Brentford welcome London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur to Gtech Community Stadium as the 2022-23 Premier League season resumes.
Victory would see Thomas Frank’s Bees climb to seventh, whilst Spurs can go third with a win for a few hours at minimum.
Team News
Pontus Jansson could return for Brentford following his recovery from a hamstring injury.
Thomas Stakosha, Aaron Hickey (both ankle), Kristoffer Ajer (knee) and Shandon Baptiste (adductor) remain absent.
World Cup stars, David Raya, Mathias Jensen, Christian Norgaard, Saman Ghoddos, Mikkel Damsgaard and Bryan Mbeumo will all be available for selection, following their return to training without injury.
Tottenham will be without Richarlison after he suffered a hamstring injury playing for Brazil at the World Cup.
Oliver Skipp, Djed Spence (both illness) and Ben Davies (abdominal) could be available but Rodrigo Bentancur is ruled out with a groin injury suffered on international duty for Uruguay.
Cristian Romero (personal) will be absent following Argentina’s World Cup triumph as he continues to enjoy their success back in his home country.
Spurs’ World Cup players; Hugo Lloris, Eric Dier, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Ivan Perisic, Pape Matar Sarr, Son Heung-min and Harry Kane are all back in training and available for selection.
Stat Attack
- Brentford are winless in two previous Premier League meetings against Tottenham (D1, L1), during which they failed to score in both games.
- Tottenham claimed a goalless away draw against Brentford in their only previous Premier League visit to the Gtech Community Stadium in April 2022 (D1).
- Brentford’s Yoane Wissa is the only player to have been utilised as a substitute in both previous Premier League clashes against Spurs.
- Brentford have conceded just one goal in their last three home matches (W1, D2), which came in their 1-1 draw against Wolves in late October.
- Spurs have kept just one clean sheet in their last four away matches which came in a 1-0 win at Brighton in October, whilst they conceded seven goals across the three other away games.
Prediction
Despite enduring an inconsistent run of friendly results during the World Cup break, Brentford shouldn’t be too disheartened after they stunned Manchester City in their last competitive fixture with excellent aggressive attacks and solid defending.
Tottenham meanwhile were like a game of two halves against Leeds last time out because their first-half effort was simply flat to put it mildly, yet their second half performance had clinical finishing and desire which proved enough for the win despite some lacklustre defending at times.
Now, I would like both teams to build upon the positives of those performances which hopefully will make this a cracking London derby, because I can see Brentford and Spurs looking to go on the attack and as first game back after a month of no competitive action, a draw would be a fair result.
Prediction: Brentford 1-1 Tottenham
Result: Brentford 2-2 Tottenham
Leave a Reply