Tottenham Hotspur kick off their 26/27 Premier League campaign with a London derby against Brentford at the G-Tech Community Stadium.

It is the 12th meeting between the two sides, with Spurs losing just once in 11 previous matches.

Tottenham proved to be a lot harder to break down under Roberto De Zerbi towards the back end of last season, conceding six goals in seven of the games he managed. That’s five fewer goals than Igor Tudor managed in his final four games as Spurs boss.

Against Brentford, Tottenham don’t usually walk away empty-handed. Keith Andrew’s has failed to beat the Lilywhites in two meetings as a manager and is yet to manage a team that has scored against Spurs.

Brentford have strengthened their squad massively this season, with perhaps the most exciting of the bunch being the addition of Mamadou Sangare, who joined the Bees from Lens for a club record fee of £41m in August.

He looks set to play an important role against a side who, despite all the excitement around them, will field a team missing a few key players.

De Zerbi has informed Tottenham fans that they will be without newly appointed club captain Micky Van de Ven, who picked up a minor knock in pre-season.

Other notable squad absentees include World Cup winner Pedro Porro, who returned to first team training a week ago and Pape Sarr, who has tweaked his hamstring.

Mohammad Kudus has only just returned from injury but had also travelled to Ghana earlier this week to take care of a family issue. It remains unclear whether he’ll be involved in Saturday’s game.

In lighter news, James Madison, Matheus Fernandes, Destiny Udogie and Dominic Solanke all seem to be recovering well from their knocks and whilst the starting XI may be too soon for them, a place on the bench is almost guaranteed.

An away game under the lights at Brentford to kick off the new season for Spurs looks a challenging one, but is also a real opportunity for some of Tottenham’s brightest pre-season stars to shine on the big stage.

Mathys Tel and Mikey Moore look certain to start after impressing in their last outing against Hoffenheim, with Moore getting a brace thanks to two brilliant pieces of play from Tel.

De Zerbi confirmed yesterday that Lucas Bergvall will not be leaving North London this transfer window amid talks of a move away from the club where he so often has been the shining light.

Elsewhere, Sandro Tonali, Andy Robertson, Jan Paul Van Hecke and Marcos Senesi are all in line to make their Premier League debuts for Tottenham. They make up four of the six confirmed signings that Spurs have made thus far in the summer window.

And when speaking of additions to their squad, deals for Manchester City duo Savinho and Omar Marmoush are creeping ever closer, with multiple reports confirming that Tottenham have struck an agreement with City over the permanent sale of both forwards.

Exciting times for fellow Spurs Fans!

Despite the positivity surrounding the club at the moment, I don’t think this fixture is as easy as it looks.

Given the current state of the squad when you look at availability in attack, I’m not too sure we score many (if any at all) against Brentford.

I’m going with a 1-1 draw to kick things off for Spurs this season. A result that I think many would be happy to take before the kick of a football.