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Gary Lineker forced to quickly backtrack on Premier League title prediction
Gary Lineker has backtracked on his Premier League prediction.
Harry Kane hints at future Tottenham return after completing Bayern Munich move
Gary Lineker quickly backtracked after joking that Tottenham were Premier League title contenders during their season opener against Brentford. Ange Postecoglou’s side were held to a 2-2 draw by Brentford on Sunday but gave former striker Lineker enough to be excited about.
Spurs were playing their first game since Harry Kane’s exit to Bayern Munich. There were few signs of them missing the striker, who endured an underwhelming debut of his own as Bayern lost against RB Leipzig on Saturday night.
Lineker appeared to be a big fan of Spurs’ first performance of the post-Kane era. The Match of the Day host boldly - but jokingly - suggested the north Londoners could challenge the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool for the Premier League title.
Cristian Romero put Spurs ahead with a thumping header and Lineker responded by predicting: “Spurs are going to win the league.”
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But that stance lasted all of 16 minutes as Brentford equalised through Bryan Mbeumo. Lineker responded to Mbeumo’s goal by replying to his previous tweet with: “Or maybe they won’t.”
Brentford then went ahead through Yoane Wissa before Emerson Royal powered home an equaliser just before half-time. It was a positive performance by Spurs in their first match after Kane’s exit on Saturday morning.
Postecoglou insisted he had not needed to address Kane’s departure with any of his players. He said: “I haven't needed to address it, I haven't needed to give them a warm fuzzy cuddle just to see how they are. We had a game to prepare for and they knew that.
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“I think that was the important thing for us. If it felt like we were distracted, I was distracted or anyone else, I think you would have seen evidence of it today, particularly after that first half and the way it went.
“We showed a real resilience that we're going to need because it's going to be a challenging year for sure. We're going to need that when we lose our most influential defender at 1-0 when we've already got two guys making their debut in the back four.
“If you concede goals that are kind of out of your control, the fact that they showed the resilience they did was a good sign.”