James Maddison hails Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo for his ‘fantastic’ strike that left he and his Tottenham team-mates in ‘shellshock’ before they overcame early setback to win 3-1

James Maddison was full of admiration for the blistering volley by Bryan Mbeumo, his fourth goal of the season and the second time in successive Premier League outings Brentford had struck within seconds of the kick-off.

‘When they score that early there’s shellshock around the stadium,’ said Maddison. ‘We’re all looking at each other, ‘what do we do now’ kind of thing, because you don’t plan for that in a gameplan.’

Brentford do plan for it, though. It might be coincidence that Mbeumo hit the net after 22 seconds, precisely as Yoane Wissa had done in a defeat at Manchester City a week earlier, but Thomas Frank treats the kick-off like a set-piece and at the start of a game as a chance to catch opponents cold.

‘Of course, it’s one of the more difficult to score from but we see it as a set-play situation we can set up and control as much as possible,’ said Frank. ‘We work on the kick-offs. Some of it is the ball forward but also what you do on the second balls and where you position yourselves after that.’

Mbeumo (right) scored the wonderstrike to leave Spurs fans and players ‘shellshocked’

Brentford have been treating a game’s kick-off like a set-piece to score early goals

This one went back to goalkeeper Mark Flekken who fired it towards towering wing-back Kristoffer Ajer and they pounced on the scraps in midfield, worked the ball left to Keane Lewis-Potter and his cross was fired into the net by Mbeumo.

‘To be fair, it was a fantastic finish by Mbeumo, it’ll be up there for Goal of the Month,’ said Maddison, who scored Tottenham’s third in the 85th minute to complete the comeback win. Dominic Solanke and Brennan Johnson were also on target for Spurs