Simons’ first Spurs goal secures much needed home win for Frank against former club | OneFootball

Xavi Simons finally showed why Tottenham paid £52m for his services in the summer with a stunning solo goal and an assist for Richarlison as Spurs got back to winning ways.

Tottenham’s 2-0 win over Brentford was their first at home in the league since the opening day of the season, and Simons was the architect of Thomas Frank’s victory over his former side.

The Dutch midfielder has not had an easy start to life at Spurs, but he showed why he has been talked about as one of Europe’s brightest young talents.

In the 25th minute he raced on to a forward pass from Pedro Porro before crossing perfectly to give Richarlison what was effectively a tap-in at the far post.

And then shortly before half-time he scored his first goal for the club, and what a goal it was. After miscontrolling a short pass in his own half, close to the centre-circle, Simons recovered to nick the ball away from three Brentford players. He set off for goal and held off the challenges of Sepp van den Berg and Yehor Yarmoliuk as he ran half the length of the pitch and slipped the ball past Caoimhim Kelleher in the Brentford goal.

With a two-goal lead at half-time, Spurs were cheered off for the break, in stark contrast to recent weeks when they have been booed off at half-time and full-time.

And it was only some heroic goalkeeping from Kelleher that prevented Tottenham winning by a wider margin.

The former Liverpool keeper saved well from Djed Spence, Randal Kolo Muani and Mohammeed Kudus.Afterwards, Frank said: Overall it was a complete performance. I’m so happy for Xavi, he’s been working very hard, he’s a top pro and wants it so badly.”

“I believed from the beginning that Xavi can produce something out of nothing. Everything just needs a little bit of adaptation sometimes, with him, the team, everything. And this was a very good step, now it’s the next thing to do it again and again and again.”