5 Things we learned from Brentford’s emphatic opening day win over Spurs

1. That’s the way to start the season at the G-tech. All the talk before the game was about the new look Spurs but it was all Brentford today who absolutely battered De Zerbi’s side for 90 minutes, Brentford came out the far better side and took the lead early in the 12th minute as new signing Mamadou Sangare played a 1-2 with Dango Outarra before firing the ball across the box where Keane Lewis-Potter was waiting to fire Brentford into the lead. From there it was all Brentford who were running rings around Spurs all over the pitch and eventually doubled their lead in the 33rd minute, Lucas Bergvaal was caught on the ball close to the Spurs box by Mathias Jensen who fired a shot towards Kinsky which was saved but only to Vitaly Janelt who tapped home to put Brentford 2-0 up. Spurs were all over the place in the first half and De Zerbi made two changes at half-time bringing on Mateus Fernandes for Conor Gallagher and Rodrigo Bentancur for Lucas Bervaal, changes that made absolutely no difference as Brentford added a third in the 49th minute after a corner was headed to the edge of the box where Mamadou Sangare was waiting with his volley initially saved by Kinsky but only to Michael Kayode who was on hand to kill the game for Brentford early in the second half. Igor Thiago had a chance to add a fourth from the penalty spot after Kevin Schade was bundled over by Bentancur but the Brazilian’s penalty hit the wrong side of the post, not the end of the world as Brentford already had the game won but he would have been keen to open his account for the season. A pretty easy first three points of the season for Keith Andrews but plenty of questions for Roberto De Zerbi ahead of next week.

2. Such an impressive first performance from Brentford. I’ve got to say I was so impressed with Brentford today throughout the 90 minutes, from the word go they were miles better than Spurs and dominated basically the whole game. I’ll talk about Sangare later on but he so impressive today in his debut for the club and he was right at the heart of two of the goals Brentford scored today, on top of that all the attackers were brilliant linking up with each other which caused the likes of Van Hecke and Senesi so many problems throughout the game. Even though Igor Thiago missed the penalty I thought he was superb today holding up the ball superbly as the likes of Kevin Schade and Dango Outtara ran past him in behind the Spurs defence, defensively it’s hard to gauge Brentford today as Spurs caused them very few problems but they were solid as always giving the rest of the team a platform to succeed and press which they did throughout the game. Overall it’s just a perfect way to kick off the Premier League season for Brentford who undoubtedly will be looking to push for Europe again this season.

3. A sobering first day back in action for Spurs. This was a performance all too reminiscent of those from last season for Spurs in that it was just completely devoid of any quality anywhere on the pitch, the starting 11 did have me worried in that you had the likes of Conor Gallagher, Mathys Tel, Richarlison etc who to put it simply aren’t good enough to be playing for a club like Spurs and probably should have been moved on in the summer. They’ve had enough chances at the club throughout the last year or so and nearly got the club relegated last season which I think was enough grounds to get rid, even the new additions had really poor games today like Sandro Tonali, Jean Paul Van hecke and Marcos Senesi. Andy Robertson is the only player that can really hold his head high after his performance today, I’d imagine over the next few weeks we’ll see a completely different team with the additions of Savinho and Marmoush along with a few others but it’s going to take some time for the scars of last season to heal in this Spurs team.

4. Mamadou Sangare already looks like a steal. I’ve got to admit I’m not an avid Ligue 1 watcher so when I saw Brentford spend £40 million on the Malian midfielder I had to do some research and watch some videos on him, in that research and videos I saw exactly what everyone saw today in that he is absolutely mad to play in the Premier League as a midfielder. He has everything you want in that position whether it’s physicality, quality on the ball, interceptions, end product etc he has it all. Spurs had a midfield worth close to £200 million in there and Sangare was head and shoulders above them all which must be extremely exciting for Keith Andrews and Brentford, you have people shouting about signing ‘Premier League proven’ players but when you have scouts like Brentford do you can get quality players at a relative bargain compared to what clubs pay for players in this league. Just imagine what Brentford are going to charge when clubs inevitably come knocking for Sangare over the next few years, it’s easily going to be triple what they paid for him. I can’t wait to watch more of him over the season in midfield for Brentford.

5. Any more business to do over the next week or so? For Spurs I would imagine there’s plenty of business left to complete with Savinho already on the way for an apparent £85 million fee which I still cannot wrap my head around, Omar Marmoush is another one that looks like coming in so that will strengthen the attack massively if both of those come in from Man City. They desperately need the likes of Mohammed Kudus, Micky Van de Ven, Dejan Kulusevski etc back to add some character to a team that looked devoid of it today, if you add those along with Pedro Porro, Mateus Fernandes and Dominic Solanke I think you have a much better Spurs team. For Brentford I think their window is about done to be honest, alongside Sangare they brought in Jaidon Anthony and Callum Wilson who add some much needed depth to the attack and with only the Premier League to focus on I think Brentford are going to have a very good season this year. Another European place push is about where I see Keith Andrews side this season, I can’t why not after a performance like today.