Seagulls soar as two-goal Connolly humbles Spurs

Teenage striker Aaron Connolly scored twice on his first Premier League start as Brighton & Hove Albion humbled Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 to ensure the visitors’ nightmare week ended on the worst possible note.

Defeat at the Amex stadium was compounded by a bad injury to goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who was stretchered off after falling heavily on his arm in conceding Brighton’s third-minute opener to Neal Maupay.

Under no obvious pressure, the Frenchman, who had gifted Southampton a goal last weekend and then conceded seven to Bayern Munich, dropped Pascal Gross’s cross straight into the path of the striker who scored from a yard out. In his desperation, Lloris landed badly and was carried off, receiving oxygen.

The keeper’s replacement Paulo Gazzaniga was himself beaten on 32 minutes by the 19-year-old Connolly, who reacted to the keeper’s parry to score neatly — the eighth goal that Spurs had conceded in 78 minutes of competitive action.

A shellshocked Mauricio Pochettino responded by bringing on Harry Winks at half-time for his £63m summer signing Tanguy Ndombele but Connolly was again on hand with an even better goal on 65 minutes.

This time the Irishman picked up a long ball down the left, easily cut inside Toby Alderweireld on his right foot and curled a shot past Gazzaniga’s outstetched hand as Brighton recorded their first win over Spurs since 1983.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.