All Business in Bournemouth

I'm going to try to keep this issue short and sweet because there's another game in less than 24 hours. Yikes! I would have worked on getting this issue out last night but ended up going to see some collegiate soccer at the last minute.

Before I get to the match recap, I just wanted to say thank you for all the supportive comments I received about the Bissouma topic from my last issue. It was reassuring to learn that I'm definitely not alone in still feeling some concern about how his transfer went down, because my own feelings were starting to feel quite alienating, honestly. I'm still having a bit of an existential crisis in general around my level of investment/engagement in men's football but that's for me to sort out. For now, the newsletter will continue.

In this issue: Bournemouth Recap | Fulham Preview | News from around the Lane

PL Matchday 3 recap | Bournemouth 0 - 2 Tottenham

Maddison 17', Kulusevski 63'

This felt like an even more dominant win than the Manchester United match (though an identical scoreline). Bournemouth did have a few moments of sustained pressure, particularly on either side of halftime, but nothing the Tottenham defense couldn't handle. I grow more and more confident in Cristian Romero and Micky Van de Ven's centerback partnership every game. And isn't it refreshing to see competent set piece defense this season? Couple the strong defensive showing with finally getting some goal production from one of the forwards, and things are looking really positive ahead of the first cup tie of the season.

Starting XI:

Ange Postecoglou opted for an unchanged starting lineup from the United match, thanks to James Maddison being available after all. He would end up scoring his first Spurs goal so I'd say it was a good decision not to rest him out of caution! As it is, he got an early substitution to allow for some well-deserved rest ahead of the midweek game (though Ange may opt to rotate some of the players like Maddison who have started every game so far).

The substitutions were a crucial part of Ange's game management. After a big chance was missed by Bournemouth near the 60th minute, he decided to bring in some fresh legs to get control of the game back on Spurs' side. Although Ivan Perišić and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg are two of the older players in this newly youthful Tottenham squad, they nevertheless provided the necessary spark, and we scored the decisive second goal just a few minutes later.

Speaking of the goals, both featured assists from two of the youngest talents in the squad, Pape Sarr and Destiny Udogie. It's interesting to think that while one rarely featured last season and the other was on loan for his initial season with the club, both are quickly making a case for themselves to be locked-on starters. Their individual assists showcased their individual passing styles, with Sarr's an incisive through ball to Maddison for the first-half goal and Udogie's a thrilling cross just shy of the goal line. Cerebral vs. high-risk football at its best, and a perfect encapsulation of the duality that can exist under Angeball. The fluidity of the system allows for both styles of play at different stages of a given game. It's also worth noting that Pape can bring the physicality when needed and Destiny has his moments of cleverness, too. That's the other refreshing thing about the squad's new lease of life under Ange; players aren't being pigeonholed (no pun intended to Richarlison) into just one role. The players are being encouraged to not only enjoy their football but to trust their own decision-making.

Let's have a moment of praise for Dejan Kulusevski, who scored his first PL goal in 20 games going back to last season. You could never accuse Deki of letting his head drop during that goalless stretch; he kept his work rate high and was justly rewarded for his patience. He and Son Heung-min have perhaps had the most adjustments to make in the transition from Conte's system to Postecoglou's, so it's great to see one of them getting off the mark just three games into the season. I'm sure a goal will be coming soon for Sonny as well.

Back to the substitutes, we also saw Giovani Lo Celso make his season debut in a double sub alongside Oliver Skipp. To pick up on another trend, all five of the substitutes (including the last sub, Ben Davies) could very well have been potential outgoing transfers under a different incoming manager, but all five seem to have proven their usefulness to the new gaffer. Lo Celso especially had been on the outside looking in. It just goes to show that the right manager can get something out of a player who had previously been forsaken, and I appreciate that Ange hadn't written anyone off ahead of seeing them in action in pre-season. On the flipside, there are a few players who do seem to be running out of chances at Spurs. As long as Ange is happy with the squad he has to work with, I'm happy.

Another clean sheet, another fairly effortless attacking performance, and another three points. Our undefeated streak to start the season continues!

SAtP Player of the Match: James Maddison

If this is what he can do coming off a knock in the previous game, the rest of the league should be very afraid. It feels like everything is going through Maddison at the moment, and that's as it should be—we finally have our long-awaited #10. He's probably working his way back into England consideration with his renaissance at Spurs.

Notable and quotable:

• Pedro Porro is slowly but surely making all of us who said he absolutely should not, and could not under any circumstances play as right fullback look like cynical fools. Not a bad thing!

• I just want to note that Guglielmo Vicario has yet to make a decisive mistake, and is definitely good for his two clean sheets so far. Life after Hugo Lloris may not be so scary after all.

• I think some of the frustration with Richarlison from the fanbase was a little harsh. He did have some bright moments in the first half, and again, the important thing is that he's getting into the right positions. The goals are going to come.

• I loved this quote from Sonny on Madders. A little captain-to-vice-captain appreciation, if you will:

When we are talking about Madders we could stay here all day. He’s a really good player. For a couple of years we needed this kind of player to create chances and make passes, which is very important. Playing with him is a joy. Hopefully he can score and assist many goals.

I’m very happy for him that he scored his first goal for the club. I hope there is many more to come for him. He totally deserves it. He always plays thinking of the team and not for the individual. Madders scored a fantastic goal but credit also to Pape. We are all happy at this kind of special goal, because we are moving the ball really well.

