Tottenham fans will be particularly worried about Tonali after shambolic display at Brentford | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur suffered a crushing defeat in their opening Premier League game against Brentford following a despicable performance.

Spurs were thoroughly swept aside by the Bees, and alarm bells will be ringing that this could be another difficult campaign.

Several Tottenham players played below par. Lucas Bergvall was substitued following a first-half horror show while captain Archie Gray never looked comfortable at the back.

Sandro Tonali delivered the most frustrating performance of the day. The £92.5 million signing failed to give Spurs a hold in the game.

The Italian international star was ‘utterly outshone and overpowered by Brentford’s record buy Mamadou Sangare.’

The Spurs record signing made just one defensive contribution and won only two out four ground duels.

Many people suspected Tottenham had overspent when they shelled out that huge amount to buy Tonali, and this first match will only encourage that notion.

This where the concerns become particularly serious. He is not some inexperienced youngster being thrown into the deep end.

Tonali is Tottenham’s experienced, big-money signing, brought in for a huge fee to provide leadership, quality and control in the biggest moments.

When Spurs needed him to stand up and be counted, he was anonymous.

Being outplayed by Sangare, a player costing significantly less, only made the performance harder to digest.

Tonali needed to impose himself on the game, win battles and give Tottenham some authority in midfield. He did none of those things.

One poor performance does not define a player, but the manner of this display is a very worrying sign. Spurs invested heavily in Tonali precisely for games like this.

He must respond quickly, because Tottenham cannot afford their marquee signing to disappear when the pressure is on them to find their footing after the heavy summer outlay.