Brentford (away) 26.12.2022

Despite claims that Antonio Conte would not feature any of the players who were involved in the World Cup, Ivan Perisic, Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son started, with Ben Davies coming off the bench for a minute at the end of the game.  So, we wondered if Spurs would be able to pick up where they left off before the interruption to the season as they kicked off in the lunch-time sunshine.

Brentford won a corner inside the first two minutes and unlike last season, when they looked to find someone at the far post, it was played to the near post, where it was flicked on to the far post, but the ball went out for a goal-kick. The other facet of the Bees’ armoury was the long-throw which looked for Ivan Toney, but Spurs defended it well and Fraser Forster, making his first Premier League start, was alert to read a quick free-kick looking for Rico Henry by making an early move to the edge of his penalty area to claim the ball.

Brentford were looking to play the ball early behind the Spurs defence, while Tottenham looked to work their way through the massed ranks of the home players, so when Son ran at Mee, the defender could only bring him down for a free-kick 25 yards out and central to the goal. Harry Kane, captaining the team, took it looking for the top corner, but it hit the wall for a corner. It was played low into the near post but was easily defended.

The home side broke down the left with Toney flicking the ball on to Mbeumo and the ball across to Jensen was volleyed at goal. Lenglet got a touch on it, which forced Forster to make a reflex stop, but Janelt had made a run into the box and kneed the ball over the line to open the scoring with 15 minutes gone. It was a  little against the run of play, but the way that Brentford play, they look to counterattack and use the pace of their forwards.

The goal gave Brentford impetus and they forced a couple of corners, but Tottenham did to deal with them, although one high ball back under the bar had Forster pushing it over the top under challenge from Pinnock, which would normally have been given as a foul.  With 24 minutes on the clock, Spurs started to get some shots on goal, with Son trying to curl one but without any venom, then Kulusevski took the ball around Mee, making him look foolish and tried a low shot on goal, but Raya was right behind it. Son tried another effort and from a long throw, Jorgensen got a shot on target that Forster had to kick away with his right foot.

The game was constantly interrupted with free-kicks and there was little pattern to the game, but three minutes before half-time, Bissouma got the ball stuck under his feet and a through pass sent Toney in on Forster. It was odds on he would put the ball in the net, which he did, but you can’t bet on anything these days, as the goal was ruled out for offside.

The first half had seen Tottenham trying to mix it up with long balls forward, as well as trying to work the wings, but the cohesion was missing, with Kane’s link-up play slightly off and the pressing that had been lauded in training not really evident.

A loose Brentford interception at the start of the second half saw Son in space, but he opted to try and find a straight pass to Kulusevski that was blocked rather than free Doherty to his right, who was in lots of space. With Tottenham looking sharper, Kane passed on to Son, who played the ball left for Perisic and his low cross had to be hacked away for a corner before it reached Kulusevski. Ivan curled another ball in from the left with Kane going for it with Mee, with the Spurs striker sent sprawling, but VAR decided it wasn’t a foul despite the defender not looking at the ball and blocking Harry off. It would have been an obstruction at the least when referees used to give free-kicks for obstruction.

An unnecessary corner was conceded when Dier mis-kicked the ball and it came into the near post and Norgaard’s unmarked header at the near post out the ball in front of goal and Toney put it in from inside the six-yard box. 0-2 down and while Spurs had been able to recover losing positions before the World Cup break, it would be a test to see if they could break down the well-organised Brentford side.

Another Brentford break saw Toney come in off the left and pass right to Mbeumo, who tried to make a yard to shoot, but Hojbjerg made a good tackle to avert the danger.  64 06 Spurs were being forced into quick passing, which wasn’t always accurate but Hojbjerg knocked the ball on to Lenglet and his far post cross picked out Kane, who might have shoved Mee, but curled a header beyond Raya’s right hand to put Tottenham back into the match.

Soon after the goal, Mbeumo could have restored the two goal gap, but as Henry’s low square ball came in and Toney went to ground looking for a penalty, the Cameroon striker blazed his shot over the bar from the 18 yard line. Sanchez came on for Tanganga and Jensen went off to be replaced by Ghoddos with just over 20 minutes left.

70 54 Some good passing and interplay around the edge of the Brentford box brought a chance for Doherty and Kulusevski the opportunity to give the Swede the chance to pull the ball back from the dead ball line. It took a touch of Mee that allowed it to run to Hojbjerg free inside the box, ten yards out and he calmly slotted the ball into the inside of the side netting to the keeper’s right.

Now Tottenham had the upper hand and Kane put one just over the bar, before the ball was played into the Brentford box and Doherty was challenged by Jorgensen. The Irishman went down, as it seemed he had been made contact with, but the Brentford defender got in his face and then raised his hand to Matt’s face, with the referee just talking to him and Doherty without any punishment for the Danish defender. In the next attack, Mbeumo tried to latch onto a through ball into the box and went down, but Forster had pulled out of the challenge realising he wouldn’t get to the ball and the referee pulled out the yellow card for diving. It created a bit of a melee with players surrounding the referee, but nobody likes to such blatant cheating.

Spurs continued to attack and when Doherty won an ariel challenge to Perisic’s cross, Kane tried to hook the ball at goal as it dropped but sliced his kick with Jorgensen trying to shepherd it back to his keeper amidst calls for handball. What the referee gave was offside against Perisic, even though he might have been off the pitch when the ball was last touched.

With eight minutes remaining, Davinson Sanchez was up in attack and fired a right-foot shot at goal that Raya did well to catch, considering the force behind it. Then there was almost a repeat of Kane’s goal as Lenglet swung the ball in and Kane rose highest and beat Raya to the ball to head against the crossbar. At the other end Toney tried to reach a ball headed back into the middle of the goalmouth by Roerslev, but Forster’s challenge put him off and he prodded it over the top.

In added time Son forced a sprawling save from Raya after Hojbjerg had been cleaned out from behind by Janelt, but again Coote did nothing to punish the bad foul.  The ref also turned a blind eye when an elbow drew blood from Clement Lenglet’s forehead and then the perpetrator Jorgensen moaned that he was having treatment on the pitch.  The Brentford defender is one of those players who feels he has to get involved in everything and with his previous involvement with Kulusevski, you might have thought he was worth at least a yellow, but the paperwork obviously wasn’t worth it in the official’s mind.

Conte will again be perplexed that Spurs can only start playing once they are behind and while the point in the circumstances was a welcome one, it must be a concern that out first half performance was so flat.  There was little joined up play and the shape seemed to cause problems against Brentford’s five in midfield.  The second half might have seen the home side tire a little, but the urgency in our play was more evident and the movement gave Brentford issues that they were not always able to cope with.

A win would have put us temporarily into second place, but the draw means we drop points against those around us and with games at Villa and Palace (both of whom lost today) an improved first half showing might bring us a couple of wins which would help a lot.

Kirk Hammerton 

• Harry Kane scored his 10th Boxing Day goal creating a record for most scored on 26th December in the Premier League.
• There was a minute’s applause for George Cohen – England 1966 World Cup winning full-back who died this week.
• Both sides took the knee before kick off.