TOTTENHAM 2 BRIGHTON 1

It can be too easy to blame refereeing decisions when you lose.

Tempting but often too easy and unfair.

Look at what your team are doing, at what they can control.

Put it all on the refs? That is often just passing the buck and we see it a lot at all levels of the game.

I am certainly reluctant to go straight after referees. Always have been.

I would guess that might annoy some readers who want the local paper to always cry foul on their team’s behalf.

But coming from the local angle, it can seem even more hollow.

You try to understand what has been given, see both sides of the argument.

Actually, my default position as a football-watcher in general is to assume the experts have got it right. 

That what I thought when Adam Webster suddenly hit the deck when Erling Haaland chased him at the Etihad.

Or when Pervis Estupinan was given offside at Crystal Palace.

When I saw a fan tweet at half-time of the Palace game that VAR had drawn the offside line in the wrong place, I thought, ‘Surely that can’t have happened’.

But it’s getting harder to have that trust.

At a time when it should be easier than ever.

We can’t definitively say poor decisions cost Albion a win at Tottenham.

But they cost them a very good chance.

They certainly cost them the chance to enjoy a second-half lead against a side who were second best and were testing the patience of their own fans.

Maybe that desire to be able to trust authority is a generational thing.

Do youngsters these days grow up feeling the same?

One thing I have certainly never believed is that bad decisions even themselves out. You just lose count.

But these days there are statisticians who keep tally of errors and the points they cost.

I used to believe that, while referees made mistakes, players made more. So look closer to home.

Not sure about that at Albion’s level. Not game-changing errors.

And I used to have sympathy because they had to make an instant decision. Again, not any more.

You can’t say to Kaoru Mitoma: “Have that ball played into you again and see if you can hold on to it this time.”

But the officials can have a second shot at getting it right.

They have the benefit of hindsight but extra viewings often seem to confuse rather than clarify.

Albion are threatening the upper order and it’s even tougher than they might have imagined.

They could have done some things better here, such as Mitoma’s loose lay-off and the lack of anyone within ten yards of Harry Kane when the latter drilled home the winning goal via a touch off Joel Veltman.

They might have made better use of copious amounts of possession.

But the football they played was a joy to watch.

They relished their impressive surroundings.

Moises Caicedo could not have done much more when he shot against the post.

Given that he was nudged by Cristian Romero, an off-balance Mitoma could not have controlled a superb Alexis Mac Allister Gross pass any differently when his finish was ruled out.

The on-field assistant adjudged a handball which, again, you initially trust.

It suddenly looked a more questionable decision on replays and still images but was rubber-stamped by VAR after a lengthy hold-up during which it felt increasingly likely the goal would be awarded.

Veltman might have got closer to Son Heung-min when Albion went behind for the first time but that is perhaps being overly critical.

The finish was world class and that is what the Premier League should be all about.

It took a rare Albion set-piece goal to bring them belatedly level as Lewis Dunk powered home a header when Solly March picked out his run.

It was euphoria for Albion’s sun-kissed fans when, so we thought, Danny Welbeck drilled a shot low past Hugo Lloris after a smart turn.

A second viewing revealed it flicked off Mac Allister and a third that it was the Argentinian’s arm.

There is certainly a camera angle which makes it appear that way, as we saw on our monitors in the press box. Many reports you have read will have been based on that replay.

But look again, as we did later. Was it really his arm/elbow or his hip and nothing else?

It certainly wasn’t clear and obvious but, unlike the Mitoma goal, the on-pitch decision was reversed.

Roberto De Zerbi and Cristian Stellini had been red-carded by the time Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s trip of Mitoma went unpunished.

There was still time for a shirt tug on Dunk which didn’t even merit a mention in lengthy press conferences with the bosses.

It was mainly about decisions, the red cards, who said what to who.

Tedious, tedious. It should not be like that.

We should have been talking about elite level football.

De Zerbi’s pre-game spat with his opposite number was puzzling, by the way.

If it was down to something Stellini said in the build-up to the game, there are other ways and means, other times and places, for him to make that point.

But did those scenes unsettle his team? No, they looked very settled and should have won.

That they didn’t was largely down to the third team in the match who, I’m sure, are proud professionals and began the day with the intention of doing a thoroughly good job.

But who, in the world’s most demanding league, fell well below the levels required.

It is not easy to say that and it is even harder to accept.

But it wasn’t the first time it has happened.

And it wasn’t the first time it has cost Albion dear.