Tottenham ended a winless run of seven Premier League matches as they beat Brentford 2-0 at Gtech Community Stadium.
Spurs, who were also on a run of four successive league losses, gained a much-needed three points on a day where captain Son Heung-min played a part in both goals.
The forward’s corner led to Vitaly Janelt’s 29th-minute own goal before Pape Sarr’s late strike gave Ange Postecoglou some relief as Spurs moved up to 14th.
Spurs’ willingness to double up on 14-goal winger Bryan Mbeumo opened up gaps elsewhere as Mikkel Damsgaard began to showcase his quality in unoccupied pockets of the midfield.
The Dane was pulling the strings in the first half and was key to the Bees’ best chance in the 20th minute. His neat switch to Kevin Schade saw the forward’s shot heroically blocked by Archie Gray’s knee inside the area.
Midfielder by trade Gray, who found himself at centre-back again due to the absence of Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, struggled at times.
The England Under-21 player failed to pick up the evasive Yoane Wissa, who peeled off and narrowly missed the target with a headed chance from close range.
But skipper Son, who scored directly from a set-piece against Manchester United in the Carabao Cup in December, showed how good he is from a dead-ball situation again as his delivery forced an own-goal.
The 32-year-old used a whipped technique into the six-yard area where Janelt failed to anticipate the ball’s flight and his headed clearance flew past keeper Hakon Valdimarsson to make it 1-0.
Tottenham goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, who joined the club from Slavia Prague in January, had been pivotal to their defensive resilience as the match approached the hour mark.
The Czech shot-stopper was on hand to punch away aerial balls, showed great reflexes to get down low and stretched to deny Wissa a simple finish from Mbeumo’s low cross.
Postecoglou turned to the bench in the form of the physical Sarr as Spurs began to sit deeper in a bid to see out the win.
But the midfield player ended up scoring the visitors’ second as Son’s neat ball in behind was neatly poked past Valdimarsson by Sarr to seal a much-needed win.
