Danny Welbeck caps off spectacular Brighton comeback as Tottenham crumble | first division

Ange Postecoglou had the thousand-yard look. The game seemed over at half-time, his Tottenham team had a two-goal advantage, their control was almost total, surely on their way to a sixth consecutive victory in all competitions.

Now the coach stood motionless on the sideline, hands buried in his coat pockets, struggling to process what had happened. Which was a stunning comeback from Brighton, which saw them jump off the canvas and take the lead just after the hour mark. They didn't abandon him and the home fans celebrated wildly for full time.

There was an uncomfortable focus on the Spurs defence, with Destiny Udogie enduring a personal nightmare, blamed to varying degrees for all three goals. However, he was not alone. Micky van de Ven, for example, will not like his role in the first two, written by Yankuba Minteh and Georginio Rutter, to be investigated. The same thing happened to Rodrigo Bentancur on what turned out to be the winner, headed in by Danny Welbeck.

More generally, as Postecoglou would make clear in scathing style, this was an abdication of responsibility on the part of his players; his inability to do the most basic thing – starting with carrying out some sort of fight – hurt him to the core. He hasn't been this frustrated after a game, or this outspoken about his team's shortcomings.

Credit goes to Fabian Hürzeler, the Brighton manager, who made a key change at half-time, replacing Ferdi Kadioglu, who had a difficult time at left back, with Pervis Estupiñán. And to all the blue and white players. They refused to believe that defeat was their destiny, even if they surely could not have imagined the extent of the Spurs' capitulation.

Brighton found the necessary levels of intensity, of cruelty, with Kaoru Mitoma the spark; a blur of quick feet and direct movements. It was practically unplayable.

Earlier in the year, when Hürzeler was in charge of St Pauli, Postecoglou had invited him to Spurs to share some of his knowledge. “If someone knocks on your door and wants a cup of tea, let them into your house,” Postecoglou said. “He won't take your furniture or steal your cutlery.” Here Hürzeler plundered a lot and Brighton overtook Spurs and moved into sixth position in the table. Their £150m summer squad rebuild has its latest dividend.

It was almost impossible to reconcile the first half performance with what followed from a Spurs point of view. Their start had been blistering and the story looked set to be about a sixth goal in as many games for Brennan Johnson, about James Maddison making light of his continued omission from the England squad with another influential display. Dejan Kulusevski reveled in his role as inside forward, moving up and down; more up than down.

The Spurs pressed high and aggressively, forcing turnovers in dangerous areas. Timo Werner's pace was too much for Joël Veltman, although the end result was typically frustrating. Dominic Solanke was impressed.

Maddison had seen a goal disallowed by VAR, which detected Pedro Porro was offside before crossing, and the breakthrough was down to Spurs' efforts, Udogie and Maddison combining to rob Rutter. From there, it was Solanke to Johnson and Johnson with the low finish the first time. The biggest compliment that could be paid to the in-form winger was that the result was never in doubt.

Spurs had created a handful of decent chances in the first 10 minutes alone, with Kulusevski and Maddison at the center of it all, and when the former sent Johnson through in the 43rd minute after a classy lay-off from Solanke, a Brighton fan alongside to the press box summarized things above. “It's too easy,” he shouted. Johnson shot over the crossbar.

Then the score was 2-0 and the goal was a disaster for Bart Verbruggen. Solanke led the break and when Werner pulled back, Maddison touched and deflected into the bottom corner. Verbruggen let the ball twist beneath him.

Brighton, who lost Adam Webster to a muscle injury early on, barely contributed in the first half apart from a couple of moments from Welbeck. He deflected a Mitoma cross when he should have done better and sent a header wide. The comeback in the second half was remarkable.

Hürzeler's introduction of Estupiñán revived his team on the left, with Mitoma coming to life. In the 58th minute, the winger gave two assists and the game was level. Van de Ven and Udogie made a mistake before Minteh turned to score and the Spurs pair were eliminated in the tie, Rutter moving away from them and choosing the bottom corner.

Mitoma had been denied by Guglielmo Vicario and there was an element of inevitability to Brighton's goal to make it 3-2, Spurs were at sea, Udogie once again committing the foul. Rutter dodged it too easily, but Bentancur had crossed to confront the striker as the ball raced across the byline. Except he didn't. Rutter slid in, showing the desire and his tackle became the perfect cross, Welbeck rising to beat Vicario.

The Spurs disappeared without a trace. Their only real chance to equalize came when Udogie cut inside and fired a low shot. Verbruggen ducked to the right to make the save.