Previewing League Cup Round 2 — Fulham

Obviously, we would have preferred to enter the League Cup in a later round as usual, but since we aren't in European competition this season we don't have the luxury of skipping out on Round 2. And of all the fixtures we could have drawn in this regionalized stage of the cup, Fulham away was one of the most difficult. We'll just have to make the most of this early opportunity to demonstrate a newfound commitment to taking the domestic cups seriously—or so I hope!

Fulham have had a very mixed bag of a start to the Premier League season. They had a narrow 0-1 opening day win at Everton, a lopsided 0-3 loss to Brentford in a home London derby, and then an eventful 2-2 draw at Arsenal after going up a goal in the 1st minute. Perhaps it should be a cause for concern that they are quite unpredictable at the moment.

But on the plus side, they are newly without target man Aleksandar Mitrović after the Serbian's head was turned by the Saudi league. They replaced him with Raul Jiménez, who has struggled to regain form ever since his terrible head injury a few seasons ago (understandably). I'm still just glad we didn't watch him die on the pitch that day and genuinely hope he can recover his old goal-scoring prowess—but maybe after we've faced Fulham.

The Cottagers will also be without their manager for the tie because Marco Silva was given a third yellow card of the season against Arsenal. Yes, that's three yellows in just three games so far. Wonderful work, Marco.

Much to my chagrin, my least favorite German keeper, Bernd Leno, has actually been one of Fulham's top performers this season (small sample size, of course). Palhinha is always a threat, whether as a starter or super sub, as is Bobby De Cordova-Reid. Then there's the possibility of Carlos Vinícius coming back to haunt us, or one of our past and present transfer targets in Adam Traoré and Tosin Tosin Adarabioyo, respectively. Fulham certainly have enough talented players to give other teams trouble, but too often they seem to rely on individual moments of brilliance rather than a consistent, cohesive team strategy across the whole season.

Our starting lineup is difficult to predict since Ange has indicated there will definitely be some rotation. To what extent, we'll have to wait to see. I think he kind of has to let Richy play his way out of his goal-scoring drought, but there's an argument to be made that one or both wingers should be rotated. I also wouldn't mind seeing Lo Celso get a start so Maddison can rest up for the weekend game against Burnley. If Ange is okay with further fluctuation in the midfield, Skipp could also feature, or PEH. In the defense, Udogie has played significant minutes already for such a young player, so a Davies swap would not be remiss. Otherwise, I would really prefer to see the backline stay consistent if fitness allows. Side note: It's delightful to realize that I'm probably going to be happy no matter who is starting, which is not something I could truthfully say in the past few seasons. I also have faith that Ange will make the necessary changes required by the game state. What a difference having a flexible manager makes.

I'm not going to lie though... if we do lose this game I will be a bit crushed. I really want us to make decent runs in the domestic cups this season, if not outright win one of them. Normally the League Cup is the easier path to a trophy, and that's clearly not going to be the case this time around with a PL opponent in our entrance round, but we can't let that be an insurmountable obstacle. Dare to do, Tottenham!

News from around the Lane

Just a few tidbits to share this week.

• Troy Parrott is going on loan to Dutch Eredivisie team Excelsior Rotterdam, while Alfie Devine will be getting some much-needed senior football at Port Vale in League One, also a season-long loan. Good luck, lads!

• Spurs Women played a behind-closed-doors pre-season friendly against Aston Villa at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It was a scoreless draw, but new manager Robert Vilahamn seemed pleased with the team's fitness levels and overall performance:

I saw a lot of good stuff, things we’ve trained on these first weeks in the offensive game, how we can have a have a build-up, dictate the ball and try to be more offensive in the build-up and I think the players really want to be active and try to find the spaces and go for the attacks in the last third.

Of course, we still haven’t found the right pattern to break down Villa and score a goal but I’m really satisfied with how the players acted when the opponents pressed us and the deepest work is that we were high block, trying to press them when we can and I think we did it well according to the tactics and it felt like we were looking fit.

It sounds like we may finally see the Men's and Women's sides playing a similar brand of football! I'm looking forward to the WSL season starting even more now.

Interestingly, Molly Bartrip was captain for this friendly despite Shelina Zadorsky also starting, suggesting that the leadership mantle really will be changing. However, some other captaincy contenders did not feature, so it's too soon to say if it'll be Molly wearing the armband primarily or not. On that note, it was also interesting that Ash Neville was an unused substitute.

Three Academy players got some minutes, and none of them are names I recognize, so that's intriguing. Lenna Gunning-Williams, who had recently signed her first professional contract with the club, also came in as a sub and played nearly 30 minutes.

You can see the full starting lineup and substitutions in the match report.

• Former Spurs Women player Kerys Harrop announced her retirement from football. She earned the WSL's record for most appearances whilst playing for our club and was always a fan favorite. Congratulations to Kerys on a wonderful career, and good luck in whatever she decides to do next!

All right, everyone get ready for the Men's cup campaign to begin and cross your fingers for a cheeky Women's team signing in the next few days. Speaking of, while the Men's transfer window ends on September 1, the Women's team has until September 14 to finalize any arrivals (or departures I suppose, though I suspect we're already done on the outgoings front).

I'll close with some of my favorite photos from the past week in Spurs: Sonny nearly taking Deki out after the Swede's goal, another scene from the goal celebrations, Big Ange looking like he's inviting us all to join a Tottenham-based cult (I'm in), and Shelina looking radiant in training.

COYS

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