Brentford thrashed Tottenham 3:0 at the Community Stadium in the opening round of the Premier League season. The hosts had fancy their chances from the start, and here's the thing — they made sure to cash in. By then the visitors were already three goals down and had nowhere to hide.
K. Lewis-Potter opened the scoring in the twelfth minute, followed by V. Janelt thirty-three minutes in. The away end never stopped complaining, but the home side kept their heads and worked a short corner to add a third. M. Kayode tapped in from close range forty-nine minutes from the start, and the game was effectively over.
Tottenham had a yellow card for Conor Gallagher in the thirty-fourth minute, then lost their composure in the box. Igor Thiago missed two penalties in consecutive minutes, the forty-fourth and forty-fifth, which meant the hosts were not going to let up. Substitutions came thick and fast after the break, with Bergvall and Gallagher going off for the visitors while Richarlison and A. Gray came on.
And here's the thing about the numbers — Brentford had forty per cent possession but 3.87 expected goals to Tottenham's 0.57. The visitors played 549 passes against 360, yet only four shots hit the target. Eighteen tackles for Tottenham against nineteen for the hosts, but the away side could not penetrate. The shots tell the story: twenty inside the penalty area for Brentford, four for the visitors.
Brentford sit fifth with four points from two games, while Tottenham are bottom of the table with zero. The hosts had already beaten Eintracht 7:0 and drawn with Rennes 4:2, so this result extended their momentum. Tottenham's run of defeats continued, and the table goes out of the window in these games — but the gap is real enough.