This is the type of game — tight, tense, away from home — that Tottenham Hotspur never win.
This is the type of performance — gritty, canny, efficient — that they rarely produce.
At Brentford on Sunday, Ange Postecoglou’s depleted, patched-together Spurs turned all the perceptions and narratives about them on their head. This might not be Spurs’ best win of the season given the quality of other teams they have beaten, but it might be their most important.
Because they came here on a seven-game winless run in the league. Their last league victory, at Southampton, was seven weeks ago. Since then, they have drifted further down the league table than anyone thought possible.
Because Postecoglou came here without a single senior specialist centre-back available and was forced to play Archie Gray and Ben Davies together. Even Spurs’ fit players are exhausted, worn down by having to carry this club on their backs every Thursday and Sunday for the past few months.
Because this was at Brentford, who had lost only three league games at home this season and seem to embody so many of the values Tottenham have lacked this season.
The strange thing about Spurs’ season is that for all the frustration and disappointment — the 13 league defeats and the painful drift down the table — there have been some remarkable high points: two wins against Manchester City, two against Manchester United and one against Liverpool. They have blown teams away with expansive attacking football and played at a tempo no one can stop. All but one of their league wins before Sunday were by at least three goals.
But life under Postecoglou has been a house of cards. Either it is brilliant or it falls apart. Tottenham could do the thrilling, emphatic ‘statement wins’ when everything clicked into place, but they could not do the other side. The normal wins, ground out against the odds, with their backs to the wall. This is what Tottenham had desperately needed for the past few months, to find a way to win ugly, to win a league game where they did not destroy the opposition but still found a way nonetheless.
Of Spurs’ 13 league defeats this season, 12 of them were by one-goal margins. Only the 6-3 to Liverpool was by more than that. There have been many times when the game was tight and up for grabs for whichever side was cleverer, luckier, or more efficient — and Spurs kept losing. If they are to get out of this mess and start climbing back up the table, they needed to start finding ways to win games like this.
Spurs’ style on Sunday was not what many have come to expect from a Postecoglou team, but then anyone paying attention knows they have not played like that for months. How could they given the fixture schedule and their injury crisis? They have had only one free midweek since club football resumed after the November international break. The same small core of players — Pedro Porro, Dejan Kulusevski, Son Heung-min, Gray — are giving their all twice a week, every week. The game plan had to change to something more conservative, more repeatable, more robust.
There have been plenty of league games recently when Spurs worked as hard as they could but did not get the rewards for their effort. This time, they finally did.
It was built on the solidity of Gray and Davies together at centre-back. Neither is a specialist in that position. Gray is an 18-year-old playing his 15th game on the spin. Davies is 31 and in his 11th season at Spurs, just back from an injury and straight into the firing line. But both of them were exceptional. They constantly headed away crosses (Brentford attempted 37). They were rewarded with Spurs’ first league clean sheet since beating Southampton on December 15.
Then there was Djed Spence, back in the team after three games out. He produced his best performance for Tottenham, shackling Bryan Mbeumo and showing remarkable poise, balance and maturity throughout. He is a supremely gifted footballer and Spurs look much better with him in the team.
In midfield, Rodrigo Bentancur played as well as he has all season. He was everywhere, spotting danger before anyone else and shutting it down. Spurs desperately needed his experience and he provided all of it and more.
Then there was Kulusevski, in midfield in the first half, on the right in the second. He has dug deeper than anyone this season and remains Tottenham’s best way of moving the ball forward when they are struggling to build up.
But the most impressive thing was not just the aggregate performance of the individuals on the pitch, it was the way they did things you might not expect them to do.
Everyone knows Spurs have struggled on set pieces over the years and that Brentford specialise in them. But on this occasion, it was Spurs who took the lead from a corner, as Son curled in a delivery, Brentford goalkeeper Hakon Valdimarsson could not get to it, and the ball went in off Vitaly Janelt.
Brentford bombarded the Spurs box throughout, but Tottenham’s defence was always equal to it. Antonin Kinsky made two good first-half saves, but mainly it was Gray, Davies, Spence and Porro doing the hard work, with Bentancur and Yves Bissouma sweeping up in front of them.
In the second half, Spurs slowed the game down, happily eating up time when required. Richarlison walked off the pitch when substituted for Dane Scarlett. Son took his time over corners to the fury of the home fans. Kinsky never rushed to get the ball back into play from goal kicks.
And having taken the lead from a set piece, Spurs completed the win from a counter-attack. Bentancur found Son, who took advantage of Pape Matar Sarr’s dynamic forward run. He beautifully finished past Valdimarsson. Postecoglou’s celebration told a story of all the pent-up frustration from the past few months.
After the final whistle, all the Spurs players gathered in a huddle in front of the jubilant away end before they went over to take their applause. Maybe it was not a ‘statement win’ in the style of their last league victory (5-0 at Southampton in December), or the one before that (4-0 at Manchester City in November), or the one before that (4-1 against Aston Villa in November), or the one before that (4-1 against West Ham United in October).
But think what made up this win: one set piece, one counter-attack, two stand-in centre-backs, plenty of tired legs, lots of defensive headers, a fair bit of game management, backs to the wall, spirit, nous, intelligence and efficiency. Maybe this is what a statement win really looks like.
(Top photo: Charlotte Wilson/Offside via Getty Images)