Spurs brought down to earth after Europa glory as Brighton secure big win

Europa League winners Tottenham were brought back down to earth with a 4-1 home loss to Brighton on the final day of the Premier League season.

Dominic Solanke put Spurs ahead after 17 minutes to continue the feel-good factor after Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Manchester United in Bilbao ended a 17-year wait for silverware.

With uncertainty over the future of Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou, the Australian would have been eager to end a horrid domestic campaign with one final victory, but Jack Hinshelwood struck twice in quick succession after the break for the visitors.

It was followed by a late third by Matt O’Riley’s penalty before Diego Gomez struck a superb fourth in stoppage time to help Brighton finish eighth, but that was not enough to secure European football.

Defeat for Spurs meant they recorded a lowest ever Premier League finish of 17th, but the full-time whistle was blown with home supporters waving flags and singing for the team following their European triumph.

Tottenham were back in action after their historic victory at San Mames and, despite three days of celebrations, Postecoglou started eight players from Wednesday.

This included midweek hero Brennan Johnson, who had been the last to leave the stage during a euphoric open-top bus parade on Friday night.

A sea of blue and white flags greeted Spurs onto the pitch before a predictably sluggish start followed, with Simon Adingra dragging an early shot wide for Brighton and Mats Wieffer then sent an effort over.

It took only four minutes for Postecoglou to be serenaded by the home fans and, with quarter of an hour played, Spurs were awarded a spot-kick.

Mathys Tel was caught in the penalty area by Wieffer and Solanke stepped up to lift the ball into the roof