New Narratives in the NLD

Well, on the whole, I think that went pretty well!

While Spurs Men didn't quite undo all of the built-up frustration around the away NLD fixture, they made a decent start toward chipping away at the conventional narratives around the most dreaded match on the calendar.

I'll admit that my initial feeling was one of disappointment that we didn't escape the Emirates with all three points, but knowing the history of the fixture, I am trying to be a little more measured about it in hindsight. There were definitely moments that went against us, and against Cuti Romero in particular, but the team showed great mentality to equalize not once but twice and remind fans, rivals, and neutrals alike just who was the true star of the matchup (hint: it's not Bukayo Saka).

In this issue: Arsenal recap | Previewing the weekend fixtures | News from around the Lane | Pub chat: Growing Spurs Women's support

PL Matchday 6 recap | Arsenal 2 - 2 Tottenham

Romero (OG) 26', Saka (pen) 54' | Son 42' • 55'

All we have ever really asked for as fans is for the team to truly show up to the NLD matches, and barring the home win two seasons ago under Conte, that simply hasn't been the case in recent seasons. This latest edition of the derby marked a return to Tottenham approaching the game with spirit and belief—and a healthy dose of determination, which was crucial in the face of several setbacks. And let's be honest: after such a positive start to the season and plenty of indication that the squad's mentality has shifted for the better under Ange Postecoglou, it would have been pretty crushing if they had cowered in the face of this challenge.

So for me, all of my mixed feelings about the result (at least we didn't lose—but we could have won!) were secondary to an overarching feeling of relief. I felt relief that I could be proud of the team for the performance, and relief that the Magic of Ange survived another difficult game. The bubble hasn't burst yet and I hope it remains intact through the upcoming Liverpool game as well.

Starting XI:

Ange seems to have settled on his "best XI", although I do think the forward line will continue to fluctuate based on the type of opposition we're about to face. For example, Brennan Johnson was tapped for his first PL start at Spurs due to his pace and ability to take on defenders 1v1. Otherwise, it was the usual suspects, with last week's left wing starter Manor Solomon the first to come off the bench in the second half.

I think it's a good time to give Guglielmo Vicario some well-deserved praise for the start he's had to the season. It seems like no matter who our opponent is, he brings the same energy and focus without fail. I've been really impressed by him and, harsh as it may be to say, haven't missed Hugo Lloris at all. Huge credit to the scouting team for taking a chance on a player who was relatively unknown in English football circles. He didn't arrive with much hype, but he's more than capable of producing his own.

I also want to commend him for the leadership he showed in this match, comforting Cuti after his own goal. Sonny has spoken about how he wants to see leadership all across the pitch from all of the players, and Vicario has definitely taken it to heart.

It was interesting to see Vicario face off against the player who we almost signed instead, David Raya. And to be fair to Raya, he did make one absolutely superb save for Arsenal that kept them from dropping all three points at home. But Vicario made two very high-quality saves of his own.

The other notable bit from the starting lineup is that Ange continues to trust his young players to contend with some of the league's top attacking talents—even when dealt the adversity of an early yellow card, as Destiny Udogie was in the 15th minute. Pape Sarr and Yves Bissouma also played an entire half on a booking, having picked up their yellows in first-half stoppage time. It was a delicate balancing act for the team to avoid going a man down.

But the player who I think best exemplified the wisdom of Ange's gamble on young players was Micky Van de Ven. He hardly put a foot wrong and made one extremely pivotal tackle to preserve the draw. If you haven't yet watched his Spurs Play interview with Ben Haines, you simply must. Trust me.

It made a huge difference that he was able to stay so composed and committed since Romero was having a tough night—although it should be said that I don't actually think Romero had that bad of a game, and he was extremely unlucky with the handball call in my opinion. The league's officials have not been nearly consistent enough in applying the handball rule in general.

