Getting Spursy

Saturday 20th May 2023: Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: Spurs vs Brentford

As the end of the season hooves into view Brentford are in the privileged position of having nothing to worry about.

Fears of succumbing to second season syndrome were banished months ago and our hopes of going on a European tour next season are out of our hands, with both Villa and Spurs to ahead of us in the race.

Today we went to the latter’s home to see if we could close the gap to them down to just a single point. Doing so without Ivan Toney looked difficult but as we had shown in defeating Europa Conference League finalists West Ham United without him last weekend; we are not a one man team.

Flattering To Deceive

Throughout the first half here though it looked as though we may indeed have become a one man team who relied far too much on Ivan to score.

Creating chances wasn’t a problem throughout the half with particular joy coming on the left wing, where Rico Henry and Kevin Shade were able to breeze past their markers whenever the mood took them.

The only thing missing from the Bees first performance in the first half was a touch of quality in the final third.

It was a similar story for the hosts. Their speed on the break, through Heung-Min Son, Dejan Kulusevski and of-course Harry Kane caused the Bees’ defence all kinds of problems all half. This trio created an glut of chances for the hosts to put the game out of sight of their visitors, but thankfully for me they also lacked the guile in the final third to tuck anything away from open play.

Spurs did go down the tunnel at half-time with the lead though thanks to a pearler of a free-kick from just outside the box that sailed off the right boot of Kane that curled beautifully into the top corner of the net.

It was a true Worldie of a freekick that no keeper could ever hope to get near, David Raya threw himself towards the ball but still stood no chance. Kane’s spectacular free-kick aside the first half was devoid of the slightest drop of quality in either attacking third.

The Full Spursy

Spurs had shaded affairs in the first 45 but as anyone who goes up against the Lilywhites knows they’ve never got you beaten until the final whistle. With the deficit sitting at just a single goal and the full second half to work with I was confident Brentford could still get something out of this game.

All we had to do was get an equaliser, then sit back and watch as Spurs fell apart in front of our faces. So it proved to be.

Thomas Frank switching out Frank Onyeka for Mikkel Damsgaard during the break, in a reversion to the 11 that saw off the Hammers last weekend, may have helped what happened next but there is also another explanation.

In the Spur’s dressing room at half time they sat around wondering what was going on, were they really winning a match? ‘That’s not like us at all’ they thought so for the second half they all agreed to revert to type… ‘Full Spursy lads?’ ‘Yeah, The Full Spursy’.

Whether that conversation only occurred in my head or not the hosts certainly went full spursy in the second half, barely laying a glove on their opponents as they proceeded to fall apart and let a certain victory slip through their fingers.

New Bees

After struggling in the final third in the first half the visitors were a completely new team in the second. Having been in the ascendency since the restart and with the hosts wilting in the baking sunshine it took just 5 minutes for parity to be restored.

Bryan Mbuemo was the man who opened the Bees’ scoring account last weekend and he was leading the way here too. Damsgaard collected the ball in acres of room in the Spur’s half then fired forward a defence-splitting pass to Yoane Wissa. He flicked it right to Mbuemo who took it in stride, shifted it onto his left foot and let fly. The ball flew straight and true like an arrow shot from a longbow across the keeper and into the bottom-left corner.

Now we were back on terms everyone seemed to sense what was coming next and sure enough Brentford took the lead just after the hour mark.

Once more it was Mbuemo on hand to finish off a flowing team move. From back-four to back of the net took just 8 seconds. Worked down the right Hickey’s ball down the channel was met by Mbuemo as he steamed in on goal.

This time his first touch set the ball up perfectly for him to stroke home from an acute angle across Fraser Forster once more. As ways to clock up your first ever Premier League brace goes, Mbuemo could’ve done a lot worse.

Bee’s new main man had a golden opportunity to finish off a beautiful hat-trick in the 88th minute. Instead he chose to be incredibly un-selfish and slipped it off to Wissa, who had been granted the freedom of North London, to his right for him to stroke home with his final touch of the match.

Wissa was replaced whilst the away fans were still lost in pure ecstasy and it wasn’t till deep in the 9 added minutes that I realised he was gone, with Josh DaSilva on in his place.

By the time Wissa put the icing on the Brentford cake the home stands were half-empty. Apparently the home fans had no interest in sticking around for the post-match, end of season awards.

Final Day Permutations

Despite how disappointing both the season and today’s result has been for the home fans they are still just a point outside of the European qualification spots. The loss here has taken their fate out of their own hands. Although, given how bad they are at holding onto what they have perhaps their hopes are better resting in other’s hands.

To qualify for Europe next season Spurs must better Aston Villa’s fail to beat Brighton at home.

If both Spurs and Villa fail to win on the final day then today’s win keeps Brentford in with an outside chance of taking that final qualification spot. All they would have to do is beat Manchester City and their superior goal difference will take the bus stop in Hounslow on a European tour.

Unlikely I know, but Bee’s fans can dream. After their incredible comeback today and capping a comeback at the Etihad with a 98th minute winner in the last game before the World Cup, anything is possible….