For the first time in Premier League history, Brentford managed to beat Tottenham at the Gtech Community Stadium, in what was an embarrassing and subpar performance from Tottenham.
After an impressive pre-season campaign in which Tottenham remained unbeaten across all 7 of their games, getting smashed 3-0 by Brentford on the opening weekend was certainly not something many had seen coming, especially after the club’s £237 million summer spending spree.
Four of Tottenham’s six new arrivals in Marcos Senesi, Jan Paul van Hecke, Andy Robertson and Sandro Tonali were handed starts.
Mateus Fernandes and Martin Dubravka had to settle for places on the bench, although the former would go on to make a very encouraging substitute appearance.
First half: Brentford 2-0 Tottenham
Brentford were comfortably miles ahead of Tottenham in terms of tempo from the opening whistle, and after several early warning signs, the hosts eventually made their dominance count 12 minutes in.
Mamadou Sangare was played into plenty of space inside the box before picking out Lewis-Potter, who was afforded just as much space and calmly side-footed the ball home to give Brentford the lead.
Tottenham never really managed to settle into the game, and things went from bad to worse after the half-hour mark, when Brentford doubled their advantage through Vitaly Janelt, with some questionable goalkeeping from Antonin Kinsky.
After Richarlison had given the ball away cheaply near the halfway line, Mathias Jensen’s long-range effort did not look particularly threatening, but Kinsky could only parry the ball straight into the path of Janelt, who had the easiest of tasks in tapping into an unguarded net.
Spurs had managed an xG of just 0.08 by the interval, with their only real effort of note coming from Sandro Tonali, whose ambitious attempt in the closing stages of the half looked more likely to head out of the stadium than trouble the Brentford goalkeeper.
Second half: Brentford 3-0 Tottenham
Disappointing first-half displays from Lucas Bergvall and Conor Gallagher forced De Zerbi into making changes at the interval, bringing on £85 million summer signing Mateus Fernandes and Rodrigo Bentancur.
Those changes did little to hide the considerable holes in Spurs’ performance, however, as Brentford added a third just four minutes into the second half.
Sangare’s stinging volley forced another save from Kinsky, but the young goalkeeper failed to hold onto the ball again, leaving Michael Kayode with a simple finish into the roof of the net.
It was only after falling three goals behind that Tottenham’s attacking instincts finally appeared to wake up, with Mikey Moore forcing two decent opportunities within the space of a couple of minutes, although both efforts were struck straight at Kelleher.
The second chance was particularly frustrating for Spurs, as Andy Robertson had done brilliantly to pick out Moore with a superb low cross, only for the youngster to see his effort swallowed up by the Brentford goalkeeper when it really should have been 3-1.
Those missed chances could have proved even more costly had Igor Thiago not dragged his penalty against the left-hand post after Bentancur had brought down Kevin Schade inside the area, handing Tottenham a brief reprieve from what could have been an even uglier scoreline.
Moore would have another opportunity to get Spurs on the scoresheet later in the game, although his latest effort was once again dealt with by Kelleher.
What’s next for Spurs?
Whatever you make of this performance, the reality is that less than half of the Tottenham side that started at the Gtech Community Stadium would be considered guaranteed starters once De Zerbi has his full squad available.
As Keith Andrews pointed out, when these two teams meet again, it is likely to be a very different game, particularly once Tottenham have had more time to adapt to De Zerbi’s methods and integrate their new signings.
With the expected additions of Savinho and Omar Marmoush potentially arriving before next weekend’s home clash against Newcastle, Spurs should be a considerably improved side by the time they return to Premier League action.
Before then, however, Tottenham have a Carabao Cup second-round fixture against Charlton to negotiate on Wednesday.