Brentford v Tottenham: Key stats and talking points

After a traumatic season in which they narrowly avoided relegation, Tottenham look to start 2026-27 in better fashion against a Brentford side that are looking to build on an excellent campaign under Keith Andrews. BBC Sport takes a look at some of the key themes going into their opening-weekend encounter. After back-to-back 17th place finishes, surely the only way is up for Tottenham, especially after the club loosened their purse strings in spectacular fashion this summer. After the farce of missing out on top transfer targets Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze last summer, they've made no mistake this time round. Having signed Mateus Fernandes for a club record £85m, they smashed it again just days later with the eyebrow raising £100m acquisition of Sandro Tonali. Throw in the arrival of Scotland skipper Andy Robertson, ball playing centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton and Marco Senesi, who played 20 minutes of the World Cup final for Argentina, and it's easy to see why optimism is high. Attacking signings remain a work in progress but if the double swoop for Man City duo Omar Marmoush and Savinho can get over the line then the league woes of the last two campaigns will surely be confined to a distant but unpleasant memory. The lowlights of a wretched campaign included going 15 matches and 118 days without a league victory, managing just three wins at home and having to avoid relegation to the second tier for the first time since 1977 on the final day of the season. All of which is not good enough for what is the world's ninth-richest football club. The arrival of boss Roberto de Zerbi has been galvanizing and he accounted for 30% of the club's league wins last season despite only being in charge for seven matches. Two of the lowest ever top-flight points tallies Spurs have accrued have taken place in each of the last two seasons [BBC] In a huge contrast to Tottenham's travails, Brentford enjoyed a superb season under Keith Andrews. Tipped by many to be relegation candidates, they revelled in confounding the doubters. They just missed out on European qualification for the first ever time by a mere point after their season petered out with just one win in their last 10 league matches. Central to replicating their success will be getting Igor Tudor to fire again in front of goal. Only Erling Haaland scored more than his 22 top-flight goals last season which helped him secure a place in Brazil's World Cup squad. The striker boasted the best shot conversion rate of any player to take 25 or more shots in the Premier League last season with 22 goals from 84 shots. While the Bees haven't created a lot of headlines in this summer's transfer window they've still made some interesting signings while also not losing any of their big names. Their record against opponents Tottenham is poor having won just one of their 10 Premier League matches against the north Londoners, and Spurs are unbeaten in their five trips to the Gtech Community Stadium. [BBC]