Brentford v Tottenham: Premier League – live
⚽ New-look Spurs make short trip to Brentford. 5.30pm (BST) KO
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Roberto De Zerbi speaks to Sky. “We have big confidence because all three [debut defenders] are very important players with experience and qualities … we have no problem with them … [Archie Gray, stand-in captain for the day] is very young but has a big personality … he deserves to be captain today … we do not have the complete squad today … but no excuses … the quality is enough to complete … [Brentford] have a clear style … very strong … we have to adapt … the Premier League is a very tough competition and we have to play in our way.”
Pre-match postbag. “What are the expectations of Spurs this season? Normally you’d look at a team that was coming off back-to-back 17th-place finishes and think that having a mid-table season without any danger of relegation would be considered pretty good (a bit like Everton the year before last). But if the Marmoush signing goes through then they’ll have spent almost £400m, and could exceed that before the transfer window closes. That’s following two or three seasons where they’ve hardly been as frugal as in Daniel Levy’s peak years (lots of players in the £40m-60m-ish bracket). I know it sounds ridiculous following the last couple of years but how can a club spend that amount of money and not demand to be at least challenging for the title?” – David Wall
