'Mistake' - Roberto De Zerbi makes surprise Antonio Conte tactical admission after Tottenham loss

Harry Kane’s 22nd-minute goal helped Tottenham end a difficult week with three points following the death of their fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone who died at the age of 61.

De Zerbi’s Brighton played well throughout and created chances and the Italian would have been encouraged by a decent display from his side, who have dropped to sixth in the table.

But De Zerbi admitted he was caught off-guard by a late tactical switch from opposite number Antonio Conte.

“We have played a fantastic game and the result is not fair 100 per cent,” the head coach said to Sky Sports. “But football is not right sometimes. Today the result is not good for us.

“After the first 15 minutes I made a mistake. I thought Antonio would play 3-4-2-1 but 20 minutes before the game he changes to a 3-5-2 and I made a mistake for the first 15 minutes. After the first 15 minutes on the pitch it was only Brighton.”

De Zerbi will now have the task of lifting his players ahead of their next Premier League outing at Brentford next Friday.

“They [the players] were fantastic today. I give them congratulation and now our thinking is of Monday to start again and work.

“I lost against Tottenham today and football is not fair.”

Conte ripped up his playbook and switched to a 3-5-2 formation with Matt Doherty and former Albion aceYves Bissouma handed rare starts.

It immediately paid dividends with Son Heung-min testing Robert Sanchez early on and Doherty firing over from a Ryan Sessegnon cross in the 11th-minute.

Rodrigo Bentancur was the next to go close with a firm effort that was tipped wide by the Brighton goalkeeper with 21 minutes on the clock and, from the resulting corner, the deadlock was broken.

Son’s first delivery was cleared but Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg gave the ball back to the South Korea international, who cut inside Leonardo Trossard and picked out Kane to head home.

It was an intelligent header by Kane, who stooped low to flick in for his eighth goal of the season and pointed to the sky in memory of Ventrone.

Brighton responded well to the 22nd-minute opener with Moises Caicedo stinging the palms of Hugo Lloris before Lewis Dunk headed over from six yards from a third corner in quick succession.

It buoyed the hosts – who had held Liverpool at Anfield in De Zerbi’s debut – and they arguably should have levelled prior to half-time with Solly March sending a 20-yarder wide and Danny Welbeck unable to beat Lloris from inside the area.

After a quiet start to the second period, the contest become end-to-end with Cristian Romero blocking a shot from Adam Webster and Dunk having to make a perfectly-timed last-ditch tackle to prevent Son from racing through.

Kane spun Dunk minutes later but dragged wide from 14-yards to leave the clash finely poised and it was the Brighton boss who made the first change with Kaoru Mitoma introduced with 24 minutes left.

Mitoma almost made an instant impact with a superb jinking run taking him beyond Romero and Eric Dier but Lloris was out quick to dive at the feet of the Japan attacker.

Son created a chance for Kane minutes later but the forward headed wide and by this point Richarlison had been introduced for the visitors.

The offside flag denied Son a fine curled effort with his left foot after 74 minutes and – back down the other end – Welbeck arrowed a shot wide before Doherty’s last-ditch interception thwarted Trossard to ensure Spurs held on.