A Rerun of the Sam Kerr Show

Spurs Women fall to defeat against Chelsea for the second time this week | News roundup | Previewing the weekend matchups

Sigh. It really is the hope that kills you when it comes to Spurs. We knew the doubleheader with Chelsea was going to be difficult, but you still hold out hope that the unexpected can happen. And technically, it nearly did in both games. But then the universe reverted to the norm.

This Chelsea Women team has only lost twice in the WSL this season (neither time at home) and only drawn twice, so getting points from either of these matches was always going to be a tall order, especially with Chelsea laser-focused on winning the title. Relative to our respective squad depths, I think it's even fair to say that we over-performed across both games and kept them competitive.

Chelsea 2 - 1 Tottenham

In the away fixture we were to be without Ashleigh Neville due to a yellow card accumulation suspension, and Jessica Naz was also missing from the matchday squad. Summanen started on the bench and didn't sub in until the second half. This necessitated a few changes to the starting lineup from Sunday:  Ale started in place of Neville, Clemaron for Summanen, and Ayane for Naz. They each had their moments, but Harrop was far and away the player of the match, not least because of her superb backward header to score Spurs' only goal. The center-backs were also key in keeping the scoreline close and hardly knew a moment of peace during the game.

Chelsea's first goal came from a set-piece in the 19th minute, scored by a lively Beth England. We equalized off a set-piece of our own, taken by Simon and headed across the goal and in by Harrop in the 44th minute. Unfortunately, Chelsea responded right away thanks to some tricky movement by Harder who then assisted Kerr's header in the 45th minute. Harder's impressive bit of skill took Harrop out of the defensive equation, but Schnaderbeck and Zadorsky could have done better to ensure someone was marking Kerr. The Aussie's goal would prove to be the game-winner, despite a spirited second half from both teams, including a near-worldie shot from Ayane.

Since there was a quick turnaround between fixtures and some rotation was necessary (albeit limited by our sparse squad), I was glad to see Ale given the start. She's a young player with a lot of potential and I hope she will end up featuring in Rehanne's plans for next season. Earlier in the season, she had mainly featured as the RB in a back-four, but in her more recent appearances has shown great attacking instincts from the RWB position. She had one particularly bright moment in the second half when she made a sneaky run into space to receive the ball and nearly connected her cross into the crowded box with a teammate (I think it may have been Williams, but haven't been able to find a highlight clip, so don't quote me! Can I just use this moment to complain about how rare it is to find WSL clips that aren't geo-locked?). Of course, she is often competing for minutes with Neville, who is obviously a locked-on starter, but who knows--Rehanne could choose to play Neville as a straight-up winger next season and free up some more game time for Ale.

It's not looking as promising for Addison next season. Rehanne has used her solely as a substitute for as far back as I can remember, with limited game time, and she hasn't put in the same kind of game-changing performances we used to be able to expect from her. I would not be surprised to see her moving on in the summer.

Other than that, there's nothing else of note to report from this fixture. I'm glad Chelsea Hell Week (h/t Hometown Glory) is now over. Good riddance!

A brief news interlude

Before I preview the weekend matches for Spurs Men and Women, there are a few news updates from the club to make sure y'all didn't miss.

The good news first:  two new contracts for Spurs Women!

The club exercised an option in Shelina Zadorsky's contract to lock down the team captain for an additional season. She has developed a great center-back partnership with Spurs newcomer Molly Bartrip, and it will be delightful to see that connection strengthened further next season. Today's match actually marked Shelina's 50th appearance with Spurs, so congrats to the skipper for this milestone.

Spurs then agreed to a new two-year contract for Becky Spencer, who also passed the 50-caps mark this season. She's one of the best shot stoppers in the league and is still at the top of her game, so this is huge news. Our already-impressive defense is made even more so with Spencer between the sticks.

Now for the bad news:  Oliver Skipp has been ruled out for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery. But he's expected to be back for pre-season, so let's send him some good healing vibes and look forward to his true breakout season in the next PL campaign.

Mid-table matchups for the weekend

Well, it's a bit of a stretch to call Everton Women a mid-table team, but they've been out of relegation risk for a while now at least. Leicester Men, on the other hand, are smack in the middle of the PL table in 10th.

The Men's game is up first on Sunday, and it's a must-win.

Luckily, the stars seem to be aligning for Spurs when it comes to this fixture. Not only will we have the fitness advantage over Leicester, who just played today in the Conference League semi-finals, they are also likely to be employing some squad rotation since they only managed a 1-1 draw with Roma to take into the away leg next week. They're well below the Europa League (or even Conference League) spots in the table, so winning the Conference League this year is their best chance of playing in Europe next season.

For Spurs, a lot has changed since the reverse fixture at King Power Stadium; we were missing both Son and Dier that day (and Romero with his long-term injury), Skipp and Tanganga were fit and playing, and Lo Celso was still with the club(!) and made a sub appearance. This was also near the beginning of the Doherty renaissance and he played an important substitute role. Of course, I'm sure I don't need to remind y'all that it was our final sub who won the game for us in one of the best stoppage time performances ever. I'm not foolish enough to think that Conte will start Bergwijn this time, since he hates to tinker, but please Antonio--don't make him languish on the bench for a second straight game! Give him some quality minutes! The good thing is that we can usually count on Kane to score against Leicester, and he desperately needs to get out of his goal-scoring drought for the good of our top 4 chase.

Then later in the day, the Women's team takes on Everton at Walton Hall Park.

I usually like to shy away from making comparisons between a club's Men's and Women's teams, but it's kind of apt in Everton's case. They both have decent (in theory) squads filled with talented players--or at least, players who were once considered great talents (sorry, Dele). They've also both had managerial changes mid-season (twice in the case of the Women's team, though they've been working under an interim duo since February and have already named their new manager for next season). In other words, they're flailing and massively underperforming their potential. I was listening to the excellent Women's Football Weekly podcast earlier and they cited Spurs Women as a team that is becoming increasingly attractive to prospective players, while Everton are at risk of turning off the players they need to get things back on track. They will also have trouble retaining the talent they currently have; Valérie Gauvin has already completed a transfer to the North Carolina Courage in the NWSL and peaced right out.

However, football isn't played on paper but rather on the pitch, so we need to continue proving that Tottenham is indeed a club on the rise by notching a decisive win over a lesser opponent. It's going to be tough after two exhausting and competitive fixtures against Chelsea. On the positive side, Neville will be back in the squad after her yellow card suspension, and hopefully Naz will also return to action after being mysteriously missing. (If I have one complaint about following the Women's team, it's that we don't get nearly the same depth of insight on injuries as we do for the Men's team, so I always feel blindsided when someone is suddenly absent from the matchday squad.) Everton's defense has been seriously leaky (the third-worst in the league), so we need to take advantage of this opportunity to improve upon our previous 1-0 victory margin against them.

COYS