EPL PIX: Brighton stun Spurs; Chelsea, United held

IMAGES from the Premier League matches played across England, on Saturday.

Welbeck completes Brighton comeback win over Tottenham

Brighton & Hove Albion staged a storming second-half comeback with Danny Welbeck sealing a 3-2 home win over Tottenham Hotspur in a topsy-turvy Premier League clash on Sunday.

Goals by Brennan Johnson and James Maddison gave a dominant Spurs side a thoroughly deserved 2-0 lead at the interval.

But the game was turned upside down after the break as Tottenham's defence fell apart under pressure to concede three goals in the space of 18 minutes.

Yankuba Minteh pulled a goal back for the hosts three minutes after the restart before Georginio Rutter levelled from close range. Welbeck then headed Brighton's third after more flimsy defending by the visitors.

Brighton's first win in five league games lifted them above Spurs into sixth place in the table with 12 points from seven games, while Tottenham are in ninth spot on 10.

When Johnson slotted in his sixth goal in six games from Dominic Solanke's pass to reward 23 minutes of total Tottenham control, the visitors were oozing with confidence.

Johnson, the first Tottenham player to score in six successive games since Harry Kane in 2019, could have added another before a sweeping Spurs move ended with Maddison's shot sneaking past at-fault Brighton keeper Bart Verbruggen.

Welbeck twice came close for Brighton before the interval but the hosts had been thoroughly outplayed by Ange Postecoglou's slick visitors.

"First half was bitterly disappointing," Welbeck told Sky Sport. "The performance we put in was embarrassing and not something we want to be part of."

Whatever was said at halftime by Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler worked a treat as Brighton, with Pervis Estupinan on as a substitute, a completely different proposition.

Tottenham were napping as they failed to cut out a cross with Destiny Udogie's horrible miskick falling for Minteh who took a touch before driving a shot past Guglielmo Vicario.

The goal rocked Tottenham and as the rain came down on the south coast, they fell to pieces.

Ten minutes later winger Kaoru Mitoma played a pass in to Rutter and with Tottenham's defenders failing to react he fired in Brighton's leveller.

Brighton's winner summed up Tottenham's second-half display. Rutter should never have been able to deliver a cross from the right but showed far more desire than those trying to stop him and when the ball was delivered across the area Welbeck had the simplest of tasks to nod it into the net.

"Fair to say that the second half was unacceptable and we paid a price for that," Postecoglou, who looked stunned at the final whistle, said. "We probably should have put it to bed in the first half.

"What we did in that second half is unacceptable and we got what we deserved."

Forest earn point in frenzied 1-1 draw at Chelsea

Nottingham Forest earned a 1-1 draw at Chelsea on Sunday despite going down to 10 men in the 78th minute, after they kept the hosts at bay in an often frenzied Premier League encounter involving a host of second-half chances and a pitchside melee.

After a slow-burn first half with the visitors' well organised defence keeping Chelsea at arm's length, it was Forest who scored first when a classic James Ward-Prowse free kick found defender Nikola Milenkovic at the back post in the 50th minute and the Serbian nodded the ball across goal and Chris Wood tapped it home.

The match sprang into life and six minutes later Chelsea exploited a rare crack in Forest's highly-disciplined defence when the ever-busy Noni Madueke latched on to a Cole Palmer ball, cut inside and sent it into the bottom corner.

The result kept Chelsea, who enjoyed more than 66% possession, in fourth place, but dropped them three points behind Arsenal in third. Nottingham Forest are 10th. Forest were reduced to 10 men when Ward-Prowse grabbed the ball on the ground to stop Nicolas Jackson running free on goal and received a second yellow card.

The Midlands side did not just sit back and defend, however, instead taking the game to Chelsea. Robert Sanchez kept out a series of chances, notably from substitutes Neco Williams and Jota Silva as the game opened up.

Williams sparked the pitchside confrontation after his challenge on Marc Cucurella sent the full back sprawling into the technical area upending his coach Enzo Maresca. Players from both sides and from the bench rushed to the scene jostling and pushing each other.

The melee and a long injury stoppage for Morgan Gibbs-White led to referee Christopher Kavanagh adding 13 minutes of stoppage time.

Matz Sels kept Forest in the game with impressive saves from Palmer, Christopher Nkunku and Malo Gusto in a breathless end to the game.

Beleaguered Man United battle to 0-0 draw at Villa

Manchester United ground out a 0-0 draw at Aston Villa on Sunday with the club suffering their worst start to a season in the Premier League era and speculation rife about the future of under-fire manager Erik ten Hag.

The draw sends Unai Emery's men into the international break in fifth in the table on 14 points after seven games, while United are languishing in 14th with eight points.

Their points tally is United's lowest in their opening seven matches of a Premier League campaign and their lowest in any league season since 1989-90 (seven points), when they went on to finish 13th under Alex Ferguson -- his lowest league finish as manager.

"I think it's the fourth clean sheet this season," Ten Hag said as he looked for positives. "You see we had a very good organisation and togetherness. There was good character and good spirit as a team. Determined, resilient."

United captain Bruno Fernandes had the best chance of the game for either team, clanging a free kick off the crossbar from outside the box in the 68th minute. Antony then missed the target with the rebound and with keeper Emi Martinez out of his goal.

Villa's Jaden Philogene had a spectacular effort at a goal in stoppage time after Matthijs de Ligt missed Morgan Rogers' drilled ball across the goal. Philogene's shot looked to be heading for the net before Diogo Dalot turned to block it with his back. Emery buried his head in his hands in frustration.

United's woeful start to the season has put Ten Hag back in the spotlight and the team's entire senior leadership -- co-owner Jim Ratcliffe, CEO Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth, and technical director Jason Wilcox -- were in attendance at Villa Park for what many believed was a pivotal game for the manager.

"It does affect the players," United defender Jonny Evans said of the rumours about the manager's future. "It's on our minds too."

The afternoon was a tale of teams headed in different directions, with United suffering a terrible start, and Villa enjoying their best beginning to a campaign since 2008-09 and coming off a 1-0 Champions League win over Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

"It's not a bad result, but it's not the best," Emery said. "How we played, I think the draw is fair for both teams. We missed some energy but I am happy because the draw was not the worst result. In the second half we corrected some things to control the match."

United played with considerably more confidence and togetherness than their previous two matches -- a woeful 3-0 league loss to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend followed by a 3-3 Europa League draw with Porto on Thursday that saw them give up a two-goal lead.

United's Marcus Rashford had a couple of near misses, with Villa keeper Martinez forced into a diving save in the game's early minutes, and then leaping to push a shot over the bar soon after halftime.

Rogers blazed a shot just wide of United's net in the first half.

Villa defender Ezri Konsa limped to the bench in the 12th minute after going down clutching his hamstring -- a blow for both Villa and England, ahead of the national side's upcoming Nations League games against Greece and Finland.

United lost oft-injured defender Harry Maguire, who limped off the pitch at the end of the first half.