Tottenham Hotspur v Brighton: Premier League – live!

32 min: Montoya fouls Moura out on the left. No card, though you’ve seen them given. Trippier takes the set piece, and hangs it up high, allowing Ryan to pluck the ball from the air without fuss, despite the loaded box. A bit of a waste.

30 min: See 28 minutes, except substitute Vertonghen for Eriksen. It’s a bit early for Spurs to be launching desperate howitzers from long range.

28 min: Vertonghen has a dig from the best part of 30 yards. He was looking for the top right of the goal; the ball nestles in the top right of the stand behind. A rush of blood.

26 min: Son goes on a run down the right. He briefly threatens to open Brighton up, but eventually runs out of space. Here’s Peter Oh: “Under normal circumstances I’d be a disinterested neutral for this one, but with Brighton being Man City’s opponent on the last day of the season I’m eager to see if they could at all be counted on to chip a few points off Guardiola’s juggernaut, if necessary. Goodness knows that Liverpool can’t expect to get any help from the red side of Manchester tomorrow.”

24 min: Bissouma bowls Wanyama to the ground, 30 yards out. It’s a free kick, though Brighton don’t think so. But as they’re arguing with the ref, Son takes it quickly, slipping Lucas Moura free down the inside-right channel. Brighton are extremely fortunate that Bernardo was still switched on and concentrating, because he gets in a last-ditch block, allowing Brighton to clear their lines.

22 min: Brighton win another corner down the left, and once again Spurs don’t look totally comfortable in dealing with it. Lloris eventually punches clear, but there were green shirts sniffing around, and big gaps in the Spurs defence.

20 min: … a comical melee develops in the Brighton six-yard box. Eriksen’s free kick instigates a free-for-all in front of goal. All that’s missing is a big cloud with OOYAH, OOF and BIFF written on it, and fists and boots sticking out. Llorente’s snap shot is blocked by a prone Wanyama. Ryan gets a hand to it, and Bernardo finally hooks clear. Action that would be perfectly soundtracked by the theme from Q.

19 min: Eriksen shoots from distance. It’s deflected out for a corner, and from that Rose is bundled over by Locadia. Free kick just to the left of the Brighton box. From which …

17 min: Gross hits the corner long from the left. Vertonghen heads it behind with Dunk lurking. Gross hits another corner, this time from the right. It’s easily cleared. Brighton are asking a couple of questions at set pieces, though.

16 min: Before the corner can be taken, Alli goes down, having landed awkwardly on his knee while trying to head Gross’s free kick clear. He grimaces quite a lot, but gets up soon enough and looks fine to continue.

15 min: Gross takes, whipping the ball into the mixer. Wanyama is taking no chances, surrounded by green shirts. He hoicks the ball over his own crossbar, a hoof that took some nerve. Corner for Brighton.

14 min: A free kick for Brighton, reward for their first real sortie into Spurs territory. It’s out on the right, and it’s a chance for Brighton to hover on the edge of the box en masse.

13 min: There’s another former Spurs hero sitting in the stand tonight in Ledley King. Penny for his thoughts right now, because that super-fast Saints goal has beaten his Premier League record, made after 9.9 seconds of a game against Bradford City in 2000.

11 min: Another goal kick is eked out for all it’s worth by Ryan. The referee’s onto him, and ushers him to speed up. The crowd whistle accordingly, in the pantomime style.

10 min: Ryan takes his own sweet time over a goal kick. It’s going to be like that, is it.

8 min: A bit of space for Eriksen down the inside-right channel. He has a diagonal dig. Alli tries to flick the ball on at the far post, but doesn’t connect and the shot flies wide left.

7 min: A nice gentle start to the game. Brighton are sitting deep, Spurs probing this way and that.

5 min: Spurs continue to dominate possession. The noise coming from that Dortmund-style wall is extremely impressive. A rare old atmosphere here.

3 min: The first corner of the game, won by Rose out on the left, comes to nothing. But it’s all Spurs in these early exchanges.

8 seconds: Elsewhere, Watford are entertaining Southampton. And making them feel very much at home, because Shane Long has scored the fastest goal in Premier League history! Eight seconds!

And we’re off! Soon enough, a free kick for Spurs, just to the right of the D. Trippier swings it into the mixer. Vertonghen heads harmlessly over the bar.

