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Full Record of Spurs -v- Brentford

Premier         Pl   W   D   L   For-Ag  Pts
Home             1   1   0   0     2-0    3    2.00 Pts per game
Away             1   0   1   0     0-0    1
============================================
Total (Prem)     2   1   1   0     2-0    4
============================================
Lge Div 1 
Home             0   0   0   0     0-0    0
Away             0   0   0   0     0-0    0
============================================
Total (Div 1)    0   0   0   0     0-0    0
============================================
Lge Div 2
Home             3   2   1   0     7-1    7
Away             3   1   1   1     5-4    3
============================================
Total (Div 2)    6   3   2   1    12-5   10
============================================
Total (Prem)     2   1   1   0     2-0    4
Total (Div 1)    0   0   0   0     0-0    0
Total (Div 2)    6   3   2   1    12-5   10
============================================
Grand Total      8   4   3   1    14-5   14
============================================

Last Six Premier League results:-

Brentford  -    WDLDDW

Brentford  2-0    Brighton
Brentford  0-0    Chelsea
A. Villa   4-0    Brentford
Brentford  1-1    Wolves
Nott'm F'st2-2    Brentford
Man City   1-2    Brentford

Spurs      -    WLLWLW
           
Spurs      2-0    Everton
Man Utd    2-0    Spurs
Spurs      1-2    Newcastle
B'mouth    2-3    Spurs
Spurs      1-2    Liverpool
Spurs      4-3    Leeds

Pos            P  W  D  L   F-A   GD  Pts
 4. Spurs     15  9  2  4  31-21  10   29
10. Brentford 15  4  7  4  23-25  -2   19 

Another first for Spurs!

After an unprecedented 6 week break because of the World cup in Qatar, the Premier League is back at last. Spurs, who so often in the past have achieved "firsts", such as "first club to win a modern day league and cup double," "first British club to win a European trophy," to name but two records, have the honour – being shared with Brentford – of re-opening the Premier League programme with a 12.30pm Boxing Day kick-off. Check out these football betting tips regarding all games in this round of fixtures are being televised by Amazon Prime.

As both sides were knocked out of The Carabao Cup in November's Third Round games (Brentford lost to League Two side Gillingham on penalties), this will be the first game after the World Cup for both teams. Indeed, no Premier League London side made it into this week's fourth round.

Ivan Toney scored Brentford's third minute goal in their game against Gillingham, and he followed that up with both goals in "The Bees'" momentous away win against Manchester City. That was Brentford's first away league win of the season, and their first away win against City since Christmas Day 1937! The teams have only ever met 16 times. That 1937/38 season was historic because Manchester City were the reigning champions and were relegated at the end of the season!

In September, 26-year-old Ivan Toney became the first Brentford player to receive an England call-up in 83 years (the last was Les Smith in 1939 for the final international before the Second World War).

Toney, who has scored 10 Premier League goals this season, was not included in England's World Cup squad and Gareth Southgate said that was not connected with news announced on November 17th, stating that Toney had been charged by the FA with no less than 232 breaches of its betting rules, which apparently took place between February 2017 and January 2021. Toney originally had until November 24th to respond and could face a lengthy ban. Earlier this week it was announced that Toney faces no less than 30 further similar charges, and now has till January 4th to respond. I assume he will be available to face Spurs and indeed Brentford’s following games against West Ham and Liverpool.

Spurs had 12 players at The World Cup (including loan player Joe Rodon), whilst Brentford could claim 6, three of whom play for Denmark. These were Mikkel Damsgaard (signed from Sampdoria last summer), Mathias Jensen and Christian Norgaard. The other three players were Toney's strike partner Bryan Mbeumo (Cameroon), goalkeeper David Raya (Spain) and midfielder Saman Ghoddos (Iran). Denmark, Cameroon and Iran did not make it out of the Group stage of the World Cup and Raya had no game time for Spain, so I imagine the post-World Cup reset has not been so challenging for "The Bees" as it has for Spurs.

I am writing this preview before the latest team news, but we know Rodrigo Bentancur is a) suspended from this game after picking up 5 bookings and b) carrying a groin injury picked up playing for Uruguay. Antonio Conte has said he hopes to have Bentancur fit for our game against Aston Villa on New Year’s Day. Eric Dier, Ben Davies, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Son Heung-min all had minutes in Wednesday’s friendly against Nice, so should all be raring to go. Matt Doherty, Yves Bissouma and Dejan Kulusevski were not involved in the World Cup and have advanced their fitness during the hiatus and can be expected to start for Spurs. Lucas Moura was also not involved in the World Cup and has been absent from our recent friendly games.

