Recruitment

Brentford 3-0 Tottenham, Gtech Community Stadium, opening day. Keane Lewis-Potter on 12 minutes, Vitaly Janelt on 33, Michael Kayode on 49, and Igor Thiago hit the post with a penalty that would have made it four. I watched it, and I did not see a tactical masterclass. I saw one team that knew what it was doing in the moments that decide games, and one that did not yet.

Then I pulled the shot data, and it says the same thing with numbers.

The match in four numbers

xG (expected goals, how likely each shot is to go in, added up over the match): Brentford 4.04, Tottenham 0.76. Shots: 26 to 9. Brentford's expected points from that performance were 2.9 out of 3; Tottenham's were 0.06. This was not a smash-and-grab or a bad day in front of goal. It was the right result by a distance.

Where the game was won: the dead ball

Twelve of Brentford's 26 shots came from corners, free kicks or the penalty, worth 2.31 xG on their own. That is three times Tottenham's entire match. Nathan Collins had a 0.49 header from a corner inside three minutes. The third goal started with a corner, a Collins header down, a Sangaré shot saved and Kayode on the loose ball. Two of the three goals began with a dead ball. Tottenham had one set-piece shot all afternoon, worth 0.04.