In the end, Ange Postecoglou had the last laugh where Dominic Solanke was concerned. And, as he will point out, rather than the end, this is just the beginning.
The Tottenham manager was a tad exasperated on Friday when asked how worried he was that his brand new £65million striker was still yet to score for Tottenham.
Solanke had played just “two-and-a-bit games”, he reminded reporters in his press conference, adding that while a goal drought after 15 games might be noteworthy, one this early in Solanke’s Spurs career — which has already included two missed games due to an ankle injury — is not.
Postecoglou called for calm not only in Solanke’s hunt to get off the mark for his new club but also in Tottenham’s campaign. After this dominant 3-1 win over Brentford, the early-season mizzle appears to have abated, at least for now.
Solanke’s goal was Spurs’s first and proved the perfect response to falling behind to a Bryan Mbeumo stunner after just 22 seconds. Solanke's strike also encapsulated what Spurs were about on this sunlit September Saturday afternoon as James Maddison pinched the ball, forced a save, and Solanke swept home the rebound.
Maddison had been long due a barnstorming performance, and here it was. He was on his heels to intercept a Brentford pass for the opener - and for the second - and on hand to finish the Bees off late in the second half with his first goal of the season.
Solanke, like Maddison, did not only score but put in quite the shift too, holding the ball up responsibly and dropping into midfield to collect and spray wide in a fashion that (whisper it quietly) was not so unlike the way a certain Harry Kane used to lead the line here.
The brightest smile of the afternoon was reserved for Postecoglou as he watched Brennan Johnson put Spurs ahead for the first time in the game.
Johnson appeared a man exuding unending confidence as he took in Son Heung-min’s pass and blasted an unerring finish past Mark Flekken from an acute angle. Instead, of course, he had been suffering a low.
Online abuse led to him deactivating his Instagram account last weekend, and his subdued celebration after scoring the winner against Coventry City in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday spoke of how the social media pile-on had knocked him. Postecoglou had words of encouragement for Johnson on Friday and urged him to keep at it. What a response from the winger.
Spurs still linger in 10th and must target consistency of results next, but this afternoon had always been about getting back on track after two successive defeats in the league. That they did.
