Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Matt Verri

Tottenham 3-1 Brentford: James Maddison provides finishing touch as Spurs come from behind

Tottenham earned their second Premier League win of the season as they recovered from a nightmare start to beat Brentford 3-1 in north London.

The Bees took an early lead against Manchester City a week ago, and it was more of the same here as Bryan Mbeumo volleyed home brilliantly after just 22 seconds to stun the home fans.

The response from Spurs, though, was superb, as they registered 17 shots in a rampant first-half showing. Two of those brought the goals to give the hosts a half-time lead.

Dominic Solanke scored his first goal for the club, after James Maddison’s effort had been parried into his path, before Brennan Johnson got himself on the scoresheet once again with a low finish into the far corner.

The match remained in the balance for much of the second-half, with Guglielmo Vicario fortunate to avoid punishment after seemingly handling the ball outside of his area.

He made a fine save to deny Kevin Schade an equaliser, and that proved a big moment as Maddison finally the match to bed with five minutes remaining, providing a lovely dinked finish after being played through by Heung-min Son.

Brentford were without the injured Yoane Wissa but it was a stunning start. Almost straight from the kick-off Keane Lewis-Potter cut inside and crossed for Mbeumo, who was given too much space by Micky van de Ven and brilliantly volleyed into the top corner.

Spurs responded strongly with a Rodrigo Bentancur shot deflected wide before Maddison had an effort blocked by Ethan Pinnock.

Pinnock's wayward pass led to Tottenham's equaliser. Maddison stole in ahead of Vitaly Janelt and while Mark Flekken saved his low strike, Solanke was on hand to tap home in the eighth minute.

It was Solanke's first goal since his £65million move from Bournemouth last month and also the third game in a row he had scored against Brentford.

The Spurs attack, which had struggled to click during the opening weeks of the season, was in full flow with a Son Heung-min curler saved before Johnson drilled wide.

Destiny Udogie was the next to threaten and Son should have made it 2-1 in the 26th minute when he raced through, but Flekken got a crucial touch after the Tottenham captain tried to round the Bees goalkeeper.

Two minutes later and Postecoglou watched his team go in front with Johnson again able to silence his critics. Son passed out to Johnson, who dribbled past Nathan Collins and brilliantly drilled into the bottom corner a week on from receiving social media abuse.

Chants for Johnson from the home crowd followed before a yellow card for Van de Ven resulted in words being exchanged between Thomas Frank and Spurs first-team coach Ryan Mason.

There was still time for Guglielmo Vicario to dally on the ball, but he blocked Mbeumo's shot before Mikel Damsgaard fired straight at the Italian to bring an action-packed half to an end.

Brentford were rightly furious in the 58th minute when Vicario appeared to handle outside his area after he tried but failed to claim a cross ahead of Damsgaard.

Kristoffer Ajer and Bees boss Frank were booked for dissent, but it galvanised the away side as Mbeumo was played in only for Vicario to make a fine one-handed save.

Frank sent on forward Kevin Schade and soon after he met Sepp van den Berg's cross but Vicario made an even better save to claw away the header.

No final chance for Brentford would be forthcoming as Tottenham wrapped up the points with five minutes left when Cristian Romero played through to Son, who clipped into Maddison's path and he chipped home the third.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.