Spurs 1-3 Brentford

Our final home game of the 2022/23 season ended in defeat as Brentford came from behind to take the points on Saturday afternoon.

Harry Kane curled home an excellent opener for his 28th Premier League goal of the season as we totally dominated in the first half, but the Bees hit back with a Bryan Mbeumo double after the interval, with Yoane Wissa sealing a 3-1 win for the visitors late on to ensure a disappointing climax at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

We took just eight minutes to open the scoring, after Frank Onyeka had upended Oliver Skipp 25 yards from goal. Dejan Kulusevski rolled the ball a couple of yards away from its original mark and Kane dispatched a beauty into the top corner past David Raya. It was another record-breaking goal for Kane as he became the first player to score in 25 different Premier League games in one season.

There was a real freedom to our play at that stage and we had five shots on target in the first half as the chances kept coming. Rico Henry cleared Emerson Royal’s powerful header off the goal line after great work from Kulusevski and Heung-Min Son, who then saw his cross glanced wide by Arnaut Danjuma in the 43rd minute.
We almost added to our tally in first-half stoppage time when Son’s effort was blocked by Ben Mee and there was still time for Kulusevski to force a smart save out of Raya with a fierce angled drive. Brentford did have attacking moments in that first period but didn’t make the most of them, one excellent move from front to back ending with Mathias Jensen’s wayward shot.

However, they did capitalise on an opportunity five minutes after the break, Wissa finding Mbeumo on the right of the area and he cut inside and drilled left footed past Fraser Forster. Twelve minutes later, Aaron Hickey threaded a superb ball inside Ben Davies to release Mbeumo, who burst into the area and slotted home in off the far post.

We made a switch in the 66th minute, Lucas Moura coming on for his final appearance in our colours at home, replacing Danjuma but we were struggling to get anything going in attacking areas and instead, it was the visitors who added to their tally seven minutes from time. Oliver Skipp was dispossessed by Shandon Baptiste 20 yards from his own goal, Mbeumo played in Wissa and he beat Forster.

We almost pulled one back in stoppage time but Raya made two fantastic saves in quick succession to keep out Richarlison headers before the excellent Mee blocked shots from Son and Pedro Porro to prevent any comeback.

In team news, Ryan Mason made four changes from the team that started at Aston Villa last weekend – Davinson Sanchez, Yves Bissouma, Danjuma and Kulusevski came in for Cristian Romero, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Pedro Porro and Richarlison. It was a first start in our colours for Danjuma. Romero and Hojbjerg missed out through injury.