Tottenham's post-Harry Kane era kicked off with an exciting draw against Brentford in the 2023-24 Premier League opening weekend.
Kane's departure to Bayern Munich was confirmed on Saturday, and new Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou secured a point thanks to goals from Christian Romero and Emerson Royal.
Despite Brentford missing their key player Ivan Toney, they took the lead through Yoane Wissa, after Bryan Mbeumo's penalty cancelled out Romero's initial goal.
Tottenham's winless streak continued at the Gtech Community Stadium, where a water supply issue delayed kick-off by six minutes. However, Emerson Royal's precise finish in added time of the first half meant the clash ended 2-2.
'We wanted to give hope to our supporters'
Following the game, Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou told BBC Match of the Day: "Considering the events of the day, I thought we handled ourselves pretty well. In terms of effort, I couldn't ask any more. We got a great start to the game and then had to take Romero off. I thought we reacted well to that. But conceding the two goals, it would be easy to drop out heads, but I don't think we did that. We worked our way back in, scored and controlled the second half for the most part. We could maybe have been more creative in the final third to create some more opportunities.
"Romero had a head knock, and the medical team were watching him the whole time. Their information was that he wasn't that steady, and with his head after scoring, I'm not taking any risks in that scenario in this day and age and what we know of head injuries. The last person you want to be directed by is the player himself. He has no idea. The disappointing thing is that apparently, we filled out the wrong form for a concussion sub. That is madness in this day and age. It is pretty clear why we took the guy off. It is black and white for us, we're not going to take any risks with our people when we know what the repercussions are. He seems fine but the player is not the one who knows these things.
"Bissouma has been outstanding through pre-season and was superb today. We had a lot of the ball, and it was important we kept things ticking over. Our progression of the ball was really good, we just lacked a cutting edge. It is the stage we are at. We are trying to change the way the team plays, and they are taking on a lot of information.
"It is either an impediment to you or an opportunity. Harry Kane was a massive figure for this club for a long time and will continue to be whether he is in the building or not. We wanted to go out and give our supporters some hope and belief in the team. I thought they did that today."
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