Brentford swept aside Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 in their Premier League opener, with the hosts three goals to the good before the hour mark and Roberto De Zerbi's expensively-assembled side left with a familiar sense of defeat.
De Zerbi had claimed Tottenham "can't forget what happened last season", and there was no danger of that as their losing habit continued in west London. The Italian kept Tottenham afloat last term, just, and after a summer that will likely see £300million spent there was a sense of a new beginning. Instead, those in the away end felt deja vu from last season.
Bees outclass Spurs in every facet
Despite boasting £100m record signing Sandro Tonali in midfield, Tottenham were outclassed in every facet by the Bees. Keane Lewis-Potter had the hosts ahead inside 12 minutes, with Vitaly Janelt doubling their lead by half-time. Only an Igor Thiago penalty that came off the post prevented it from being 4-0 by sixty minutes.
De Zerbi threw on Mateus Fernandes and Rodrigo Bentancur to start the second-half, but they did little to turn the tide. Fernandes spent a short period as Tottenham's record buy after signing for £85m, but after successive relegation he did little to prove his doubters wrong on his first run out.
Pitch speaks volumes
The Tottenham boss said on Friday: "At the end of the transfer market, I will be more accurate in my opinion. Maybe we will know now. Maybe we have to see on the pitch. To be honest everyone we are very excited but in the end the pitch speaks."
It did speak. Volumes. Tottenham's spend has dwarfed that of Brentford, but Keith Andrews' side again showed that a solid system and plenty of continuity can still power over a host of multi-million signings. Jan Paul van Hecke, the £52m new centre-half in the Tottenham backline, was unable to halt the Brentford wave.
Tottenham's struggles continue
Had Tottenham got the first goal of the second-half it would've been game on, instead it was game over when Michael Kayode reacted quickest from a corner to score Brentford's third. There is talk of Savinho and Omar Marmoush both joining from Manchester City, which would add more than £100m to Tottenham's summer spend.
The addition of individual quality seems to have done little to improve Tottenham's fortunes so far. James Maddison appeared from the bench after spending last season out injured, which was about as positive as Tottenham's evening got. De Zerbi has clearly added quality to his squad, but Saturday showed that moving on from last year's 17th place finish is going to be a lot harder than it may have seemed in pre-season when record signings were arriving on a weekly basis.