The officiating wasn't the worst we've had to deal with this season (a low bar), but it certainly didn't help. Arsenal got away with two potential red cards: the stomp and successive hand to Udogie's face by Ben White and the dangerous tackle on Vicario by Eddie Nketiah (who at least got a yellow, unlike White). The former incident was made even more galling by the fact that after the ref failed to stop play for the fouls on Udogie, Sarr and Bissouma picked up their back-to-back yellow cards in the following seconds. And it turns out that Romero's yellow card was bogus as well, with Gabriel Jesus doing a bit of playacting to fool the referee that was obvious on replay.

If Nketiah had been shown a red card and we had been playing with the man advantage for nearly thirty minutes (including stoppage time), I feel pretty confident that we could have scored a game-winning goal. So that's unfortunate that it feels like an opportunity missed. However, I take comfort in the fact that both of Arsenal's goals came from lucky breaks on their behalf, while ours were scored from open play through the great connection between James Maddison and Son Heung-min.

The first goal came about through some clever movement by Maddison to evade Saka near the goal line after a double chance by Johnson was recycled out to Udogie and passed on to our #10. Maddison picked out Sonny on the edge of the six-yard box for a crisp finish that he made look way easier than it actually was.

The second goal happened immediately after conceding the handball penalty to Saka, who once again mocked Maddison's darts celebration despite not having to work all that hard for either of his goals—definitely not enough to warrant such banter. Maddison responded by nicking the ball of a negligent Jorginho, coolly sending a through ball to Son who put his shot past Raya so casually that it may as well have been training practice.

Even though Maddison undoubtedly was integral to both goals and is mounting a strong campaign for the league's assist leader award just six games in, I have been left with no choice...

SAtP Man of the Match: Son Heung-min

Not only did Sonny showcase the exceptional quality of his finishing with his brace, but he also exemplified the fighting Tottenham spirit we want to see in a derby. He remains our most consistent "big game" player in recent club history.

Plus, I just loved the way he fired up the away fans during his goal celebrations. Sonny just gets it. COYSonny.

Notable and quotable:

• Kulusevski had a quietly great performance. I wish we had seen him shift into a more central role after Maddison subbed off, but hopefully that's a strategy Ange is keeping in his back pocket for a future game.

• Johnson also did very well on his first start for the club, coming close to scoring several times. It's too bad he was forced off early with a hamstring issue, which reportedly will keep him out of the Liverpool match at least.

• Son scored his 149th and 150th goals for the club, making him the sixth Spurs player to reach the 150 goals mark. Congrats, Sonny!

• We have now picked up three additional points over the same fixtures last season, not including Sheffield United since they are newly promoted. Not bad when the fixtures where we gained points were Manchester United at home (2) and Arsenal away (1)!

• Okay, sue me, I'm going to recommend another Van de Ven interview, this time from the Arsenal post-game. The best quote: "It's strange, I think, if you have fear for a team." He's right though, why should we fear any team right now? We can go toe to toe with any of them on our day.

• I'm honestly not sure of the source of this quote (thanks, Spurs aggregator accounts) and it's quite lengthy, but I think it's worth sharing in full. Ange was asked about Vicario:

It was probably the priority position when I came in because at the time it looked like Hugo was moving on and there was a need for a new starting goalkeeper. You get presented with some options and I just really liked Vic from the start in terms of the characteristics he has as a goalkeeper - his agility, his demeanour, his character. Then I spoke to him and he's just such an infectious personality. He was so determined. He was so determined he wanted to come to Tottenham and prove himself at the next level. If you look at his career, he hasn't had a long time at the top level, similar to Micky van de Ven and a couple of others. I like players who have worked their way up from a low level very quickly because it shows that they adapt very quickly but also that they're coachable, that they learn, and you look at Vic, and he's taken big steps very, very quickly and he's been absolutely outstanding for us in the first six or seven games. He's been a really strong influence on the field in the big moments when we've needed him and he comes in every day and wants to improve, and that's exactly what we need.

I like this quote not just because I'm a big fan already of Big Vic, but because it emphasizes how important it is to recruit players who are a good cultural fit for the team. I don't think we would have had such a strong start to the season if we were starting fresh with a bunch of "superstar" type characters who are already set in their ways about how they want to play—or who would be reluctant to respect Ange since he isn't a big name himself, per se. It helps to have a squad of players who are genuinely excited to be at the club and who are excited to play with and for each other. When everyone has something to prove, every match feels important.

