Match Preview: Brentford v Tottenham Hotspur | OneFootball

Brentford will be hoping to make it successive Premier League victories when Tottenham Hotspur visit Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday 2 February (2pm kick-off GMT).

The west Londoners won 2-1 at Crystal Palace last time out while Ange Postecoglou's Spurs lost at home to Leicester City by the same scoreline.

Analysis, team news, match officials and more. Here's everything you need to know ahead of the Bees’ latest test.

Pre-match Analysis

Richard Cole, Playmaker Stats: Brentford must be wary of Tottenham's threat from wide areas

According to Premier Injuries, Spurs are the only team with more players unavailable (12) than Brentford (10) in the Premier League right now.

In many ways, Spurs are the Brentford of last season: a team that is far below the points tally their collective talents have deserved.

And while Thomas Frank will no doubt not mind that the likes of Dominic Solanke, James Maddison and Brennan Johnson are out for this fixture – the north London side still possesses plenty of threat going forward.

Chief among them is perhaps the influential Dejan Kulusevski. The Swedish international has publicly come out in defence of his manager recently and his on-field contributions show that he thrives under Ange Postecoglou.

Only Cole Palmer has managed more key passes (63) and more shot-creating actions (130) than Kulusevski this season with the 24-year-old contributing 58 key passes and 113 shot-creating actions respectively.

And if you discount the aforementioned injured trio of Solanke, Maddison, and Johnson, Kulusevski is the club's top scorer in the Premier League alongside captain Son Heung-min with six goals.

Speaking of the South Korean, he is always a threat. As well as his six goals this season, Son has six assists (joint-sixth in the league, one assist fewer than Mikkel Damsgaard) meaning that he has the joint-most goal contributions for Spurs (12), the same number as James Maddison (eight goals, four assists).

A lot of Spurs' threat comes through the wide areas and in particular on the right meaning that the Bees' left side will need to be well-prepared.

On the right side, Pedro Porro has been one of the Premier League's stand-out full-backs/wing-backs this campaign. The Spaniard has sent in the most accurate crosses this season (35) although that is a stat he currently shares with four other players: Andreas Pereira, Antonee Robinson, Dwight McNeil and Trent Alexander-Armstrong.

The Bees may want to make sure their left side is ready for the threat of Porro, especially considering that the player is also eighth in the league for passes into the penalty area (43).

This season, Postecoglou's outfit have particularly struggled on their travels after losing seven on the road – only bottom-of-the-league Southampton have suffered more defeats away from home (10).

And while Brentford have yet to win at home in the Premier League since defeating Newcastle United 4-2 back in early December there is still only one team (Liverpool, eight) with more top-flight wins than Brentford (seven) so far this season.

Scout Report

Dan Long, Sky Sports: Spurs still battling on four fronts

There’s no getting away from the fact that Tottenham’s Premier League season, and in particular the last couple of months of it, has been a disappointment.

In the last 11 Premier League games, Spurs have been on the losing side on eight occasions. They have taken the lead six times, but only won one game. There has been only one clean sheet and 24 goals conceded. The current run of seven without a victory is their longest top-flight winless record since they failed to win nine between May and October 2008.

Only Southampton are below them in the form table over the last 10 games.

Sunday’s defeat to Leicester means that, for the first time since a loss to Notts County in 1912, Spurs lost at home against a team that had lost their last seven league games in a row.

They were booed off the pitch in north London after the latest defeat and, speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Postecoglou said “a fair chunk” of people think he should be sacked as a result of the recent run of form.

But there are factors that might well play into the hands of the Australian.

Firstly, and most importantly, Tottenham’s injury record this term has done them absolutely no favours. At the time of writing, the following players are out of action: Dominic Solanke, Guglielmo Vicario, Destiny Udogie, Brennan Johnson, Timo Werner, Djed Spence, Micky van de Ven, Wilson Odobert and Cristian Romero.

James Maddison and Richarlison both scored in their most recent appearances, but both - along with Pape Matar Sarr - are walking wounded.

Football.london’s Rob Guest framed it well in Hot off the Press: “If you took nine or 10 players out of the Liverpool or Arsenal team, that would impact them as well.”

Regardless of what some might consider to be the beginnings of an unlikely relegation battle Spurs currently find themselves in, there are still opportunities to make the season a success elsewhere – and next week will be crucial.

