Brentford (away) 23.04.2022

Having said that, the same happened last week and Brighton got a last minute goal, while today, for all their efforts, Brentford only had two on target, but hit the post in the last minute with Toney’s header from a free-kick.  Hugo Lloris had pushed another Toney header up onto the bar with a very good save in the first half, but the game was mainly played out between two sides who were not at their best.

Ryan Sessegnon was drafted in for Reguilon, who was overcoming an injury picked up during the week and that was the only change from the starting line-up against Brighton. The biggest cheer had been reserved for the appearance of Christian Eriksen with both sets of fans joyful at seeing him out on the pitch again.

Some fortunate rebounds gave Mbuemo a shooting chance that a block took any force out of but gave the Bees a corner and Christian Eriksen found a Spurs head with it. Another shortly after went long and was played back into the box by Toney at the far post. It drifted through and substitute referee Martin Atkinson gave another corner, which again Eriksen played long for Toney to hit a volley at the far post, but it hit Davies and Spurs cleared the loose ball.

The home side were pressing hard to start the game, but it soon settled down to a more moderate pace, which gave Tottenham a chance to get time on the ball. A couple of times Jansson had got very tight to Harry Kane in the Brentford box and it was a dangerous tactic, knowing how quickly Harry can turn.

An Eriksen corner was attacked by Toney and Hugo Lloris made a fine reflex save to push the ball up onto the bar and Eric Dier completed the clearance, but Jansson had gone in on Hugo and it looked as though he might have landed badly on his elbow again, as he did at the Amex stadium a few seasons ago. He was OK to carry on and when Sessegnon conceded a corner, it went short and Spurs were able to deal with the ball when it was played in. It was a surprise that they didn’t put Lloris under pressure coming straight after they had success with a ball into the box. Their next corner went long again to Toney, whose volley hit Davies again and went off for another corner.

Son was fouled on halfway but the ref allowed play to go on and a first time pass put Toney away on the right, where he looked offside and Hojbjerg had to cut out his cross at the cost of a corner. It was a poor piece of officiating but not unexpected. Spurs did have a shot in the 28th minute, with Bentancur hitting a shot that swirled wide from 25 yards out. The Spurs play looked tentative and the passing lacked weight to reach the player it was meant for, all of which allowed Brentford to contain Tottenham and play the ball forward.

Eriksen’s passing was up to its usual high quality, but unfortunately, the Brentford players were not always equal to it. Not a lot else happened before half-time, as Atkinson was obviously keen to take his wages without doing too much for them.

The second half started with Lloris almost getting caught on the ball in the six-yard box, having to hurriedly clear as Mbuemo closed him down. Spurs did manage to play the ball out from a goal-kick, moving it quicker and got into the Brentford box, but Hojbjerg’s resulting cross went behind for a goal-kick to the home side. A long aimless ball into the Spurs half saw Hugo race well out of his box and he tackled Toney well to put the ball out, otherwise it could have been disastrous for Spurs.

There seemed to be a lack of hunger for the game from Spurs and even though Romero’s low pass into Kane on the edge of the box saw the striker turn Jansson, his shot was going high before it took a touch off the Bees defender. It brought a series of three corners, but none brought a threat on goal. With nearly ten minutes of the half gone, Spurs got the ball in the Brentford box from Royal’s pull-back to Harry Kane and it caused a lot of pinball as Kane, Bentancur and Kulusevski all had shots blocked.

The quality of Tottenham’s final ball was lacking and it was stopping shots getting in on the Brentford goal. There was a back ten to try and break through, so it wasn’t easy picking out a pass to open them up, but the team needed to find a way.

Around the hour mark, Brentford won a few set-pieces and a free-kick ten yards outside the box gave Eriksen the chance to have a go for goal, but he hit the Spurs wall. A pass from Dier caught Son on his heels and the ball was quickly played left by Brentford to Eriksen, who drove a shot at goal that was deflected wide. From the corner, Hugo came and got a hand to it, but it was lumped back into the middle, where Jansson’s header was nodded away by Kane from in front of goal and then Eriksen made space to the left of the goal to shoot low. Lloris got down to it quickly and Davies reacted first to prevent Toney getting onto the loose ball. When Spurs brought the ball out,  Jansson dragged Hojbjerg back to prevent Tottenham breaking away and got booked when Atkinson had been letting fouls like this go all through the first half.

Unfortunately, Sessegnon was having a poor time on the left, with his crosses wayward and the supply for the forwards was minimal. With  16 minutes to go, Conte made a change and not one that many Spurs fans were expecting. Sanchez came on for Sess and it shifted Davies into Ryan’s role.

The atmosphere at the ground dropped off a cliff at this point in the match, with neither side looking like breaking the deadlock, but Spurs did work the ball around the home penalty area but couldn’t find the route to goal. Too many balls into the box lacked precision or accuracy and with a big, tall defence and players back in numbers, the Bees could thwart any moves on goal.

From a Bees corner, the ball was cleared and in the second phase of play, a “tactical” foul stopped Moura breaking away from Sorensen after he had been too strong for him under a bouncing ball. It didn’t help Spurs, as Son put the free-kick straight into Raya’s hands. His quick release put Brentford away and Bentancur picked up a yellow card for a foul on Mbuemo. From the free-kick, Toney rose highest and planted a header against the post.  When Tottenham moved up to the other end Kane was on the end of Kulusevski’s cross from the right and performed a scissors kick that went narrowly wide from the left of the goal.

A draw probably ends our interest in Champions League football next season, with the Gooners winning earlier in the day. A month ago, scoring for fun, now Spurs have lost their shooting boots at just the wrong time, with a second game without a shot on target. Something has gone wrong, as the pace that Tottenham are playing at has dropped and teams are crowding them out to make it difficult to get into scoring positions, but there has to be more variation to our play to counter these tactics. Whether we could do that with a player like Eriksen in our side, who knows, but his range of passing would give Kane and Son more opportunities to at least try to get efforts on goal.

Yes, there are still five games to play, but dropping five points to Brighton and Brentford probably has damaged our final finishing position as much as losing away to Burnley and drawing away at Everton.  It’s been an up and down season, mostly because of the failed appointment of Nuno Espirito Santo.  It all started so well too ...

The Polyphant