Brentford come into this London derby absolutely buzzing. Seven past Eintracht Frankfurt eight days ago. Seventeen goals in their final four friendlies. Keith Andrews has this side firing on all cylinders, and the Gtech Community Stadium will be rocking for the season opener. Yes, they lost 1-0 to Watford on August 1, but that looks like a blip now. The Bees have responded in the most emphatic way possible, and Igor Thiago, Kevin Schade and Dango Ouattara look like a front three that can knife through any defence. The only sour note is the injury list — Antoni Milambo and Sepp van den Berg are out — but the squad depth looks solid.

Tottenham, meanwhile, are a mess of contradictions. Roberto De Zerbi has spent £237 million since taking the job in March, and four of his six summer signings are projected to start. But fitness is the problem. Pedro Porro, Mohammed Kudus, Micky van de Ven and Destiny Udogie all finished preseason without a single minute played. That is a huge red flag. Add to that the injuries to Wilson Odobert, Dejan Kulusevski and Xavi Simons, and Spurs look disjointed. They had an unbeaten preseason, but that counts for little when your key players are rusty. The recent head-to-head at this venue tells its own story: four stalemates from five Premier League meetings, including a 0-0 on New Year's Day. Brentford have not scored against Spurs in three matches, but they have also stopped losing to them. This is a tight, cagey fixture, and the draw has to be the anchor.