It had been a wait of 195 days for James Maddison to score, a torturous drought during which he suffered the blow of omission from England’s squad for the Euros, and he did not try to conceal his delight when it broke.
Off came the shirt at the expense of a yellow card and out came the trademark darts celebration, which had caused such a silly old stir when Brentford made their last trip to Tottenham and took the lead through Neal Maupay.
The away fans jeered his name before kick-off but the Bees never fail to sting him into life. The goal in the 85th minute topped a fabulous performance by Maddison and made victory safe for his team.
Spurs had gone behind to a goal by Bryan Mbeumo inside a minute and recovered through Dominic Solanke and Brennan Johnson to lead at half time but the game was in the balance when he broke away.
Yves Bissouma won the ball on the edge of his own penalty area and Heung-min Son made the final pass and Maddison produced a delicate finish, clipped over the onrushing goalkeeper and wheeled away.
Brennan Johnson scored his second match-winning goal this week for Tottenham
Dominic Solanke bagged his first goal since joining and it sparked Tottenham’s comeback
Brentford, for the second weekend in a row, stunned their hosts within a minute. At Manchester City, it was Yoane Wissa who fired them into a shock lead with only 22 seconds on the clock. Here, with Wissa among eight first-teamers ruled out by injury, it was Mbeumo.
As at the Etihad Stadium the goal was recorded at 22 seconds and it was one to savour. Worked from right to left by Yahor Yarmoliuk, in for captain Christian Norgaard, to Keane Lewis-Potter who twisted clear of Pedro Porro and crossed.
Mbuemo drifted away from Micky van de Ven and volleyed it first time with his left foot into the top corner from close to the penalty spot. As at the Etihad, however, the lead did not last long, and the Bees were trailing by half-time.
Solanke equalised as Spurs pressed the visitors into a mistake as they played out of defence. James Maddison latched onto a stay pass by Ethan Pinnock from a left-back area into midfield. Maddison drove into the penalty area and forced a save.
But goalkeeper Mark Flekken could do no more than push the ball out and Solanke was alert, on the move to fire the rebound into the net.
Still only eight minutes had been played and Tottenham assumed control and threatened to run away with the game. Maddison caused problems in the channel between Sepp van den Berg, on the right of a back three for Thomas Frank’s side, and wing-back Kristoffer Ajer.
Brentford scrapped impressively to protect their goalkeeper, throwing bodies in front of shots and smothering chances. Flekken made a fine save at the feet of Heung-min Son when he was through on goal.
The resistance was punctured by Johnson, a stoppage-time hero in the Carabao Cup in Coventry in midweek. Here, he collected a pass form Son and beat Nathan Collins on the outside with a burst of acceleration and applied a clinical finish, across goal and inside the far post.
Postecogolou got Tottenham back on track in the Premier League after the loss to Arsenal
The Tottenham boss is hugged by his skipper Son and defender Romero after the match
Two goals in four days were the perfect response to the online abuse which prompted him to disable his social media accounts after a quiet performance in the derby defeat against Arsenal.
Spurs almost let Brentford back into the game when Guglielmo Vicario was caught in possession inside his own six-yard area by Fabio Carvalho. Vicario recovered to save from Mbeumo and then denied Mikkel Damsgaard just before the interval.
Flekken made excellent saves early in the second half to frustrate first Dejan Kulusevski and Solanke before a controversial moment at the other end, when Vicario came for a high cross on the edge of his penalty area and lost his bearings.
The goalkeeper was certainly inside the area when he abandoned his goal to make the catch but fumbled and was probably in the area when he used a hand to nudge the ball away from Damsgaard. A third touch, however, was outside the box and Vicario was fortunate it was not spotted by referee John Brooks.
Maddison scored Tottenham’s third goal in the 85th minute to put the result beyond doubt
The midfielder’s late goal was his first in 195 days and he will no doubt aim for more
The VAR did not intervene as they did not consider it a red card offence because there were so many defenders between the offence and the goal, but Brentford were furious. Frank and Ajer were shown yellow cards.
Johnson rolled another good chance wide on the break although Spurs fans shifted nervously as the balance swung and they came under aerial pressure. Vicario made an exceptional reflex save to claw a Kevin Schade header out when it seemed to be beyond him.
Postecoglou sent on Pape Matar Sarr to add bite into his midfield and regained some control, and Maddison settled it on the break.
