Brentford (Home) 06.12.2025

It was a pretty miserable day weather-wise, with bouts of drizzle throughout the game, but the game itself was exciting in a way that some home games haven’t been this season.  Micky van de Ven returned in place of Kevin Danso, with Djed Spence coming in for Destiny Udogie, who had picked up a soft tissue injury in training.  Archie Gray replaced Pape Matar Sarr, while there were starts for Xavi Simons and Randal Kolo Muani in the place of Lucas Bergvall and Brennan Johnson to round off the changes from the match at St. James’ Park. 

Tottenham kicked off and started at the rapid pace of a Thomas Frank Brentford side, looking sharp and looking forward from the start.  Also from the start if was clear that Brentford would be looking to hoof the ball forward extremely high and to let Thiago physically wrestle with Micky and Cristian Romero to try to get past them.  Some quick movement of the ball in transition was more like the Spurs that we wanted to see and Porro won a corner after some slick passing in the seventh minute.  It didn’t come to anything, but when the ball was recycled, the cross that came in was headed over by van de Ven. 

With 12 minutes gone, Spurs won the ball in their own half and moved it forward quickly through Mo Kudus and Xavi Simons before it was crossed to Richarlison, who had time to chest the ball down, allow it to drop and bounce up before shaping a shot at goal, but it hit Kayode and Collins before being cleared.  Then Randal Kolo Muani showed great skill to take on Collins, Kayode and Ouattara deep in the Brentford left wing corner and keep the ball in with it coming out to Xavi, who shot over from the left corner of the box. 

It wasn’t long that spurs got the ball back when it was lost, as there was a desire to intercept or tackle.  Brentford tried that to attempt to stop Tottenham players on the ball, but they did it with their hands – pushing and shirt-pulling without getting called out by the match officials.  When Collins did win the ball cleanly, he played a pass from the halfway line into the path of Thiago, who tried to get his shot off quickly from just inside the right hand corner of the penalty area, but Vicario was alive to it and beat it away just ahead of his near post.  From the corner, it almost led to a goal … for Tottenham.  The ball was headed out, Kudus did well to control it and find Simons, who knocked it back to Rodrigo Bentancur.  He showed good vision to play a forward pass beyond the defence for RKM to chase and Kelleher had to come out of his box and got there just before the French striker.  From the resulting throw, Spurs worked the ball across the back four to the left and then back again, before Pedro Porro produced a fine pass over the defence for Simons to run onto.  van den Berg had no chance of keeping up with Xavi and looking up, the Dutchman played a pass along the edge of the six yard box, taking Kelleher out of the game and it sat up nicely for Richarlison to put it into an unguarded net with his left foot.  Not only did Porro’s ball allow Xavi in behind the defender, but it also curled into the box so it let Simons take the ball in his stride.  It was the perfect pass from the Spaniard.

After Kayode picked up a yellow card for a late challenge on Richi, Xavi showed that he was full of confidence, striking the cleared free-kick on the volley from 25 yards and sending it sailing into the North Stand crowd.  Ajer almost ripped Kudus’ shirt off his back, being unable to stop him by fair means, but the paly was allowed to go on as Spurs had possession, but the move broke down on the edge of the box, Brentford broke and the ball was played up to Thiago, who was unceremoniously brought down by Romero, with a scissor tackle, which only brought a booking, as he didn’t leave the ground.  Cristian had already produced a well-timed tackle in the box to stop the Bees’ top scorer, but this wasn’t quite in the same class of challenge.  Brown shirts surrounded the referee wanting Romero dismissed, with Collins using his armband as authority to speak to the ref, but Henderson, Ajer and Outtara didn’t have that privilege. 

Yarmoliuk took Simons down after the ball had been laid off but only got a talking to, but Spurs had worked Porro into the right side of the box and won a corner, which Brentford cleared away.  With 37 minutes gone, Thiago shoulder-charged Micky off the ball and looked to play it into the box, but Bentancur cut it out, ran it to to the edge of the centre circle and passed to Xavi on halfway.  He moved the ball onto Mo on the right wing and Ajer put in his first fair tackle of the day to concede a corner.  Kudus played it in deep to the far post, where Kelleher punched it off for another corner.  This time it went in to towards the penalty spot, where Romero headed it to his left and Kolo Muani planted a header at goal from three yards out that the keeper pushed out.

