Key events
36 min: Some pinball in the Spurs box. Ouattara’s shot is blocked by Van Hecke, who wins a free kick in the process. Spurs hanging on now. “We’re gonna win the league,” trill the Brentford fans, before segueing into “Down with the Fulham”. The Brentford fans en fête.
34 min: Spurs are rattled. Kinsky should have done better with Jensen’s shot. And now Gallagher is booked for a frustrated trip on Kayode.
GOAL! Brentford 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Janelt 33)
Richarlison is robbed 35 yards from his own goal. Jensen drives forward and sends a swerving shot at Kinsky, who parries … and tees up Janelt, who can’t miss from six yards. This scoreline doesn’t flatter Brentford at all.
31 min: Richarlison tries to release Bergvall down the middle, Spurs having put together a few quickfire passes to force Brentford on the back foot. But Ajer reads the danger and intercepts. Brentford counter, Thiago chasing a flick-on down the left and crossing low for Ouattara, who should shoot first time but takes a touch that allows Kinsky to make the save. “What a well-worked Brentford goal!” writes Peter Oh. “The Spurs defenders were spellbound, as if witness to never-before-seen combinations in never-before-seen spaces. (It took me 30 seconds to write that.)”
29 min: Ouattara is sent tumbling by Senesi out on the right. A free kick. Jensen curls the ball towards the penalty spot; Kayode skims a weak header wide left. That’s Brentford’s tenth touch in the opposition box; Spurs have had just the one.
27 min: Thiago isn’t far away from closing down Kinsky, but the keeper kicks clear just in time. Memories of Atletico Madrid never far away.
26 min: Roberto De Zerbi comes to the touchline and claps his hands, half by way of encouragement, half in frustration. The xG is currently Brentford’s 0.66 to Tottenham’s 0.05.
25 min: Van Hecke tries to find Moore out on the right but only succeeds in blootering the ball out for a goal kick. [SFX: ironic cheering]
23 min: Kayode faffs around near his own corner flag, allowing Tel to steal the ball off him. He’s very fortunate that Spurs, to a man, decide to go backwards. Bergvall eventually floats a poor cross in from the left. Goal kick. Kayode breathes a sigh of relief.
21 min: Lewis-Potter slides a low diagonal ball in from the left. Ouattara nearly gets onto it, but Robertson covers and ushers the ball back to his keeper. Great last-ditch defending by the veteran left-back, because Ouattara was one on one with Kinsky otherwise.
19 min: A diagonal comes into the Spurs box from the left. Collins flicks it back infield for Ajer, who shuttles it to the far stick. Thaigo should score from a couple of yards, but somehow heads against the bar. A huge escape for Spurs, who were all over the shop there. The flag eventually goes up for offside, though VAR might have had some work to do had Thiago converted the chance.
17 min: Right now, Brentford look like a settled team, Spurs a bunch only recently thrown together. Which, well, y’know. These things take time.
15 min: … or maybe not. Tel dribbles a weak free kick towards the bottom left. Kelleher saunters over and, in his own time, throws his cap on it.
14 min: … but nobody’s perfect, and now Sangare clumsily hangs out a leg and brings down Richarlison, 25 yards out, just to the left of centre. Danger here.
13 min: That was such a sweet move. This here Sangare has got something all right. Lovely assist, the pass picked out perfectly.
GOAL! Brentford 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Lewis-Potter 12)
Sangare doesn’t take long to announce himself! He one-twos his way down the inside-right channel with Ouattara, bursts into the box, and cuts back accurately for Lewis-Potter, who can’t do anything other than slam home from 12 yards. Lovely move! And it had been coming.
10 min: A bit of space in the pocket for Gallagher, 30 yards out. He curls a shot 30 yards wide of the top-right corner, and 30 yards high to boot. The home fans ask him what that was via the medium of robustly-worded song.
8 min: Lewis-Potter skins Gray down the left and crosses low. Jensen tries to connect at the near post. He misses, but Van Hecke slices wide right. Janelt takes the corner from the right, and Sangare heads harmlessly over from a tight angle on the left. This is a really bright start by Brentford.
6 min: That was a good burst from Brentford, who looked dangerous in every phase of play. They’ve already had five attempts on goal, one way or another.
4 min: … the ball’s played out to Lewis-Potter, who volleys towards the bottom left. The ball hits Gallagher. On the arm? That’s what Brentford claim, but they’re not getting the penalty. Play goes on, and Jensen crosses from the left. Janelt, inexplicably left alone, six yards out, flaps a header wide left.
3 min: Jensen whips the free kick hard towards the near post. Robertson has to do something, and glances the ball over the bar. And from the corner …
2 min: Schade dribbles dangerously down the left before being crudely checked by Van Hecke. A bit later in the game, and that was surely a booking. The referee allows him one. But it’s a free kick near the corner flag.
Spurs get the game going. Within 20 seconds, Robertson’s cross from the left is claimed by his former Liverpool buddy Kelleher.
The teams are out! Brentford wear their red and white stripes, while Spurs are in their blue, pink, purple and many more colours away kit. According to the marketing blurb, which presumably took upwards of 30 seconds to write, these are “never-before-seen visuals inspired by never-before-seen destinations”. They haven’t even tried to make anything up. No spurious allusions to local industry, significant figures, bus routes? Proper feet-on-the-desk vibes there. Anyway, we’ll be off in a minute.
