Preview: Brentford vs. Tottenham Hotspur
Overshadowed by the departure of their vice-captain and leading goalscorer, Tottenham Hotspur kick off the new Premier League season with a visit to Brentford on Sunday.
As the start of a post-Harry Kane era looms large for the Lilywhites, a Spurs side under new management will take on London rivals missing their own star striker until the start of next year.
Despite a free-scoring pre-season promising exciting times to come under new coach Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham are set to start their 2023-24 campaign under a cloud, due to Harry Kane’s exit for Bayern Munich.
With their record-breaking striker choosing to trade in more personal feats for the chance of lifting silverware in the Bundesliga and beyond, Spurs now approach their first Premier League fixture amid a familiar sense of disorder.
Kane’s late departure fits into the bigger picture of several seasons of drift, which culminated in a dismal eighth-placed finish last term and a disappointingly meek elimination from the Champions League.
However, Postecoglou brings a winning mentality to the club after successes in Japan and in Scotland, and the ex-Australia boss has recruited James Maddison, Guglielmo Vicario and Dutch defender Micky van de Ven to boost his options for the months ahead.
After Kane’s four-goal haul helped Spurs record a second straight 5-1 win when they met Shakhtar Donetsk earlier this month, their final friendly game of the summer saw them beaten by Barcelona in Tuesday’s contest for the Joan Gamper Trophy. Oliver Skipp bagged an unlikely brace in Catalonia, but Tottenham still fell to a 4-2 defeat, with Kane conspicuous by his absence.
While that may not represent the perfect preparation for Sunday, the North London club have at least lost their opening league game just once in the last seven years, winning on five occasions.
Preview: Brentford vs. Spurs – prediction, team news, lineups
By stark contrast with their opponents, Brentford have only won their opening league game in two of the last 11 seasons, though they have not been beaten in either of their two Premier League openers to date – shocking Arsenal in 2021 and holding Leicester City to a 2-2 draw last year.
The Bees – who ultimately finished just one point and one place behind Spurs in last term’s Premier League pecking order – sprinted to the finish line during the spring, winning five of their last six games including the last three in a row.
Having not won four consecutive top-flight matches since 1939, they can now do so on Sunday, and a superb recent record in London derbies suggests that could well be possible.
Unbeaten throughout their last nine capital-city fixtures in the Premier League – while winning each of the last four in a row – Thomas Frank’s side may be confident of improving a miserable head-to-head record against Tottenham: Brentford have won just two of the teams’ 10 league meetings.
One of those wins came as recently as May, though, when a 3-1 victory in North London served a severe blow to their hosts’ European aspirations – the Bees fought back from behind to beat Ryan Mason’s team after Kane had put the home side ahead.
Brentford’s own talisman, Ivan Toney, is now unavailable, however, and first-choice goalkeeper David Raya will soon depart. A winless pre-season period – which started and ended with goalless draws either side of a weak showing in the Premier League Summer Series – therefore leaves a repeat of last season’s top-half finish seeming a rather tall order.
Brentford pre-season form:
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Tottenham Hotspur pre-season form:
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We say: Brentford 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur
A fascinating match-up between two front-foot coaches awaits on the Premier League’s opening weekend, as Frank’s philosophy comes up against ‘Angeball’ – albeit in the latter’s infancy at Spurs. Despite either team missing an England striker compared to last season’s lineups, goals should be on the cards at Brentford Community Stadium, where the points could ultimately be shared.