Tottenham has moved back into the Premier League’s top four and bolstered its Champions League hopes with a chaotic 3-2 comeback win over Brentford on Thursday morning.
Ange Postecoglou helped mastermind the victory, with a double change at halftime and key message seeing Spurs put missed opportunities behind them to overcome a 1-0 deficit.
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“It was just one of them games,” Brennan Johnson, who scored one of Tottenham’s three second-half goals, told TNT Sports at fulltime.
“The manager said before, ‘Once we score one we’ll score two and we’ll score three’. He said them exact words and as soon as we scored that first goal so early I felt like we had to keep the momentum going.
“I just knew I had to be there because that’s what the manager demands of our wingers to get to the back-post and when it fell to me I was happy.
“There’s no secret that recently I haven’t been at my best. I think in those situations I haven’t been in the right positions, so today I made sure I had to be.”
Brentford got the ball in the back of the net first in Thursday’s game, although a look from the VAR confirmed it was offside and no goal for the visitors after Mads Roerslev finished well across Guglielmo Vicario.
Mathias Jensen, who played it in for Roerslev, was the player flagged for offside in the lead-up.
Tottenham had a few chances of its own undone by offside calls in the early stages of the game too, with Timo Werner threatening down the left from the opening minute as James Maddison found him only for the flag to be raised.
Only a few minutes later Oliver Skipp had a shot blocked before finding Dejan Kulusevski, who had a chance to get a shot at goal but was ruled offside anyway.
It was a positive start for Postecoglou’s men in that sense, although they too were also looking vulnerable in defence and eventually conceded as Neal Maupay put the visitors ahead in the 15th minute.
It came on the counter after a misdirected pass in the middle of the field from Destiny Udogie, with Ivan Toney racing away with the ball and while his initial shot was deflected by Vicario his teammate Maupay was in position to hit it home.
The Frenchman then stirred up Maddison by mimicking his darts celebration.
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It was just the second time this season Tottenham trailed 1-0 in a home Premier League game, having previously chased down Sheffield in a 2-1 comeback win last year.
Tottenham almost hit back immediately twice through Werner, who didn’t quite get a clean strike on the ball but it still looked a chance of creeping in before a diving Mark Flekken sent it out.
Werner then popped up on the ensuing corner as he headed it wide.
The near misses kept coming as Richarlison whipped a curling shot that just went wide of the posts in the 25th minute, adding to the frustration for Spurs.
Brentford had a close call of its own minutes later and then again in the 36th minute as Nathan Collins nearly headed it home before a stunning backheel from Ethan Pinnock almost doubled Tottenham’s lead, just going wide.
There were protests from Brentford too on that play, claiming that Collins had been fouled in the lead-up but a look from VAR did not produce a penalty.
While Brentford may have felt aggrieved by that call the visitors certainly weren’t complaining minutes later when Richarlison put the ball in the back of the net, only to have Tottenham’s opening goal wiped off the board for a foul on Collins, who took quite the theatrical tumble to sell the contact.
It left Tottenham trailing 1-0 at halftime and Postecoglou shaking his head on the sidelines, having failed to score despite numerous close calls in the opening half.
In response Postecoglou made immediate changes entering the second half, bringing in Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Johnson with Oliver Skipp and Rodrigo Bentancur heading back to the bench.
“That double change surely underlines Postecoglou’s unhappiness with the first half performance from his side. Both central midfielders hooked,” Sky Sports’ Peter Smith said at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Whether it was those changes or a halftime speech from Postecoglou or even a combination of both, something sparked Spurs to life as Udogie scored in the 48th minute to level the game.
In the space of 73 seconds it was two goals as Tottenham went back-to-back in rapid fashion, with Werner turning creator as he perfectly crossed the ball to Johnson, who had an immediate impact after Postecoglou’s halftime change.
Richarlison, having sent a shot firing over the goal moments earlier, then made it three straight for Spurs in the 56th minute as he got one back for teammate Maddison, flashing the darts celebration in response to Maupay’s mocking act.
Maddison had played a key role in that goal too, with his initial shot at goal blocked before it fell to Richarlison, who made no mistake this time around.
Tottenham almost made it four as Pedro Porro sent a shot over the crossbar, while Toney missed two big chances too in the next five minutes with Brentford threatening to hit back.
Toney eventually made up for it after another poor mistake from Udogie, who tried to pass the ball back to keeper Vicario despite Toney being in between the pair.
Brentford’s star striker capitalised to reduce the deficit to 3-2 and the visitors almost equalised at the death, with Vicario tipping a Shandon Baptiste volley as a desperate Spurs side hung on for the win.
The victory moved Tottenham up into fourth position ahead of Aston Villa, who dropped a game against Newcastle on Wednesday.