Five minutes before half-time, Spurs pressed hard to force Brentford back and to win a throw 25 yards from the visitors’ goal.  The ball was again knocked around the back four with Romero playing it to Xavi on the halfway line,  His first touch was heavy, allowing Damsgaard to take the ball off him, with the ball ricocheting off Yarmoliuk to van den Berg, but Simons was alive to it and stole the ball back five yards inside his own half.  Racing forward, Yarmoliuk tried to pull him back, but wasn’t quick enough to reach him, van den Berg was running in treacle behind his team-mate as the way opened up in front of our summer signing.  Collins was coming sliding in from Xavi’s left and Ajer closing on his right as he reached the penalty area, but from 12 yards out, he slid a shot past Kelleher’s right hand that went in off the inside of the post to register his first goal for the club.  It was like watching prime Sonny as he left players in his wake to finish with a calm assurance.    

Tottenham were in control with Cristian shaping to tackle Thiago, who let the ball go as the Spurs skipper had stood off him, allowing the ball to be picked off the Brentford striker with ease and played up the line to Kudus.  He stopped the ball and with Ajer thinking he was going to play it back, was stood up with Mo just taking the ball in the opposite direction, leaving the Norwegian defender looking stupid.  Unable to accept he had been made to look a mug, he then brought Kudus down from behind with a really poor tackle which got a yellow but surely would have been an orange if such a thing existed. 

The unusual sound of the team being applauded off came with the half-time whistle, having put in a good shift in the first 45 minutes. 

It only took two minutes of the second half for the ref to pull a yellow card out of his pocket for Porro, who got there late when Schade shifted the ball away from him, but in the 50th minute Tottenham broke down a Brentford move on the edge of the Spurs box and Bentancur ran the ball away, playing it off to Archie Gray on the halfway line and he, in turn, moved the ball on to Djed Spence outside him on the left.  He passed the ball forward to RKM, going for the return, which Randal dragged back behind him but only to Collins.  The lumbering centre-half somehow managed to loose control of the ball, knocking it back into his own penalty area and setting Djed in on goal.  Brentford were lucky to escape, as the first touch took the ball too close to the goalkeeper, who blocked Spence’s shot.  Kolo Muani missed the ball as it flew back at him and Richarlison got possession, but the referee stopped play as Kelleher had gone down holding his head.   

Intense pressing was allowing Tottenham to win the ball high up the pitch and force errors from the Brentford players.  When Henry looked to play the ball in front of Damsgaard, he hit his heels and the ball went back toward the full-back, but beyond him and let Kudus gain possession.  Mo took the ball past Yarmoliuk, cut across Henry as he came infield and looked for a shot like his goal at Leeds, but Kelleher dived low to his left to hold the ball.

Just before the area, Thiago was slipped a pass into the Spurs box by Damsgaard and Micky produced one of his trademark recovery tackles to rob the striker before he could shoot.  The Brentford man was on the floor appealing for a penalty as play continued and Simons ran the ball away, only to be hacked down by Schade, who got a yellow card.  The Spurs press continued and when Yamoliuk played the ball back to his keeper without looking RKM put Kelleher under pressure, causing a poor clearance to Rich, who knocked it inside to Simons.  With the keeper out of position, Xavi tried a precise shot that Kelleher recovered it time to save easily. 

While Micky and Joao Palhinha (on as a sub for Bentancur) were winning tackles, Mo was enjoying himself, showing quick feet to run at the Bees defence.  Kudus did get a bit too cocky, juggling the ball and knocking it back for Xavi, but putting it out of play.  A quick throw almost caught Spurs out, with Romero having to make another recovery tackle on Thiago in the box to prevent a shot on goal and take the ball back to Vicario, then getting up to rage at Mo !!  Xavi then won the ball off Yarmoliuk before the Brentford midfielder cynically brought him down.

With 15 minutes left, Spurs played the ball out of defence, sometimes stretching to reach passes, but it was moved through midfield with Xavi, but Henry blocked Kudus’ way on the edge of the visitors’ box.  When a clearance to Richarlison saw him kill the ball with his first touch close to the left side-line, he then turned it inside for Djed. who took it on before feeding it through to Wilson Odobert in the box.  Like Spence before him, his first touch allowed Kelleher to close him down and block his shot, but as the ball looked like it was running out, Brentford players didn’t respond, so Kudus did and turned the ball into the net at the near post.  He was already on his way to get the ball-boy’s stool to do his goal celeb, but the linesman raised his flag for offside.  VAR checked it and gave offside against Xavi Simons, who had at least four players between him and the goal, even though he didn’t get the ball.  It was Wilson who was offside, but you can’t expect VAR to get a mistaken identity issue right can you ?

Pape Matar Sarr, who had just come on, went for a ball in mid-pitch with a foot up, but Henderson, who ducked his head, started to hold it, even though Pape’s foot was nowhere near him.  This sort of behaviour, along with having to pull people back when they no longer have the pace to keep up with them always comes when players are a bit of a busted flush and the Saudi money-grabber had such a poor performance that it took until halfway through the first half to realise he was on the pitch.

