This was it.
Brighton 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur: Premier League – as it happened
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The horror of Saturday’s 3-2 defeat at Crystal Palace was forgotten as Brighton put their bodies on the line to earn precious reward. The roar from the home crowd at the full-time whistle told its own story. Brighton are eight points clear of third-from-bottom Southampton, although they have played a game more.

Tottenham have a bigger match round the corner in the shape of Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United and Mauricio Pochettino appeared to have one eye on it with his team selection. He made six changes from Saturday’s home defeat by Manchester City and omitted Davinson Sánchez and Dele Alli from the squad entirely. He gave Toby Alderweireld his first Premier League action since 28 October and the centre-half was not overly extended.

However, Pochettino made the point yet again that the league was the priority. The personnel changes, he said, were purely down to fatigue from the City game. “If we win the FA Cup, we are not going to play Champions League,” Pochettino said. “You only do that if you finish in the top four. Today was the most important game.”

For Tottenham it felt like points dropped. Pochettino was entitled to say that his team had “dominated” the game in terms of possession and territory but he was also on the money when he lamented a “lack of aggression” in the final third. They were unable to create sufficient clear-cut chances.

Harry Kane put Spurs in front with his 26th goal of the Premier League season – cheap nfl jerseys his Golden Boot rival, Mohamed Salah of Liverpool, has 30 – but Brighton showed their strength of character with an instant riposte through Pascal Gross’s penalty. Hughton had given him the responsibility after a couple of penalty misses this season by Glenn Murray.