Continue down this road and it will not be long before the chants of “Lincoln away” start up again. This was the start of Tottenham’s brave new era but there was no sign of any change. The old flaws were still there in a cowardly display – with and without the ball – and after a summer of extravagant spending it will alarm Roberto De Zerbi that his side opened the season looking like relegation candidates rather than contenders for European football.
If anything it was a reminder that winning the transfer window is not the same as winning on the pitch. There has been plenty of excitable predictions about Spurs, whose outlay is likely to soon surpass £300m, but are they based on anything substantial? Not on the evidence of this game. There were no patterns of play from Spurs. They were timid in possession and chaotic at the back. They failed to perform the basics and they crumbled in the face of relentless pressing from Brentford, whose blend of power, speed and skill revealed a team determined to kick on in their second season under Keith Andrews.