On Thursday 6 February, they face Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg, a game they go into with a 1-0 aggregate lead.

On Sunday 9 February, they travel to Aston Villa in the fourth round of the FA Cup. And after four wins in their first seven league phase games, their Europa League journey continues, too.

"The players are committed to what we're doing. That's important to me. I believe in it,” said Postecoglou after the Leicester defeat. “This is as low as we've been this year but in the next three months we can do something really special. The players believe that.

“Right now it's hard to visualise that with our circumstances. Just look at the absences, but they will be back. All these things aren't allowing us to get any momentum. When those things change, we can make an impact."

"I'll correct myself: I don't usually win things, I always win things in my second year,” was Postecoglou’s defiant response to a question during an interview with Sky Sports on pre-season comments where he said he "usually" wins trophies in his second season.

Will he continue that record by helping Spurs lift a trophy for the first time in 17 years?

In the Dugout

Ange Postecoglou

Ange Postecoglou started out in management in his native Australia with South Melbourne, where he had spent his entire playing career.

After two years as assistant, he was handed the head coach role in 1996 and spent another four successful years at the club, before leaving to work with the Australia U17s and U20s national teams for the next seven years.

Having failed to guide the U20s to the 2007 World Cup in Canada, he left the national set-up to coach Greek outfit Panachaiki and later Whittlesea Zebras (now Brunswick Juventus) back home.

In 2009, he took over at Brisbane Roar and won the A-League Championship in 2010/11 and 2011/12, before moving on to Melbourne Victory, where he was unable to produce a similar level of success.

Postecoglou’s tenure at AAMI Park concluded prematurely, however, as he was appointed head coach of the senior Australia men’s team in October 2013.

He oversaw a reasonably encouraging group-stage campaign at the 2014 World Cup and guided the Socceroos to the Asian Cup the following year.

Australia later qualified for the 2018 World Cup, but Postecoglou resigned shortly afterwards to join Yokohama F Marinos of the Japanese J-League. He would go on to guide the club to its first title in 15 years in 2019.

He then went on to have two incredible years at Celtic, with whom he won an unbelievable 83 of his 113 games in charge on the way to two Scottish Premiership titles, one Scottish Cup and two Scottish League Cups.

The 59-year-old arrived in north London in the summer of 2023, just over two months after Antonio Conte left the club, and has the 12th-highest win ratio of any Spurs manager, with 48.7 per cent.

The Gameplan

With Rob Guest, football.london

Rob Guest, Tottenham writer for football.london, explains how Spurs are likely to be set up to face the Bees.

"Postecoglou did go with a back three at Everton recently, but that did not work," said Guest. "I do not think we will be seeing that for a long time!

"With the players he has got available, he is just trying to fit what suits them. I think it will be the usual 4-3-3 and you know what you are going to get with Spurs.

"They are a very attacking team, which is what everyone loves to see, but there are going to be chances for Brentford there."

Last Premier League starting XI v Leicester City (4-3-3): Kinsky; Porro, Drăgușin, Davies, Gray; Bergvall, Bentancur, Sarr; Kulusevski, Richarlison, Son

Read our full interview with Rob Guest here

Match Officials

Gillett set for first Brentford assignment of the season

Referee: Jarred Gillett

Assistants: Darren Cann and Mark Scholes

Fourth official: John Busby

Video assistant referee: Graham Scott

Born on the Gold Coast, Australia, highly rated A-League referee Jarred Gillett emigrated to England in 2019 to study at Liverpool John Moore’s University, specialising in research on children with Cerebral Palsy.

He went on to make his EFL officiating debut in April of that same year.

Gillett made history in September 2021 when he became the first overseas official to referee a Premier League match when he took charge of Watford v Newcastle United.

His last Brentford assignment was the Bees’ 5-1 victory over Luton Town in April 2024.

Gillett has refereed 10 games this season, showing 44 yellow cards and one red.

Memorable Meeting

Tottenham Hotspur 1 Brentford 3 (Premier League, 20 May 2023)

Bryan Mbeumo inspired a superb second-half comeback as Brentford kept their European hopes alive with a 3-1 victory at Tottenham Hotspur.

The Cameroon international clinically finished twice and put the other on a plate for Yoane Wissa as Thomas Frank’s Bees scored three without reply after the break.

Those goals cancelled out Harry Kane’s early strike for Spurs and moved Brentford to within a point of their hosts with one game left to play.