Spurs: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg ran the show vs Brentford

by George McGibbon share

3 minute read 26/12/2022 | 09:10pm

Tottenham Hotspur once again came back from a losing position to secure a point in a 2-2 draw with Brentford on Monday afternoon, a trait that Antonio Conte will undoubtedly be hoping for his side to lose over the remainder of the 2022/23 Premier League campaign.

Indeed, as has been so often the case so far this season, Spurs found themselves behind heading into the break, with Vitaly Janelt’s 15th-minute strike giving the Bees the lead before Ivan Toney looked to have given his side a fantastic chance of going on to secure their first win over Tottenham since 1948 by doubling their advantage 54 minutes into the match.

However, a 65th-minute Harry Kane header pulled the visitors back into the fixture, before Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg completed the comeback just six minutes later, with the Denmark international curling a wonderful strike beyond a helpless David Raya between the Brentford sticks on the 71-minute mark.

And, while the north London outfit were unable to go on and find a winner at the Gtech Community Stadium, the performance of Hojbjerg in the middle of the park will undoubtedly have been a huge positive for Conte, as the 27-year-old once again proved himself to be one of the club’s most important players against the Bees.

Indeed, over his 90 minutes on the pitch, the £61.5m-rated midfielder was spectacular in possession of the ball, enjoying 89 touches – the most of any player in the match – completing 61 of his 68 attempted passes – a success rate of 90% – and making three key passes, as well as playing two long balls, completing one cross and being successful with two dribbles.

The £100k-per-week midfielder also impressed while doing the dirty work, making three tackles, one interception and two clearances, in addition to winning six of his ten duels – a success rate of 60%.

These metrics saw the 27-year-old average an extremely impressive Sofascore match rating of 7.90 – the highest of any player to feature in the match – while football.london journalist Alasdair Gold also awarded the Dane a joint match-best seven in his own player ratings, in addition to stating of his performance:

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“Janelt ghosted in behind him to score for Brentford in the first half. Started the game sluggishly but got better as it wore on and levelled the scores with a perfect curling effort inside the left-hand post.”

As such, considering the fact that Hojbjerg currently ranks as Conte’s third-best performer in the Premier League so far this term, it would indeed appear as if the midfielder is having a “very underrated season” – in the words of journalist Sam Tabuteau – something that the 27-year-old’s match-running display against Brentford only proved further.