Tottenham's £237m overhaul undone in chastening Brentford hammering

Spurs, fresh off a season where they barely dodged relegation, blew £237m on six new summer signings. You'd think that kind of cash would buy a team that, at the very least, looked prepared. Not a chance. They arrived in west London utterly shambolic.

Keane Lewis-Potter and Vitaly Janelt both found the net in the first half. Michael Kayode added insult to injury early in the second. A 3-0 defeat, thoroughly deserved, and it ties the club’s heaviest opening-day loss in Premier League history. Embarrassing.

It could have been a proper bloodbath. Igor Thiago, a new face himself, managed to squander a 55th-minute penalty, hitting the post after he'd won the foul. Just another moment of pure Tottenham.

Let's talk numbers, if you can even call them that for Spurs. They coughed up a pathetic 0.47 expected goals. Brentford? Try 3.94. The visitors couldn’t even manage a shot on target in the entire first half. Five fresh faces made their competitive debuts. Not one of them could stem the bleeding. The defensive lines were nonexistent, the collective organisation a joke. De Zerbi, bless him, later admitted his side "lost too many duels to compete," even after he’d supposedly warned them about the physical battle. Clearly, nobody was listening.

Meanwhile, Brentford’s club-record signing, Mamadou Sangare, ran the midfield. He set up the opener, dictating the entire game. His performance alone pretty much endorsed Thomas Frank's tactical nous, leaving Sky Sports' Jamie Redknapp to accurately label Spurs as "a team of strangers." You don't say.

Tottenham needs to sort out this squad integration mess, and fast. Before Savinho and Omar Marmoush (who are supposedly on the way, according to Sky Sports) can even attempt to make a difference.