The look of pure glee on Gareth Bale’s face spoke volumes. It must have felt like old times for the winger as his
Tottenham teammates ran to mob him. Thrown on in the 70th minute and given the task of puncturing Brighton’s resilience, Bale had rolled back the years by heading home three minutes after his introduction, bringing to mind all those times he rescued Spurs with dramatic late winners at the end of the 2012-13 season.
Perhaps it was not quite up there with the time Bale came off the bench to put
Real Madrid on the path to
Champions League glory with an overhead kick against
Liverpool in 2018. Yet he loved his goalscoring cameo. After the breakdown in his relationship with Real, he was home at last: back in Tottenham’s colours and making a difference.