The Premier League returned with a bang as Tottenham Hotspur recovered from a 2-0 deficit to play out an entertaining 2-2 draw with Brentford in a Boxing Day London derby at the Gtech Community Stadium.
With Antonio Conte's side taking a while to dust off the cobwebs from the World Cup break, Brentford deservedly went 2-0 up through Vitaly Janelt and Ivan Toney before Harry Kane and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg rescued a point for the visitors in an enthralling second half.
After a minute's silence for England's late World Cup hero George Cohen, the Gtech Community Stadium were treated to an inevitable quick start from Brentford, who showed no signs of rustiness from the recent break.
The Bees' dominance was rewarded with just 15 minutes on the clock, as Bryan Mbeumo's cross from the right found an unmarked Mathias Jensen, whose shot deflected off Clement Lenglet and Fraser Forster into the path of Janelt for a simple tap-in.
Safe in the knowledge that they had never lost a Premier League game when scoring first, the Brentford crowd - who also celebrated a new contract for Thomas Frank - expressed every ounce of their festive cheer as Tottenham struggled to carve out anything meaningful.
David Raya did have a couple of first-half saves to make, but the efforts from Dejan Kulusevski and Son Heung-min were tame and gathered calmly by the Spanish goalkeeper, and the Bees were only a couple of inches away from a second just before half time.
Yves Bissouma was caught in possession in the 43rd minute by Jensen, who released Toney to round Forster and score, but the Bees striker had just gone slightly too early and the offside flag was raised.
Spurs fans would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during Conte's half-time team talk, but the Italian's speech initially had little impact on his players, whose atrocious defending came to the fore when Brentford doubled their lead in the 50th minute.
A sliced attempt at a clearance from Eric Dier led to a corner for the hosts, and Mbeumo's delivery was flicked on by Christian Norgaard into the path of Toney, who evaded the attention of several stagnant Tottenham defenders to prod home.
Just before Toney's tap-in, Tottenham were controversially denied a penalty after Ben Mee ostensibly hauled down Kane inside the area, but neither referee David Coote nor VAR official Stuart Attwell saw anything wrong with the challenge.
However, Kane won the next duel with Mee to halve the deficit out of nowhere in the 64th minute, as Lenglet - who did not cover himself in glory for Toney's goal - floated in a delightful cross from the left for the England captain to direct a brilliant header into the far corner.
Only seven minutes later, the home crowd were stunned into silence as Tottenham found their leveller, with Kulusevski's deflected cross from the right falling kindly for Hojbjerg to pick out the side of the net from 12 yards.
Skirmishes soon broke out as both sides were denied penalty appeals within a couple of minutes of each other, with Zanka and Matt Doherty squaring up after the latter went down under attention from the Brentford man, while Forster managed to pull out of a challenge on Mbeumo, who went down anyway and was booked for simulation.
Amid all the penalty area drama, the Lilywhites were finally on top and looking the more likely to score the game's fifth goal, and another Lenglet-Kane combination very nearly resulted in it in the 84th minute, but this time, the Englishman's header hit the bar with Raya beaten.
Late Tottenham pressure ultimately counted for nought as the two capital rivals shook hands on a point apiece, and Spurs now prepare to face Aston Villa on New Year's Day following Brentford's second successive London derby against West Ham United on Friday. body check tags ::
