Takeaways from Tottenham's 3-1 win at home to Brentford

On Saturday afternoon, Spurs got themselves a very welcome 3-1 win at home to Brentford at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It was only the club's second Premier League win of the season, and the first in three attempts.

With the bitter result in the North London derby, coupled with the poor performance and fortunate win against Coventry City, a win and ideal performance was important here. We certainly got both of these things.

So, what are the main takeaways from the victory against Brentford? Let's get into it.

Takeaways from Tottenham's 3-1 win at home to Brentford

Firstly, we were reminded of how psychological football is. The abuse Brennan Johnson received has been well documented, with the players' confidence seemingly at rock bottom. He did his talking on the pitch, firstly with his last-minute goal against Coventry. Any goal will help a player, but a last-minute goal to send you to the next round of a cup competition is a very well-chosen time to get one.

It was great to see him play with so much confidence against Brentford. He took his goal after 28 minutes perfectly. A player without confidence does not attempt six shots in a game. Whilst the goal would have helped his confidence in that regard, he already had two shots in the first fifteen minutes, showing that the goal on Wednesday night was very important too.

There is cause for some concern with Vicario. Whilst it is not full-blown panic mode, he has had an erratic start to the season. He was very fortunate to escape punishment for handling the ball outside of his box for Brentford. The best way to tell it was fortunate from Spurs' point of view is that even in a sport as tribal as football, the whole fanbase are admitting that the 27-year-old massively got away with one.

Maddison had his best performance since his injury against Chelsea. He played as an 8 along with Kulusevski outside of Bentancur holding it down for this one, and it worked to perfection, to use the old cliche "feels like a new signing." He has had plenty of criticism, from myself included, but has responded perfectly over the course of this week.

The 27-year-old continued to drop deep and pick the ball up, and was spraying it around like a quarterback. During the game, on top of his superb chip to seal the win, he recorded; 87 touches, three key passes, one big chance created, seven successful dribbles, 14 ground duels won, four fouls drawn, and three tackles. 87 touches for an attacking midfielder playing deeper is super impressive seeing as Spurs had 48% possession.

Spurs will miss Bentancur, if and when he is banned for a prolonged period of time. Despite playing in midfield with two offensive-minded midfielders, the Uruguayan held down the forte superbly and was key to the success Spurs had on the day. In just 63 minutes on the pitch, 'LoLo' made three interceptions and two tackles, stopping Brentford attacks and allowing Spurs to transition.

It felt like the right decision to bring Bissouma on for him to give Spurs some extra energy in midfield, but that doesn't mean Bentancur didn't have a superb performance in his own right. His pass for Johnson to score the winner against Coventry was sublime too.

Bissouma is a man on a mission this season. It feels like his off-pitch incident at the start of the season has given him extra motivation to perform well and make up for it. His slide tackle, when on a booking no less, to stop the Brentford attack and start the move that led to the third goal was absolutely sublime and shows the type of player Spurs have. With Bentancur potentially being banned for a while, Bissouma could become absolutely integral to Ange over the coming months.

Finally, Solanke will score a lot of goals for Spurs. This is not a reactionary take to his goal. Not at all. Weirdly, the chances he missed today have helped convince me. He is a high-volume machine. He gets so many chances with his movement, he is bound to score goals as a result. In which case, the one thing his goal return does hinge on is service - but you would back Spurs to create the chances for him more often than not.

His performances against Leicester City and Brentford have been really good, and it is great that he now has a goal to show for it. Mobility, pressing, link up, and sharp movement to get chances. He could have had a hat-trick on Saturday but the fact he was getting into the areas was so encouraging. It would be far, far more concerning if he wasn't getting the chance. Let's go.

Typically, I was clamouring for three of the players mentioned here to be left out of the starting XI, so I held my hands up completely there. That is the final takeaway - that there is a reason Ange is a manager, and I am not.

COYS.