Tottenham will begin life without Harry Kane in their opening game of the Premier League season against Brentford.
Kane was officially announced as a Bayern Munich player on Saturday after Spurs agreed to sell their record goalscorer for more than £100million.
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Ange Postecoglou’s side will now begin the campaign without their main man with questions rising over how they will cope.
Postecoglou’s first opponents are the Bees who are aiming for another solid season following a ninth-placed finish.
Thomas Frank’s men will want to make a good start to the campaign but have had a poor pre-season after they failed to win a game.
Brentford vs Tottenham: How to follow
This Premier League clash will take place on Sunday, August 13.
Kick-off at the Gtech Community Stadium is scheduled for 2pm.
The game will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League.
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Brentford vs Tottenham: Team news
Brentford XI: Flekken, Hickey, Collins, Pinnock, Ajer, Henry, Janelt, Norgaard, Jensen, Mbuemo, Wissa.
Subs: Strakosha, Zanka, Damsgaard, Dasilva, Roerslev, Baptiste, Yarmoliuk, Lewis-Potter, Schade.
Tottenham XI: Vicario, Royal, Romero, van de Ven, Udogie, Bissouma, Skipp, Kulusevski, Maddison, Son, Richarlison.
Subs: Austin, Sanchez, Davies, Porro, Hojbjerg, Lo Celso, Perisic, Sarr, Solomon.
Brentford vs Tottenham: What has been said?
On Saturday morning Kane posted a message on his social media accounts in which he said: “Hi everyone. I wanted to be the first to tell you Tottenham fans that I’ll be leaving the club today.
“Obviously [there are] a lot of emotions going through me right now. Sad to be leaving the club I’ve spent nearly 20 years of my life at.
“From an 11-year-old boy to a 30-year-old man now, there’s been so many great moments and special memories. Memories that I’ll cherish forever.
“So this is a thank you to all my teammates over the years. My coaches, all the managers, every single staff member to do with the club from the kit man to the chefs, everyone involved.”
Kane continued: “Obviously I’ve built special relationships with a lot of people.
“And most importantly, I want to say thank you to the fans. From the moment I’ve been playing I’ve been one of your own and I’ve given everything that I possibly could’ve just to make you proud and give you as many special moments and memories that will hopefully last forever.”
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Brentford vs Tottenham: Match facts
- Tottenham striker Harry Kane has scored in each of his last five Premier League appearances – he’s never scored in six in a row before. He’s scored in six in a row away from home, with only Robin van Persie (9 in 2011) and Sergio Agüero (7 in 2017) ever scoring in more consecutively on the road in the competition.
- New Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou is set to become the first Australian to manage in the Premier League. Including caretakers, just one of Spurs’ last 10 managers has lost their first league game in charge (W6 D3), with André Villas-Boas going down 2-1 against Newcastle in August 2012.
- Tottenham have scored at least once in each of their last 12 Premier League games (24 goals in total) since a 1-0 loss at Wolves in March. However, the Lilywhites have only managed to keep one clean sheet in their last 13 matches (1-0 vs Crystal Palace).
- Tottenham have won their last two away London derbies in the Premier League, beating Crystal Palace 4-0 and Fulham 1-0 in January. They’d only won two of their previous 19 such matches before this (D8 L9).
- Brentford are unbeaten in their last nine league London derby matches (W5 D4), winning each of the last four in a row. They last won five consecutive such matches in March 2009 while in League Two.
- Brentford won five of their last six Premier League games in 2022-23 (L1), including the last three in a row. They’ve not won four consecutive league games as a top-flight club since March 1939 (5 in a row).
- Tottenham have lost their opening league game in just one of the last seven seasons (W5 D1), going down 1-0 at home to Everton in 2020-21.
- Brentford have only won their opening league game in two of the last 11 seasons (D5 L4), though they’ve not lost on MD1 in either of their two Premier League campaigns (2-0 v Arsenal in 2021-22, 2-2 v Leicester last season).
- The last time Tottenham began a Premier League campaign with a London derby was in 2014-15 – they won 1-0 at West Ham in Mauricio Pochettino’s first game in charge.
- Brentford have won just two of their 10 league meetings with Tottenham in their history (D4 L4), though one of those was a 3-1 victory in their most recent match in May.
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