Previewing PL Matchday 7 — Liverpool

Out of the frying pan, into the fire, eh?

I just have a feeling deep in my bones that we are due a win against Liverpool. And that's never an easy task at Anfield, so why not get it done at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tomorrow?

As mentioned above, Johnson is definitely out because of his hamstring concern, so Solomon is the likely replacement (barring a surprise Bryan Gil return—though he is at least back in full team training). Son and Maddison are both questionable, though I would expect them to at least start if fit and come off early again like in the Arsenal game. Otherwise, don't expect to see many changes, because Ange will want to employ similar tactics against Liverpool as he did for the NLD. Important caveat: no one in the squad likes to score against Liverpool more than Richarlison, so you can bet on him having a super sub appearance.

Ange has some extra motivation to get a result in this game: he is undefeated in 50 home matches, going all the way back to when he was managing at Yokohama F. Marinos. There's no shame if he loses it to a team of Liverpool's caliber, but it still would be fabulous to keep the record intact for at least one more week.

Let's shift focus now to our opponents, Liverpool. I had written a bit about them in my PL season preview issue because I thought they would be a team to watch, and a team improved over last season for sure. That's proven to be the case so far. As I noted then, they have one of the scariest attacks in the PL. Good thing Micky fears no team!

Turns out they have been employing new signing Dominik Szoboszlai in the midfield rather than the winger role he occupied at RB Leipzig, and although he's only scored one goal in the PL and League Cup each, he's been a difficult presence for opponents to contain. And that's the issue with facing Liverpool; they have so many talented attackers that cause different types of problems for defenses, so you have to be vigilant on multiple fronts. It should also be noted that Mo Salah is currently tied with our own James Maddison for the most assists in the league.

But while Liverpool's ever-evolving attack has remained a constant threat over recent seasons, their defense seems to be deteriorating. Don't fact-check me, but I'd be willing to bet their CB partnership of Virgil van Dijk and Joël Matip is the oldest in the league. They do have some other options to rotate with those two, but none that are an obvious upgrade. For the record, they've only kept one clean sheet so far this season, against Aston Villa.

I feel pretty confident that our forward line can find some openings in their backline and punish them. The question is whether we can outscore their own potent attack. I think I'd give our defense a slight edge at the moment, so I'm backing us to secure the first win against Liverpool since 2017.

Previewing WSL Matchday 1 — Chelsea

Here's where the weekend gets even less fun/more stressful!

I will say that I'm happy about the late kickoff, which is a rarity for Spurs Women games. My local team has a late West Coast away game on Saturday that I'll be staying up to watch, so this was good timing.

If you haven't read my WSL season preview, yet, go do that first and then come back here.

Per Vilahaman's pre-match press conference, we didn't pick up any injuries during the international break, thank god. However, we still don't have any info on whether players like Amy Turner and Ramona Petzelberger who didn't feature in the pre-season friendlies are carrying an injury or not, so the makeup of the matchday squad will still be a bit of a surprise either way. The one player we know for sure is unavailable is Beth England, recovering from hip surgery. We did not get a concrete timeline for her return.

The only injury news I know for Chelsea is that Fran Kirby is back in action, while new signing Catarino Macario will be out for at least the first few games of the season.

I wouldn't begin to predict their starting lineup because they've brought in so many quality players over the summer, including a bevy of international talent. It's truly an embarrassment of riches.

It sounds like our main strategy is to "cause problems" for Chelsea, but not be wholly risk-taking going forward, knowing how dangerous Chelsea's own attack can be. Our summer signing Luana Bühler will be key in this matchup alongside vice-captain Molly Bartrip. One of our weaknesses in defense last season was failing to clear balls into the box with intent, but Bühler is adept at intercepting and redirecting the ball to kickstart the attack.

