Archie Gray has explained how Tottenham will respond after a chastening defeat to Brentford on the opening weekend of the new season.
The Bees ran riot in a 3-0 win, beating Spurs for the first time at home, with debutant Mamadou Sangare running the show in midfield. The performance from Spurs will spark concerns among fans, and onlookers, after back-to-back 17th-place finishes, despite spending £237million to date over the summer.
No excuses from captain
Gray, who made history as the club's youngest-ever captain, says there is "no excuses" from him or his team-mates for the result.
"We've got work to do, you saw that performance," he told Sky Sports. "It's definitely an improvement from last season. It's not the start we wanted, going into the mid-week game on Wednesday."
He added: "The work we do in the week is about moving in the right direction but today we got out-fought."
Leadership role and next fixtures
Gray was on Friday confirmed as part of Spurs' five-player leadership group, headed by first-choice captain Micky van de Ven. Due to injury issues, Gray was handed the armband. He said of the honour: "It was an amazing moment and I'm grateful for the manager for trusting me but again, today wasn't good enough."
Spurs are next in action on Wednesday, hosting Championship side Charlton in the Carabao Cup second round. Then it is Newcastle the visitors in the Premier League at the weekend.
