Tottenham Hotspur Stadium witnessed James Maddison’s goal celebration on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT). For three months supporters had waited for their playmaker to return from injury. Now, finally, here he was. One FA Cup cameo off the bench under his belt and ready to start. Ready to pull the creative strings and reinstate his club to the English Premier League’s top four. Angeball’s No.1 implementer all systems go.

Except that it was not James Maddison throwing darts at the Spurs fans in the front row. It was his impersonator, Neal Maupay, who had just opened the scoring for Brentford. Teaming up with Ivan Toney for a moment of mockery, of peak shithousery which would have looked poetic to his own camp and like puffed-up arrogance to the other lot.

Maddison certainly did not expect the tribute band to be playing at his home venue, and the playmaker’s reaction hinted that he was not thrilled. He threw a hand around Maupay’s shoulder, sarcastically slapped the Frenchman on the back and wrapped a hand around his neck for a stare-off. This match was only 15 minutes old. Already it smelled of spite.

The last time Tottenham played Brentford was Ange Postecoglou’s first league match in charge – a frenetic 2-2 away draw. A lot has happened between then and now. In the interests of recency bias, Saturday’s frustrating FA Cup-eliminating 1-0 home loss to Manchester City would probably have felt the most pertinent, the result needing to be erased with a win to re-establish themselves once more in Champions League calculations.

In the end it did happen, as it so often does under Postecoglou when his teams concede the first goal. Spurs did reign 3-2 on this night of niggle to leapfrog Aston Villa (at the same time as City beat Burnley 3-1 to overtake Arsenal in second). But there was edge from the outset, and Tottenham – initially, at least – did not have it.

Brentford’s manager, Thomas Frank, had studied the blueprint and was eager to help his 15th-placed team keep a safe distance from the bottom three. It made for an interesting first 15 minutes, during which the visitors were stuck in their own half apart from three isolated counter-attacks.

Ange Postecoglou applauds a job well done … eventually.Credit: Getty

The first occurred when they snuck in behind Tottenham’s high line only for Maupay to delay his shot for too long. The second, after 13 minutes, would have been a goal for Mads Roerslev except that Mathias Jensen, caught out by Tottenham’s high defensive line, had been a fraction offside in the build-up.

In the third, two minutes later, it finally happened. Maupay intercepted an errant pass by Destiny Udogie on halfway before Cristian Romero played Toney onside and, though goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario was equal to his attempt, could not recover in time to stop Maupay’s follow-up and then his more figurative target practice. “He hasn’t scored enough goals to have his own celebration, so he had to copy mine,” said Maddison, who has three this season despite 10 weeks on the sidelines.