Brentford holds on for 2-2 home draw vs Tottenham

Tottenham’s boss is open and honest as usual. He sees a lot to like from a tricky day and acknowledged that Spurs doctors saw what we saw on TV when it comes to Cristian Romero’s head injury.

He, like a lot of us, liked Yves Bissouma’s day and his club’s reaction to the emotional Saturday departure of Harry Kane (quotes via the BBC):

On subbing off Cristian Romero: “Romero had a head knock and the medical team were watching him the whole time. Their information was that he wasn’t that steady and with his head after scoring, I’m not taking any risks in that scenario in this day and age and what we know of head injuries. The last person you want to be directed by is the player himself. He has no idea. The disappointing thing is that apparently we filled out the wrong form for a concussion sub. That is madness in this day and age. It is pretty clear why we took the guy off. It is black and white for us, we’re not going to take any risks with our people when we know what the repercussions are. He seems fine but the player is not the one who knows these things.

On Yves Bissouma’s strong performance: “Bissouma has been outstanding through pre-season and was superb today. We had a lot of the ball and it was important we kept things ticking over. Our progression of the ball was really good, we just lacked a cutting edge. It is the stage we are at. We are trying to change the way the team plays and they are taking on a lot of information.

On players’ reaction to Kane leaving Spurs: “It is either an impediment to you or an opportunity. Harry Kane was massive figure for this club for a long time and will continue to be whether he is in the building or not. We wanted to go out and give our supporters some hope and belief in the team. I thought they did that today.”

Gugliemo Vicario has had a few key moments for Spurs since the big batch of subs for both teams, but this has mostly looked headed for 2-2 pending a massive run of stoppage time, which we’ll know by the end of this post.

At this point you have to think both teams will feel better about their seasons than they did 24 hours ago.

• Spurs held nearly 70 percent possession away from home and created some chances while conceding a goofy penalty and a goofier deflected goal.
• The Bees scored twice without Ivan Toney and can realistically say they could’ve had more in almost doubling Spurs’ xG.

Four minutes stoppage.

Brentford brought on Kevin Schade, Shandon Baptiste, and Mads Roerslev in the 72nd minute as Spurs had seized total control of the game.

Yoane Wissa, Thomas Hickey, and Christian Norgaard leave the match for the Bees.

The visitors respond with Ivan Perisic and Pape Sarr, removing Oliver Skipp and Heung-min Son.

This game has really calmed down.

Brentford’s compact defending seems to have worn down its men, while Spurs are seemingly moving the ball around until they can find James Maddison and see if he can move forward with it, or move it forward.

Surely subs are coming now, because at this point it looks like 3-2 unless Mads Flekken makes a mistake.

James Maddison hits a left-footed shot through traffic that’s collected by Mads Flekken to start the second half.

And there’s a hold-up now, as Mathias Jensen was injured clearing a previous Spurs run.

Mikkel Damsgaard will enter the fray for Jensen in a Dane-for-Dane move by their Danish boss Thomas Frank.

Well, what do we do with that?

Spurs are very much finding goals without Harry Kane but the North Londoners are clearly still finding their footing in the midfield and at the back.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg may make sense as a sub to organize things, but Yves Bissouma and James Maddison have been pretty good.

Spurs have taken eight of the game’s 15 shots but Brentford has the xG edge at 1.62-0.64. Tottenham has 66 percent of the ball, too, and Ange Postecoglou will probably see the cup as half-full.

This game, y’all.

Maddison thinks he’s fouled but the play goes on to right back Emerson Royal, who is for some reason in the heart of the final third, and Spurs will be glad it did.

Royal lashes a superb low shot under the diving Mads Flekken, and it’s 2-2 halfway through 11 minutes of stoppage time!

It makes sense with four goals, two head injuries, a VAR review, and more, but... well... wow.

I refer you to the first sentence of this entry with emphasis.

Now onto the video proof.

The hosts are ahead!

A long ball to the left sees Emerson Royal worked over by Rico Henry, who is the star of this play.

His off-balance cross is snapped low toward goal by Yoane Wissa, albeit without the expected mustard.

Maybe that puts off Micky van de Ven, because it takes a turn off the prone new Spurs back to defy Vicario.

2-1. Bees. Yeesh.

Oooh, this is close.

Heung-min Son gets a piece of Mathias Jensen in the Spurs box as the Bees forward cut back on the Tottenham captain.

That’s going to send Bryan Mbeumo to the spot, and he’s not going to miss despite the best efforts of Gugliemo Vicario to put him off.

It earns the Spurs keeper a yellow, and Mbeumo rolls it opposite anyway. 1-1.

James Maddison spins a hard free kick and Cristian Romero gets low to thump a powerful header home — and there are literal repercussions as the goal withstands VAR review.

Macro, it’s a bit sad as Romero had trouble celebrating due to the power behind his header and the fact that he clearly was dealing with a head injury.

Fortunately, Ange Postecoglou is a reasonable human and has taken Romero off for medical treatment. Enter Davinson Sanchez.

Cristian Romero and Bryan Mbeumo go head-to-head and there’s a two-minute pause for treatment (first-half stoppage time alert).

It breaks up a frantic Brentford press — imagine that — that led to a turnover near Spurs’ 18 as Thomas Frank’s bunch understand the plan even in the first 120 seconds of Week 1.

The post-Harry Kane era begins with Heung-min Son and Richarlison leading the forwards.

James Maddison, Yves Bissouma, and Oliver Skipp get the call at midfield with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Giovani Lo Celso on the bench.

Mads Flekken starts in goal with the presumed departure of David Raya, while Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo lead the line for the suspended Ivan Toney.

Tottenham Hotspur injuries

OUT: Rodrigo Bentancur (torn ACL), Ryan Sessegnon (thigh), Bryan Gil (groin) | QUESTIONABLE: Tanguy Ndombele (undisclosed), Fraser Forster (back)

Brentford injuries

OUT: Ivan Toney (suspension) | QUESTIONABLE: Bryan Mbeumo (thigh), Christian Norgaard (calf), Frank Onyeka (undisclosed)