Spurs vs Brentford | Ben's players to watch, Rob's tactical analysis

Ben Haines, lifelong Spurs fan, presenter of Inside Spurs, The Warm Up and The Review Show and Rob Daly, Club commentator and pundit, take a closer look at Brentford ahead of this evening's Premier League clash at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (7.30pm UK).

Ben's players to watch

"Okay, City last time out was a tough one to take... we're out of the FA Cup. We'd all love to see us walking out at Wembley and had we overcome City, I think there is a good chance we'd be there. As ever though, best to look forward. Four out of our next five games will be at home, and what an incredible opportunity to build some momentum in the Premier League, starting with Brentford. In terms of a Spurs player to watch - it’s got to be James Maddison hasn’t it? That ovation for him when he was warming up against City - you got the impression that everyone knows just how important he is to this side, not just his quality in attacking situations, but his character and ability to drag the team forward and give us that spark. Though we can’t expect him to be firing on all cylinders straight away - just having him in the matchday squad does such a huge amount for the team and the crowd, it’ll be really exciting to see the impact he can have. For Brentford, unfortunately I’m going to be very very predictable here, Ivan Toney will be the one everyone will have their eyes upon, his return is enormous for Brentford. One thing to keep an eye on - in the reverse fixture, a 2-2 draw on the opening weekend back in August, Brentford were incredibly good at slowing things down in midfield - Vitaly Janelt, Mikkel Damsgaard and Mathias Jensen were the three that started in there against Forest in their last Premier League game, and if it is those three that start again - although it's worth noting that skipper Christian Norgaard is fit again - expect them to make it very difficult for our forwards to get time and space in the middle."

Talking tactics with Rob

"I think it's good that the team has a quick chance to make amends for Friday, not only that, but it's another home game. Brentford should arrive fresh, they haven't played for 11 days and weren't involved in the fourth round of the FA Cup. They've just ended a rotten run. They had gone seven without a win, including six defeats, but managed to beat Forest 3-2 on 20 January. That coincided with Ivan Toney's return from suspension. As Ben alluded to, that's a massive addition for them for the rest of the season. I think it's really promising for Thomas Frank, because Toney and Neal Maupay seemed to strike up a good partnership in that game, the first time they'd played together. Maupay has done well since returning to the club on loan from Everton, five goals, four assists, no bad numbers considering he was having a tough time at Goodison. Brentford are a different team to the one Spurs faced on opening weekend - and the 3-1 loss at the end of last season - because on those occasions Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa were up front, both scored, but are both now unavailable - Mbeumo injured, Wissa on international duty - so it's a different prospect for Spurs going into this match. I like Brentford's 3-5-2 system, because they can either play out from the back and try to play around a press, or knock it long, they have both options tactically. We saw that back in August. However, they have dropped 20 points from winning positions. They seem to be more possession based this season, that's apparent in the numbers, and they are scoring less goals from set pieces and crosses. From a Spurs point of view, you wonder if James Maddison is now fit enough to start after returning off the bench against City. Bizarrely, Brentford are quite vulnerable from crosses - no team has conceded more headed goals in the Premier League this season - and I wonder with Maddison available, you want to get Dejan Kulusevski wide and crossing the ball into Richarlison, if that is a problem area for Brentford, I feel like Richarlison could be a real threat."