Tottenham Hotspur player ratings vs Brentford: Five 6s as Spurs scrap for a win

Tottenham had to fight for every inch of the pitch as they earned a 3-2 win at home to Brentford.

The night began with a mobile phone power light show, which twinkled well enough with a bit of the Prodigy's Out of Space. The star here looked nailed on to be James Maddison - hungry, searching, probing from the start.

But for Tottenham's early pressure, Brentford began to exploit the space around the defence.

A narrow offside decision spared Spurs' blushes in the 13th minute, Roeslev denied by the rules. But then a minute later Neal Maupay had a goal that counted, beating Romero to the ball after Vicario spilled Toney's strike.

While Spurs had moments going forward, frustration grew, with Brentford showing guile in slowing the game down and playing on the crowd's annoyance.

On 38 minutes Richarlison had the ball in the net with a deft chip, but he was judged to have fouled the defender. Replays suggested there was minimal contact.

Ange Postecoglou had seen enough by half time to decide a change was needed - Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Brennan Johnson brought on for Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski.

Something worked. First Werner and Udogie worked their way into the box for the latter to score. A minute later, Werner put a ball across which found Brennan Johnson at the far corner to stroke in.

Within 10 minutes, Richarlison had also found the net after Maddison engineered a chance that was blocked.

It looked like the game was done and dusted at 3-1, before Destiny Udogie had a funny turn and apparently failed to see that in front of his keeper was Ivan Toney, to whom he passed the ball. The striker looked surprised, but finished well nonetheless.

The Spurs attacks remained free flowing, but while there was no panic at the back, the crowd were certainly aware of the narrow margin.

Maddison will be credited with one assist but he will have hoped for more. The midfielder lasted nearly 88 minutes before coming off for Radu Dragusin, brought on to see out the game.

Into injury time, Werner was retired to warm applause, with highly rated youngster Jamie Donley brought on.