Of course, that attack is going to have a Beth England-shaped hole in it. It will be interesting to see Martha Thomas (I presume) start her first game for Spurs in Beth's absence. She herself joins us from a top team in the league, so in theory, she will know better than most of our players how to handle elite opposition like Chelsea. No pressure!

I cannot feel confident predicting a win, but even a draw would be a massive result; we have yet to gain a single point against them in any competition to date. The crowd is sure to be full and lively at Stamford Bridge for opening day, but on the flip side, having a big challenge to start the season could be a good thing in terms of quickly forcing us to get up to speed under the new manager.

News from around the Lane

• The club announced the signing of a promising 16-year-old Croatian defender, Luka Vušković. However, he won't be joining up with the team until he turns 18 in 2025. His contract runs until 2030, so this is clearly a player that the club sees as a valuable prospect for the future. Among his accolades so far are the distinctions of being the youngest player to appear in the Croatian top flight, as well as the youngest to score for his current club, Hajduk Split. He's also featured for his nation's youth setup already.

• I enjoyed this profile on Spurs Women's new manager, Robert Vilahamn, by Emily Salley at the BBC:

Who is new Tottenham manager Vilahamn?

Tottenham start a new era under Swede Robert Vilahamn when they begin their Women’s Super League season against Chelsea on Sunday.

BBC Sport

What I find most refreshing about Robert, quite similar to Ange in fact, is that he is motivated by challenge and determined to grow with each new role. He's eager to prove himself in an unfamiliar league, and that can only be a good thing for a squad who are also looking to prove themselves after a disappointing previous season.

I also was interested to hear that he believes we can—nay, should—be challenging for the Champions League qualification spots by next season. That's an ambitious timeline, but we've needed some ambition, frankly. I appreciate that he has clearly outlined his target instead of giving us more platitudes about being "the best of the rest."

• Now, we just need the club to match his ambition with proper investment in the squad. During his pre-match press conference today, he remarked that he and his team are already looking two transfer windows ahead in terms of recruitment, so that is also reassuring. We've needed this kind of future planning coupled with a sense of urgency. Doing the bare minimum with the Women's team is not going to cut it anymore, not with the teams around us in the table stepping up their game and the teams above leaving us well behind at our current rate of progress (or lack thereof, as was the case with last season's backslide).

• A stray observation from the same press conference: Robert referred to a "Scott" who was involved in his hiring process, whom I can only assume is Scott Munn. This suggests that Munn was, in fact, already getting involved at Spurs well before his official start date. Regardless, it sounds like the club is taking the "one club" motto very seriously this season because the head of the Academy was also consulted in the hiring process for both Ange and Robert, and the emphasis was on bringing in managers who could get the two teams playing attacking football again in order to return to the club's identity.

• I enjoyed this interview with Becky Spencer reflecting on a couple of tough seasons at Spurs, a thrilling World Cup campaign with Jamaica, and more. Nothing would make me happier than for her to claim a consistent first-keeper role at Spurs this season.

• Speaking of Jamaica, I would be remiss not to include footage of Drew Spence's phenomenal free kick against Canada earlier this week. No hesitation whatsoever!

Sadly, Jamaica lost the two-legged tie 4-1 on aggregate, so Shelina Zadorsky's Canada earned the Olympic qualification instead.

Pub Chat: Growing Spurs Women's support

My friends at the Hometown Glory podcast have been having some thought-provoking conversations about how to grow the fanbase around Spurs Women, and I wanted to offer some ideas in this week's Pub Chat segment.

What can the club do to boost support for the Women's team?

There are some improvements that only the club can make, like making the matchday experience more welcoming, accessible, and exciting. Something I appreciate about our new manager Robert Vilahamn is that he's realistic about the need to improve the "product" of the women's game. As noted in the BBC profile I bookmarked above, "He said the more games that Spurs can play at the 62,850-capacity stadium, the better the product can become."

For the product, for you guys to get there and have a good media room and supporters to have a good one, and the sponsors to have a nice environment, the product becomes much better, because it's business as well.

