Tottenham's Dele Alli continues to be Jose Mourinho's leading light against Brighton and Hove Albion
Dele Alli continued to be the leading light of Jose Mourinho's reign at Tottenham as he scored the winner in a determined 2-1 victory.
Alli produced a brilliant first-time finish to give Spurs another Boxing Day win after Harry Kane had earlier cancelled out Adam Webster's opener.
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Hide AdBrighton, who won the reverse fixture 3-0 in October, had threatened to ruin that run as they were the better side in the first half and had Webster's opener to hang onto.
But they have now gone three games without a win and must prepare for another lunchtime kick-off against Bournemouth in 48 hours.
Even before the loss of his family pet Mourinho's mood had been soured by spending much of the build-up to this game talking about VAR and how it is killing the game and his feelings would only have worsened in the 25th minute as his side had a goal ruled out.
Spurs had laboured in the opening quarter to get in behind Brighton, so they went long as Harry Winks sent Kane clear.
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Hide AdThe England captain finished in the usual accomplished manner, rolling past an onrushing Mat Ryan, but VAR official Mike Dean needed the perpendicular lines to rule Kane centimetres offside.
Brighton had been the better team and what happened 12 minutes later was perhaps inevitable.
Winks was adjudged to have fouled Ezequiel Schelotto on the left and Pascal Gross whipped in an inviting delivery which Webster climbed highest to power home.
Spurs were booed off by their fans at half-time, but they were immediately better after the break and needed only eight minutes to equalise.
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Hide AdLucas Moura looked to have run into a blind alley but a lucky deflection saw the ball fall kindly to Kane and after Ryan saved his first attempt, the striker put the ball away at the second attempt.
It was his 10th goal of the Premier League season, the sixth successive season in which he has reached double figures.
There was no denying Spurs a second in the 72nd minute. It was a brilliant team move as Moura and Kane linked up with Christian Eriksen, the Dane's brilliant diagonal ball finding Serge Aurier for him to tee up Alli, whose cushioned first-time finish found the top corner.
Alli should have had a second in the 90th minute when Kane played him through, but Ryan produced a fine flying save to turn the ball over the crossbar.
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Hide AdBrighton have produced some good results and performances under Potter this season but they have also had a number of displays where they have performed well but walked away with nothing.
This was another such occasion and they will look to fire back in a crunch match at the Amex against Bournemouth in 48 hours time.
ALBION: Ryan, Schelotto (Bissouma 83), Duffy, Webster, Burn, Bernardo (Trossard 76), Alzate, Stephens, Mooy, Gross, Connolly (Maupay 68).
SUBS NOT USED: Button, Propper, Murray, Montoya.
ATTENDANCE: 56,308