Brentford opened Keith Andrews' second season in charge with an emphatic 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur in west London, exposing the gap between Roberto De Zerbi's side's summer spending and the product they put on the pitch. Tottenham's outlay on new signings will soon pass £300m; they were second best from the first whistle and fortunate the margin was not wider. De Zerbi's afternoon was complicated before kickoff: new captain Micky van de Ven missed the entirety of pre-season with injury and was absent, Pedro Porro's return was delayed by World Cup duty, and £85m signing Mateus Fernandes began among the substitutes with calf fatigue, the captaincy passing instead to Archie Gray.
Mamadou Sangaré, a £39m signing from Lens, was at the heart of the opener in the 11th minute: he drove forward from the right, found Igor Thiago, and ran onto the striker's clever lay-off before cutting the ball back for Keane Lewis-Potter to arrive from left-back and beat Antonin Kinsky from close range.
Brentford, facing a reshuffled Tottenham back four of Andrew Robertson, Jan Paul van Hecke and Marcos Senesi and captained by Archie Gray, the club's youngest skipper since Steve Perryman in the 1970s, should have been ahead inside a minute: Robertson nearly turned the ball into his own net before Nathan Collins stabbed a glorious close-range chance wide. Thiago then headed against the bar and Dango Ouattara twice raced clear of the defence, only to take a heavy touch on both occasions.
Sangaré outshone Tottenham's £100m record buy Sandro Tonali as a Brentford midfield of Sangaré, Vitaly Janelt and Mathias Jensen overran Lucas Bergvall, Conor Gallagher and Tonali, while Kevin Schade tormented Gray down the left. Brentford doubled their lead in the 32nd minute when Kinsky failed to keep out a Jensen shot and Janelt forced the rebound home.