Last night’s Manchester City v Liverpool league cup game involved England squad members Stones, Foden, Grealish and Henderson, so despite the psychological aspect for Harry Kane after missing his second penalty kick against France I expect to see him start on Monday. Harry Kane matched Wayne Rooney's 53-goal England total in the same game with his first penalty. I hope also to see Hugo Lloris and Ivan Perisic start despite their involvement in the Final and Third Place play-off, respectively.

Hugo Lloris became France's most-capped international on the night France beat England 2-1 in the World Cup quarter-final. Hugo registered cap number 143 - to take him past legendary defender Lilian Thuram's 142. Hugo's total caps now number 145. Hugo will be 36 on Boxing Day. He became the fourth player to captain his side in two World Cup Finals, after Rummenigge, Maradona, and Dunga. He was hoping to become the first to win two successive World Cup Finals.

Ivan Perisic became the first player to score in three successive World Cup knockout stage matches since Diego Forlan and Wesley Sneijder (both in 2010).

Both Hugo and Cristian Romero were in the Final. An early challenge by Romero on Hugo was worrying with Hugo being treated for a minute or two. Of more concern now is how soon will Romero return to action after Argentina’s success and prolonged celebrations in Qatar, on their way home and in Buenos Aires. Former Spur Juan Foyth was also in the Argentine squad but had just five minutes playing time.

We do know that Richarlison will be missing, probably for a month. Richarlison had a successful personal tournament scoring three goals but was apparently injured before starting Brazil’s game against Croatia, during which he aggravated a hamstring injury.

Other summer signings for Brentford included 20-year-old Scottish defender Aaron Hickey, and 21-year-old attacking midfielder Keane Lewis-Potter, who was signed from Hull. Former Burnley skipper Ben Mee arrived free at the end of his contract. Mee, now 33, has played all bar one of Brentford's 15 league games and has already scored twice, including one of Brentford's four in their early season demolition of Manchester United. Mee scored Burnley's winning goal in our away defeat at Turf Moor last February.

Brentford of course lost Christian Eriksen, who benefited from his short-term contract after his Euros collapse in 2021 and is now thriving at Old Trafford. Christian scored his second United goal in their 2-0 League Cup win against Burnley on Tuesday night. Eriksen stole the show, but not all the points in our goalless game last season at the Brentford stadium.

Ever-presents in this season's Premier League for "The Bees" are Raya, Rico Henry, Jensen and Mbeumo.

It's only two years since our last Boxing Day away game fixture (against Wolves) and that was moved to 7.45pm on Sunday night 27th December 2020, during a Covid lockdown when no fans were present. Tanguy Ndombele scored a first minute goal, but Saiss equalised in the 86th minute in a game when we were "utterly predictable and poor to watch".

Our home game last season against Brentford was played in December. We've only ever played "The Bees" 18 times and the only previous December meeting between the clubs was at White Hart Lane in a 1949 Division Two game, which was drawn 1-1. Eddie Baily scored our goal. Our team read:- Ditchburn, Ramsey, Withers, Nicholson, Clarke, Burgess, Scarth, Bennett, Duquemin, Baily and Medley.

Spurs, of course, went on to win the Division Two title, following that with our first Division One title win. Jimmy Scarth made his Spurs debut in that game and only played in 4 games that season but scored two goals. These came in his next two games. The first was in a 2-1 home win on Christmas Eve against Blackburn. The second was in a 1-1 draw away to Chesterfield in what was our last competitive game against "The Spireites".

Born on 26th August, 1926 in North Shields winger Scarth was signed by Spurs in August 1948. He made just three more appearances in our next two seasons and scored his last Spurs goal in a 7-2 away win at Newcastle in September 1951. Scarth moved to Gillingham where he played 145 games before switching to non-league football.

Jimmy Scarth held the record for the fastest Football League hat-trick (three goals in just two and a half minutes) for more than fifty years. That hat-trick was scored for Gillingham against Leyton Orient in November 1952. James Hayter beat the official record playing for Bournemouth in 2004, but it seems that contemporary records suggest Scarth's hat-trick might have been scored inside just 110 seconds.

In his latter years, Scarth lived in Hertford (my home town) and died in Welwyn Garden City in 2000.

My (not too confident) prediction is for a 2-1 away win. Please note that due to the festivities any post-match report is likely to be delayed.

I wish all readers a very happy Christmas, and the best of health and joy in the New Year!

Match referee David Coote first had charge of a Spurs game in September 2016, but this is his first game in the middle with us this season and we only saw him once last season when we lost 3-2 at home to Southampton. Mr. Coote has been in charge of seven Premier League games so far this season, including Brentford's 3-0 home defeat to Arsenal. This referee was in charge of last night’s Manchester City v Liverpool League Cup tie.

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