BBC Sport pundit Jermaine Jenas fumes at decision given against Tottenham v Brentford
Jermaine Jenas fumed at the “same terrible people behind what could be a good system” after a contentious penalty was awarded against Tottenham in their Premier League opener at Brentford.
Spurs had made a lightning start to life under Ange Postecoglou when new vice-captains James Maddison and Cristian Romero linked up, the former’s free-kick headed home by the latter after 11 minutes.
But Brentford were level when Son Heung-min was adjudged to have fouled Mathias Jensen in the penalty area, with Bryan Mbuemo scoring after a long look by VAR that eventually saw referee Robert Jones award the spot-kick after heading over to the pitchside monitor.
Former Tottenham midfielder and now BBC pundit Jenas took exception to the incident that occurred during the game that finished 2-2 when posting on Twitter.
“New season same terrible people behind what could be a good system. Referees need to start trusting their instincts much more in situations like that.”
He added in reply to a fan who pointed out he was a former Tottenham not happy with a decision given against his former club: “Over the course of the year it happens to all clubs I think everyone’s just getting bored with refs never standing by [their] decision when they’re called over to have a look at the monitor!”
Harsh decision but…
You can certainly empathise with Jenas’ take on this one. Son definitely did make contact with Jensen, but the Brentford midfielder went down in instalments.
Jones clearly initially felt there was not enough in it to award a penalty, and truthfully watching the replays again you feel like he may have been better sticking to the courage of his convictions and not pointing to the spot.
But, alas, he decided there was just cause to overturn the decision and Mbuemo made no mistake from 12 yards.
What should be of more significant concern to Jenas, Tottenham fans and new boss Posecoglou, though, is how troubled Spurs still looked in defence.
Last season, Tottenham shipped a worrying 63 Premier League goals – a tally that saw them move to bring in Micky Van de Ven from Wolfsburg, who was handed his debut by Postecoglou.
There were still plenty of moments where Tottenham were so easily beaten by Brentford’s dynamic front line, though, and there was an all-too-familiar vulnerability to Tottenham defensively.
So, yes, it was a harsh decision but there are far bigger things for them to be concerned about at this stage.
In other Tottenham news, Hugo Lloris is in talks with Lazio to seal his Spurs exit.