When Palhinha won another tackle, this time on Janelt outside the Spurs box, it launched another break with Djed’s run down the left pulling the ball back to Pape ten yards from goal but totally unmarked.  Unfortunately, it was just a little too close to him, so the ball got stuck under his feet and again Kelleher had time to smother his effort.  Porro recovered the ball, got to the dead-ball line and the keeper pushed out his low ball in towards the near post.

There was just a couple of minutes of normal time left when Brentford had their best chance.  Porro ballooned a clearance into the air on the edge of the Tottenham area, Janelt headed it from the D forward and to his right for Thiago, but under pressure from Archie Gray, he sliced his shot into the side-netting from five yards out.  

And that was that !  Gala’s ‘Freed From Desire’ blasted out across the stadium for the first time since August for a home game and those Spurs fans who had stuck it out to the end clapped the team, as some of them did a limited lap of appreciation, with Vicario showing his love for the crowd most, along with Bergvall and van de Ven.

It was a fairly straightforward victory and one that you would like to see become commonplace.  the win came against a side who lacked much ambition, much creativity and much energy.  There were times when our passes dropped away from the intended target, but there was no determination among the opposition to get to it first and it looked as though they were playing in a pre-season friendly.  For a long period of the game, they were defending, but not very well, unable to get the ball into the Spurs half, but we were just not able to get another goal that would have given us a buffer against Brentford pulling one back to make it a little more worrying.

I can’t think of anyone who had a bad game.  Micky and Cristian put in some vital tackles when it looked like Brentford might be in for a shot on goal, Vic did what he had to do very well and Pedro and Djed looked to get forward when they could, which was quite a lot of the time.  Archie Gray put in a fine performance and it is a mystery to me why his team-mates give him so many hospital balls, but he does well to break up play and move the ball effectively.  Alongside him, Rodrigo did Rodrigo things; getting the ball and taking it on before laying off a pass to a white shirt … and he got through the match without picking up a booking.  The attacking trio of Simons, Kudus and Kolo Muani caused the Bees defence all sorts of problems.  It was great to see Xavi and Randal clicking, showing their ability as they become more at home at the club, while Mo was performing his tricks and flicks, with one extravagant scooping of the ball with his foot behind what would have been his standing leg if he had been on the floor, but he was in mid-air !  Some of his show-boating wasn’t approved of by Romero when he carelessly gave away a throw that led to a chance for Brentford.  However, he was causing a lot more problems for their defence than ours, with Ajer in particular unable to cope with him, forcing his substitution at half-time.

Richarlison is a strange player.  He’s now showing what we paid £60 million for, as he is having a run in the team, having the striker’s ability to be in the right place at the right time and with the supply of decent passes into the box, he is finding the net more regularly.  But his first touch is often awful.  It could lead to more goals if he could kill the ball instantly in the majority of times he receives the ball, but he works so hard off the ball that he can’t be criticised too much.  He must be a horrible player to play against.

Two Brentford players who have been linked with Spurs recently proved that they are not worth worrying about.  Defender Collins was more content to spend his time arguing with the referee than concentrating on his game, which included two horrendous mistakes that gave the ball to Tottenham players around his own area.  While he does look to bring the ball out from the back, while on this performance, Thiago looked like a throw-back centre-forward who wanted to use his muscle rather than his mind.  He will get opportunities which he can take, as he has proved so far this season, but his all round game was poor on this showing.

The referee’s odd habit of stopping the game when Tottenham were on the attack and then restarting it with a drop ball with our players having to face away from goal and a Brentford player a yard away was not in keeping with the instructions they are given, but then it is in keeping with the general level of refereeing these days.  The linesmen were both poor – always looking to the referee, who was some distances away, to let them know which way a throw in or corner should be awarded when they are a few feet away from the incident.  I’m no longer sure what they are there for now.

The one thing that was surprising was that there was a lack of threat from long-throws or set-pieces.  With both sides being noted for their reliance on goals from restarts, corners were defended well and there were very few long throw, some of which, for both sides, were obviously foul ones, with feet off the floor or the ball not behind the player’s head.  Maybe the transition of the play through our midfield is a hint of the way that we will move the ball in future and it will provide a more entertaining mode of play that probably suits the players we have better.  

One win at home doesn’t change the whole season, but it sent most of the Spurs crowd home happy, apart from those who come to constantly moan and criticise the team.  For me, it shows hints of what might be.

• Xavi Simons scores his first goal for Tottenham.