Brennan Johnson speaks about not taking penalty vs Southampton | OneFootball

Although Spurs beat Southampton 3-1 in a dead rubber game on Sunday afternoon, it would not be Tottenham Hotspur if there somehow was no drama attached to it. In stoppage time, Ange's side were awarded a penalty - which was taken by loanee and late substitute Mathys Tel, whom cooly converted to make sure of the points.

That is despite Brennan Johnson being on a hat-trick, and having won the penalty himself. So, as you can expect, there has been much decision around the decision to allow Tel to take the penalty instead of the Welshman.

Brennan Johnson speaks about not taking penalty vs Southampton

After the game, the winger was asked about the penalty, to which he responded: "It's only normal for me to want to take the penalty. There's only a certain amount of talking to do before it gets quite messy. I've been in the situation before when I've had people wanting to take the ball off me and it kind of unsettles you a little bit.

I knew the game was pretty much done but still, I didn't want to unsettle anyone or start any disagreements. So, once the decision was made, I just had to get on with it.”

Big respect to Johnson for not wanting to risk any damage to squad harmony, particularly before such a big game against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League on Thursday evening. You do feel a bit sorry for him - there are not many chances to score a hat-trick in the Premier League, and that would have been a great opportunity for him to do so.

At the same time, it is handy for Tel to have a confidence boost, ahead of, again, a huge game on Thursday evening. With Heung-Min Son and James Maddison both off the pitch, Cristian Romero had the captains armband on at the time of the penalty being awarded, and decided that Tel would take. Not sure how they were all managing to communicate, but fair play.

As a side note: Johnson became the first Welsh player to score ten goals in a Premier League season since Gareth Bale did for Spurs in the 20/21 season. There is a lot of criticism around Johnson, and for sure his general play is not the best, but his numbers are pretty good. Sure, a fair few of his goals have been against poor teams - but other Spurs players also play against these poor sides, and Johnson is the only player in double figures this season.