On Sunday afternoon, four of Tottenham Hotspur’s starters were making their debut. The last time that happened in a Premier League game was 19 years ago, in a 1-1 draw against Liverpool. They’ve never had more in a Premier League match.
It’s a statistic that supports the general feel of the 2-2 draw at Brentford — that this was in so many ways a new start.
Beyond the four debutants, there was a new head coach, a new captain, and a new reality of starting a Premier League season without Harry Kane.
The scoreline was actually the same as when Spurs visited this stadium eight months ago on Boxing Day and yet, in pretty much every other way, this felt so different from back then. That, you may remember, was a salvage job from 2-0 down, during that Groundhog Day period when Spurs would spend every game falling behind and then trying to desperately rescue something. It was the ninth of 10 successive games where they conceded the first goal. It was also the point at which fans were beginning to give up on Antonio Conte and his approach of trying the same thing every week and hoping for a different result. Eight months prior to that, Spurs drew this fixture 0-0 and Conte had to defend his refusal to tweak his familiar but misfiring 3-4-3 system.
This was different, with only three of the players who started that Boxing Day draw starting this time around. It was also Spurs’ youngest team for a Premier League game for three and a half years, with an average age of 25 years and 65 days.
“More offensive-minded, definitely,” was Brentford manager Thomas Frank’s assessment of this new-look Tottenham. “I think everyone could see that, and no surprise compared to what we saw in the four friendlies that we watched back and Ange’s Celtic team.”
It was hardly a flawless performance from Spurs but, at this point, the need for something different is almost as important as the results. That might seem strange to non-regular Spurs watchers, but Tottenham fans only have to cast their minds back two years to remember what it’s like to have a new manager pick up early wins but look entirely unconvincing. And to know that all that really does is paper over the cracks.
Even before kick-off, Spurs started with something different. The players formed a huddle by the away fans (this was their decision, not the manager’s), which set the tone for an afternoon where the players and supporters felt united. Again, this has not always been the case with Spurs of late. And it was certainly striking to hear the fans singing the head coach’s name, as they did after just 11 minutes following Cristian Romero’s opener.
Spurs fans didn’t wait long before singing Postecoglou’s name (Photo: Getty)
It was a goal set up by James Maddison, who grabbed two assists on an impressive debut, wearing the No 10 shirt that was Kane’s for so long. One of the other debutants, Micky van de Ven, was also given a chant early on by the Spurs fans after whacking a clearance into the stands. He, goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario and the outstanding Destiny Udogie were all praised by Postecoglou as they made it three out of the back five making their first-ever Premier League appearance.
Those early minutes also saw Emerson Royal inverting from right-back into central midfield, as Udogie often did too over on the other flank. It was from a central position that Royal smashed in Tottenham’s equaliser in first-half stoppage time, after 45 minutes where we saw how dangerous Tottenham can be going forward and how vulnerable they can look defensively (Royal was a good example of this, given the way he was caught out by a couple of long balls). In that respect, there were similarities with last season when Spurs scored 70 but conceded 63 in the Premier League.
Overall though, this was a more enterprising Tottenham than last season, who often only really attacked when they were behind and forced to do so — including in that 2-2 at Brentford.
On Sunday, Spurs’ attacking output dropped off in the second half, but they still created decent openings for Son Heung-min and Richarlison. And they ended the game with 358 touches in the attacking third, more than in any Premier League match last season, when their highest number was 319 (in the 3-2 win at Bournemouth — one of those many, many fall-behind-but-rally games).
Postecoglou was a little disappointed with how his side didn’t press home their territorial advantage after half-time, but what was encouraging was the way in which they controlled the second period. It was commonplace last season to see them drop off when in sight of a decent result, but here they played on the front foot and forced Brentford to be more passive.
Spurs ended the game with 69 per cent possession and eight shots on target — though their xG of 1.26 non-penalty expected goals was lower than 20 of last season’s 38 games. Clearly, it’ll take a bit of time for Postecoglou’s attacking patterns to fully kick into gear.
No one, least of all Postecoglou, is suggesting Spurs aren’t still a team with lots of flaws and issues to resolve. But this game was a lot of fun and a big departure from last season.
And that’s a start.
(Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)