Roberto De Zerbi speaks to Sky. “We have big confidence because all three [debut defenders] are very important players with experience and qualities … we have no problem with them … [Archie Gray, stand-in captain for the day] is very young but has a big personality … he deserves to be captain today … we do not have the complete squad today … but no excuses … the quality is enough to complete … [Brentford] have a clear style … very strong … we have to adapt … the Premier League is a very tough competition and we have to play in our way.”
Pre-match postbag. “What are the expectations of Spurs this season? Normally you’d look at a team that was coming off back-to-back 17th-place finishes and think that having a mid-table season without any danger of relegation would be considered pretty good (a bit like Everton the year before last). But if the Marmoush signing goes through then they’ll have spent almost £400m, and could exceed that before the transfer window closes. That’s following two or three seasons where they’ve hardly been as frugal as in Daniel Levy’s peak years (lots of players in the £40m-60m-ish bracket). I know it sounds ridiculous following the last couple of years but how can a club spend that amount of money and not demand to be at least challenging for the title?” – David Wall
“What a summer it’s been as a Norwegian Spurs supporter. Could not ask for more. But now, on matchday one, the defeatism is back and I find myself speculating on who our next manager will be. It will probably be January 2028 when De Zerbi loses it because the owners refuse to buy him a £160 million, 450k a week striker. Maybe Xabi Alonso, Andoni Iraola or Enzo Maresca is available then. Or maybe we get David Moyes to safely guide us to 11th place and a semi-final in the Conference League. At least the vibes rollercoaster isn’t stuck in an infinite loop of gloom because I’m sure there will be good times as well. Here and there, now and then we will be happy” – Martin Bolme
“Greetings from Frews Bar in Dundee. Whisky and pints a go-go. Only one game in the Scottish Premier today, but it’s a biggie. Dundee United v Dundee at Tannadice. The Dundee derby. Tangerine and Black v Dark Blue. United hold the bragging rights after they spanked their city rivals 3-0 in the last derby back in April. Same again today please. Kick off is in half an hour. As somebody once said, IT’S ON! COME ON UNITED!!!” – Simon McMahon
Brentford boss Keith Andrews talks to Sky Sports, and he’s very excited to be giving Mamadou Sangaré his debut. “This pre-season has been pretty settled compared to 12 months ago … that doesn’t guarantee anything of course … we’re not taking the season lightly … today’s a good example of that … a very talented set of players and a very experienced coach … [Sangaré] has settled in pretty quickly, smoothly … he’s started in a really good fashion … he’s added a little bit of steel … he’s a throwback for me in terms of not being pigeonholed … he can do a bit of everything.”
Those wishing to discover more about the much-heralded Mamadou Sangaré are directed here …
… while all pre-match matters Spurs are also just a click away.
The way we see it. Take one last look before potential collides with reality.
All of the early kick-offs have finished. Here are the results …
Hull City 2-0 Manchester United
Everton 2-0 Crystal Palace
Ipswich Town 2-1 Sunderland
Nottingham Forest 0-1 Leeds United
… and for what it’s worth (not very much, but don’t listen to the fun police) here’s how the Premier League table looks after 0.5 of a matchday.
Just the one debut for Brentford this afternoon: the aforementioned Mali midfielder Mamadou Sangaré.
Tottenham by contrast have four debutants in their starting XI: Sandro Tonali, Andy Robertson, Jan Paul van Hecke and Marcos Senesi. Matheus Fernandes and 17-year-old attacking midfielder Lucá Williams-Barnett are both debut-adjacent, sat waiting on the bench. The new club captain Micky van de Ven is out injured.
The teams
Brentford: Kelleher, Kayode, Ajer, Collins, Lewis-Potter, Jensen, Sangare, Ouattara, Janelt, Schade, Thiago.
Subs: Valdimarsson, Hickey, Henry, Pinnock, Yarmolyuk, Wilson, Anthony, Damsgaard, Schuster.
Tottenham Hotspur: Kinsky, Gray, van Hecke, Senesi, Robertson, Bergvall, Tonali, Gallagher, Moore, Tel, Richarlison.
Subs: Dubravka, Danso, Maddison, Udogie, Fernandes, Solanke, Bentancur, Davies, Williams-Barnet.
Referee: Michael Oliver
VAR: John Brooks
Preamble
Which Tottenham will we get this season, then? Good luck making a confident prediction, because after a couple of campaigns in which they’ve nearly got themselves relegated twice and won a major European trophy, Spurs have ripped it up and started again. One way or another, keeping tabs on their new team is not going to be boring. Brentford by contrast have kept things much the same, other than adding all-action midfielder Mamadou Sangaré, who could turn out to be the signing of the summer.
Having finished eight places above Spurs last time, the Bees will go into tonight’s fixture with confidence. Especially as they’ve got previous in beating north London royalty on the opening day …
… although their head-to-head with Spurs isn’t quite so promising. Just the one win in ten since their return to the top tier, and no victory at home since a 2-0 win at Griffin Park in the old Second Division in 1948. So you’d have to think that history is on Tottenham’s side … but then logical outcomes so often aren’t, and therefore this could be a lot of fun. Kick-off is at 5.30pm BST. It’s on!