A run of three consecutive Premier League victories for Brentford came to an end with Saturday's draw at home to Tottenham Hotspur, but it was nonetheless a performance with which the Bees can be very proud.

Despite missing three four first-team regulars, and facing off against arguably a full-strength Spurs side, the Bees were the better side from minute one to 90 and may feel aggrieved not to have picked up all three points

Head coach Thomas Frank addressed the media after the match — these were his most noteworthy quotes.

On deserving more

This was far from being 2021/22's most eventful match, but there were a flurry of chances towards the beginning and end of the contest and the majority of them fell Brentford's way. As such, Frank stressed that the victory had been his side's to claim.

"We got a result but we should've got a bigger result — we should've won. It was fairly even between the boxes but we kept the most dangerous two in Son and Kane extremely created and we created a lot of good chances and opportunities."

Despite sharing the spoils with their opponents, the Bees were undoubtably the better side on the day, particularly in a defensive sense as they prevented Tottenham from registering a single shot on target in the entire match, a statistic which delighted the head coach.

"It was a very good defensive performance, closing down the spaces very well. They had a few transitions that could have been dangerous and it was very important to deal with those."

On the opposition

Asked if Brentford's superiority had anything to do with the Tottenham's lacklustre performance on the day, Frank gave an impassioned response, highlighting that his team faced an uphill battle from the start with four starters unavailable while Spurs arrived at full strength.

"I think that's massively unfair," he asserted with a wry smile. "How many teams play at their top level every game? Not even City and Liverpool, I'm pretty sure Klopp and Pep feel they hit that level four to eight times a season. I think today, Tottenham came with a full strength team, we had four or five injuries and still deserved to win — I think that's amazing."

On dealing with injuries

The Bees were without the services of Ethan Pinnock, Kristoffer Ajer, Christian Norgaard and Sergi Canos for this contest, losing four players who have been key for Frank's side season-long, but their replacements — Mads Bech Sorensen, Mads Roerslev, Mathias Jensen and Saman Ghoddos respectively — all stepped into the team seamlessly, a fact which please the head coach immensely.

"We had the 'second-best' player in four positions against a Tottenham side who are going for the Champions League and so to get a result is credit to all our work, and on top of that we deserved to win."

Frank was especially keen to heap praise on Ghoddos, a player who had made just three Premier League starts before Saturday's extremely impressive performance from the attacking midfielder who slotted in at wing-back in Canos' absence.

"I think Saman deserves so much praise," said the head coach. "It's easy to play every week and not so easy to be the one that's waiting for his chance — he's always ready when he's called upon, a fantastic personality and character and he's a big part of our culture of togetherness."

On Christian Eriksen

Naturally, one of the key talking points from this fixture was Christian Eriksen facing his former club having left Spurs for Inter Milan in January 2020. That stay in Italy was short-lived after his cardiac arrest during Euro 2020 required him to have a cardioverter-defibrillator fitted, a device which is banned among Serie A footballers, so the Dane returned to England and Saturday's meeting felt like a pleasant moment of symmetry.

What's more, registered a superb individual display which caused all sorts of problems for his former teammates. Frank stressed, however, that Eriksen's charisma and character has impressed him even more than his footballing ability during his three months in west London.

"When any team gets a player that walks straight into their starting 11, it's a lift. His personality fits perfectly our culture, his attitude where he's confident but humble fits with what he have here. His interaction with every other player is very good and that of course helps the team and helps him settle in quicker."

Finally, the inevitably recurring question came: will Eriksen stay at Brentford?

"I'm very positive and hopeful that he will stay," said Frank. "I do what I can but it's down to Christian — it's like deciding whether you buy that house or take that job, there's always pros and cons. I hope Christian makes the right choice for him and his family and I hope that's with us."

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