The teams are out! Spurs wear their famous lilywhite, while Brighton sport their second-choice green. Both of these clubs have lovely, simple, iconic crests. A cracking atmosphere at the new stadium. We’ll be off in a minute!

Mauricio Pochettino speaks to Sky Sports. “For me this is a must-win game. It is so important. It will be tough because Brighton is a good team and they need points for survival. We need to be strong. The three points means a lot for us and we must make sure to fight. Anything can happen, we must be focused. Our performance must be perfect.”

Chris Hughton adds: “We’re going to need to be defensive and we’ll have to work incredibly hard. Look at the team they’ve put out: any thought that they were going to rest a few players is certainly not the case. With the ability they have got, you can’t be open. We haven’t been a good enough team to play that way.”

Last Wednesday’s epic wasn’t the first famous Spurs victory over Manchester City, of course. Who could forget one of the greatest FA Cup finals of all time, the 1981 replay? Today’s visiting manager, Chris Hughton, played left-back for Tottenham in that final, and tonight he’s been reunited with a couple of other stars from that team, posing for photographs with Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa. All three men looking very handsome. City and Arsenal fans may demur, but there was something special about that replay: the sensational goals, the gorgeous kits, the rolling noise, the fuzzy colours under the lights, John Motson. Peak FA Cup.

A quick peek inside the dressing room at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. A lovely calm environment with plenty of subtle lighting. They’ve really done a proper job with this new place, haven’t they. Next season hopefully they’ll have shirts that don’t look like they’ve been accidentally put on a hot cycle with the socks, and aesthetically it’ll be pretty much perfect.

Plenty of changes from the weekend. Spurs make five swaps in the wake of their 1-0 loss at Manchester City. Hugo Lloris, Kieran Trippier, Danny Rose, Victor Wanyama and Fernando Llorente return. Paulo Gazzaniga, Davison Sanchez, Eric Dier, Ben Davies and Juan Foyth drop to the bench.

Brighton meanwhile make six changes to the team named for the 0-0 at Wolves. Martin Montoya, Bernardo, Yves Bissouma, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Jurgen Locadia and Florin Andone are in; Bruno, Gaetan Bong, Solly March, Davy Propper, Jose Izquierdo and Glenn Murray are out.

Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Trippier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose, Eriksen, Wanyama, Alli, Lucas Moura, Llorente, Son.
Subs: Sanchez, Janssen, Dier, Foyth, Gazzaniga, Davies, Skipp.

Brighton & Hove Albion: Ryan, Montoya, Dunk, Duffy, Bernardo, Bissouma, Stephens, Gross, Jahanbakhsh, Andone, Locadia.
Subs: Bong, Kayal, Balogun, Murray, March, Button, Burn.

Referee: Chris Kavanagh (Lancashire).

Life was good for Brighton & Hove Albion one Saturday lunchtime in early March. Anthony Knockaert cut in from the right and sent a screamer into the top-left corner of Crystal Palace’s net, Brighton’s arch rivals were vanquished, and the Seagulls moved into the relative comfort of 15th place, five points clear of the relegation zone with a game in hand over 18th-placed Cardiff City.

It all seems a long time ago now. Brighton went on to lose their following four league games. Three of those four defeats were at home, against teams from the bottom half of the division. They didn’t score a single goal. So in that respect, snapping that losing streak with a 0-0 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday was something of a boost.

Not much of one, though. Brighton are now 17th, just three points clear of Cardiff. They’ve still got their game in hand. But while the Bluebirds have a couple of winnable fixtures left against Fulham and Crystal Palace, Brighton have yet to face Arsenal, Manchester City and … here they are … the Champions League semi-finalists Tottenham Hotspur, who are desperate for the win tonight to keep up the chase for a top-four finish.

And while Brighton haven’t scored in 570 minutes of football, Spurs have yet to concede at their palatial new pile, winning all three matches so far. By the looks of it, the most likely method for Brighton to claim a point would be to park the bus and hope for another goalless draw. Only problem is, Spurs haven’t had one of those in the league for 67 games. It’s going to be quite a task to contain the buoyant hosts. It’s a shoo-in home win according to the form book, as well as the bookies. It’s on!

Kick off: 7.45pm BST.