It's good that he's pushing the club from within to reach the goal of having the Women's team play all its games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium sooner rather than later. It's what a first-division team deserves, frankly, and it's what fans of the Men's side are used to besides. As Vilahamn said, we don't necessarily need every fan of the Men's team to become a fan of the Women's team as well, and "you can actually fill the stadiums with different people," but for those fans who would be curious to attend a Women's game, it's clear that THS is a more attractive matchday prospect than Brisbane Road.

And I do think the point about games at the main stadium being a better experience for media and sponsors as well is an important one; my friend Lauren from the Goal Diggers podcast was just remarking that we probably get poor coverage from the major WSL news outlets because the club doesn't exactly make it easy for them to cover the team. Hosting home matches at THS greases the wheels since many of those reporters are already accustomed to visiting the stadium for PL games. Better communications from the club would also be helpful, both for media and for fans who simply want to know what's going on with the players' fitness.

Another change that should be prioritized at the club level is making the games more accessible to non-matchgoing fans as well. This includes pre-season friendlies, none of which were streamable this year but for which there was a lot of demand from fans. There are also occasions in the early rounds of the domestic cups where not all games are streamed and it's up to the clubs to provide their own stream if they wish. This is exactly what Spurs Play should be leveraged for—particularly now that Spurs Women season tickets come with a Spurs Play subscription discount. Improving the visibility of content (both match-related and social) about the Women's team on Spurs Play is also important, and I've been glad to see the club make some strides in that direction recently.

It might seem silly to highlight something like merch, but honestly, people want to display their love of their club. It's way too difficult to do that when it comes to the Women's team though, with WSL lettering kits not yet available for the 23/24 Away or Third kits, and goalkeeper kits not available in a "women's" cut at all. While the latter issue has its roots in Nike's own inability to properly recognize the demand for women's sports merch, Spurs should be doing more to change that as a stakeholder. Having the WSL lettering kits made available is an easier change. And as I've mentioned before, I would love to see the players from the Women's team get featured on the club shop website more visibly, with dedicated landing pages for their specific kits and quick-order product pages for their kits as well.

What can we as fans do to grow the support from within the fanbase?

For the contingent outside of N17, like myself, I would love to see Official Supporter Clubs commit to hosting watch parties for all of the Spurs Women matches available on traditional broadcasters/streamers (i.e. not the FA Player, which admittedly comes with some technological obstacles). The strongest fanbases are those that also serve as a community where people can come together, and that community is definitely in full effect when it comes to gathering to support the Men's team from afar. Let's extend that enthusiasm to the Women's team, too.

Keeping the conversation going before, during, and after matches is critical for maintaining a lively fanbase, especially during times of tough results. I think it goes beyond just talking to your own friends about the team; encourage your favorite podcasts, blogs, and Discord forums to step up their coverage of the Women's team, or do so yourself if you have your own platform. People are more energized to attend matches or wake up at odd hours of the day to watch from abroad if there's consistent, engaging discussion and debate around the team. I know that when I first started supporting the Men's team the idea of getting up at 6am to watch a game seemed unappealing, but as I got more involved in fan spaces it grew more appealing so that I could keep up with the conversation.

What would make you want to go to a game?

I think I mostly already answered this intriguing prompt from one of those recent Hometown Glory episodes, but it's worth recapping:

• My Spurs community is already there

• The matchday experience is of the caliber I expect from Tottenham Hotspur

• My friends will be discussing the match after the game on social media

• I can pick up a kit with the name of one of my favorite players at the club shop while I'm at the stadium

• It's an inclusive environment where every fan can feel safe and welcome

These are certainly not impossible asks, but they're made much easier when games are played at the main stadium, for starters. And it's true that there is a sort of chicken-and-egg effect, where the club feels like more interest needs to be shown before they invest further in the matchday experience for Spurs Women fans, and vice versa. Ultimately, there will continue to be some growing pains and the simple truth is that we have to show up, whether that's at the stadium or tuning in from afar (broadcasters seeing that their deals to buy the rights to WSL matches are justified by increased viewership is a valid form of support, in case that needed to be said). And as we continue to show up, we must continue to demand better of the club throughout the journey to truly becoming a top WSL team.

COYS

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