Bad Weekend for Brighton, Good for Spurs

Across the Men's and Women's matches, Tottenham defeat Brighton on a 7-1 aggregate score

It was a very good weekend for Tottenham Hotspur, indeed. It's rare that both of our teams play the same opponent, but in this case, it made for a dominant showing for the club, with the Men winning 3-1 and the Women winning 4-0. There were so many positives in the games that it's hard to know where to start! But let's pick up the Men's match to begin, since they played first on Saturday.

Rave returns and daring debuts

The big news coming into the match was that Cristian Romero would finally be back from his 12-game injury absence. He slotted into the central CB role since Eric Dier was out with a knock. We also saw the return of Son Heung-min from a shorter injury spell. Both players were in fine form and looked like they hadn't been gone a minute. Romero was already back to making his "crunching" tackles (I really need to learn the origin of this phrase, please advise if you know!) and commanded the backline superbly, while Son caused the opposition's defense all kinds of trouble with his blistering pace and tricky take-ons. Sonny didn't grab a goal of his own, but was instrumental in Kane's second, executing a long dribble down the middle of the pitch that recalled his Puskas-winning Burnley goal from two seasons ago.

Before I get to the newest transfers, let's take a moment to appreciate one of our summer signings, Emerson Royal. He had a wonderful performance at RWB, and whether you think he meant to score or was simply lucky with a deflected cross, it still counts! On the other wing, Sergio Reguilón got a big chance of his own to score but wasn't clinical enough with his shot. We know Conte relies on his wingbacks to get the most out of his preferred system, so look for these two to continue improving and contributing. We just need a little more consistency from both of them.

Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur both got their Spurs debuts in this FA Cup match, and it looks like they're going to fit right in and be much smarter signings than many outside of Spurs have given the club credit for. Kulu was a bit hesitant at times, but we must remember that he's still young. Still, he got into some great positions and could easily have had a couple of assists if his teammates had better finishing in those moments. He has great playmaking instincts, that much is clear. I'm hoping we see his pace improve after he's been under the Conte conditioning regimen for a while. I was extremely impressed with Bentancur--like, "no notes" level of impressed! He plays with such maturity and confidence, considering that he's only 24 years old. We got a nice glimpse of the dribbling skills in his roster, too. He just scored his first international goal with Uruguay last week, and I'm sure it won't be long before he nets one for Spurs.

I would be remiss if I didn't call out Harry Kane's Man of the Match performance. I think we can officially say he's looking like himself again after that tough start to the season (a lot of that his fault, to be fair). We got a little bit of everything from Harry in this game:  a screamer of a strike for his first goal, plenty of hard work in the middle of the pitch and even back on defense, and a shrewd poacher's goal for his brace. Plus, it's great to see him celebrating with his teammates like this again, week after week.

One final shoutout to Hugo Lloris, who continues to hold it down like a boss between the sticks and made some great saves. There wasn't much he could do on Bissouma's goal thanks to the generous deflection off PEH. Bissouma had been troubling the defense for most of the second half until that point, so you can't say it wasn't deserved.

We get to play Brighton two more times this season, by the way, since our original away fixture in the PL was postponed. Delicious.

We've drawn Middlesbrough away for the next round, and while we definitely have enough to beat them soundly on paper, we can't take them lightly after their penalty shootout win over Manchester United. Sure, Man U have been in shaky form of late, but that was still an upset. (We all could have told them not to let the young kid Elanga take a pen until it was absolutely necessary, but that's on them.)

That match won't be until the first week of March, so let's shift gears and look ahead to the PL fixture at midweek.

The last time out against Southampton we had the win stolen from us by VAR, if you'll recall, and yes, I still feel justified in saying that. Surely we won't be that unlucky with the refereeing this time, but even if we are, I'm confident that we will score enough goals this time to make it a moot point. The mood in the team couldn't be more positive at the moment. It'll also be our home fixture this time, so there will be an extra boost from the fans as well. Could we even see one or both of our new signings get their first start? This wouldn't be a bad game for it. I haven't heard yet if Dier will be available; if he is, we might see him return to the starting XI and Davinson Sánchez shifted to the bench in favor of Romero for the right CB spot.

Put the Cups behind us, it's WSL time

I didn't share a recap after the Conti Cup semi-final 3-0 defeat on Thursday, because frankly, it was too depressing. With the depleted squad and Manchester City's strong run of form, it was never going to be our day. But it's still a monumental achievement to have gotten to a semi-final for the first time in the team's history.

Spurs Women are now out of both cups, but it's not all doom and gloom. This gives us an opportunity to focus solely on the league, where a top 3 finish is still a possibility. We were handed a bit of a boost this weekend since Manchester United dropped two points in their draw with Arsenal (whom I hate to praise, but seriously, if you haven't seen a clip of their goal... go check it out. Viv Miedema's through pass to Stina Blackstenius was a thing of beauty.). On the downside, Reading got another win to add to their lengthy unbeaten streak, and they are now just two points behind Spurs with a game in hand. Yikes. Manchester City lost 1-0 at Chelsea, so we have a four-point advantage over them on the same number of games played, which is huge.

Spurs definitely got the business done this matchweek, and how! Our 4-0 win against Brighton is the highest win margin in the club's WSL history, and it was so, so satisfying to finally see a clean sheet after the last few fixtures. Becky Spencer didn't actually have that much to do, since Brighton had zero shots on target; our defense hardly allowed Brighton a sniff on goal.

Speaking of defense, it was thrilling to see our captain Shelina Zadorsky grab a goal. She works so hard on defense for the team, and it was nice to see her getting forward and having that opportunity to score. She was a real fox in the box! Elsewhere on the scoresheet, Kyah Simon made a triumphant return from the Women's Asian Cup (even if Australia's performance wasn't so triumphant in the end) and scored a brace for Spurs. If I had to make one nitpicky criticism from this game, it's that I still think Simon could use some improvement in her pace and work rate. I know that sounds harsh considering that she scored two goals, but I also know how important it is to Rehanne Skinner's system that everyone is pushing till the final whistle. I made the same critique of Harry Kane earlier in the Men's season, to be fair. Her two goals today were really well-taken, however, especially the cool finish from Molly Bartrip's long pass out of the back for her first goal.

But the most exciting moment of the match came shortly after halftime, when we were just 1-0 up. Ashleigh Neville subbed into the match for Angela Addison (it's great to see Addison getting more starts as I'd been hoping for, but she needs to get her head up more often and be more integrated with the team effort, regardless of her individual potential for a moment of brilliance), and wow, did she ever make an immediate impact. She was playing further up the pitch than usual, and with great results (credit to Asmita Ale for putting in a strong shift in Neville's usual RB position). Ria Percival put in a superb diagonal through ball into the center of the pitch for Neville to make her run, and she finished with ice-cold precision. After all the chances she's had to score this season, it was a relief to see her finally score a goal. She was also heavily involved in the buildup to Simon's second goal, getting the play started with an offensive tackle to maintain possession and then a crafty cross into the box that Simon volleyed into the net. We learned after the match that Neville's grandad had recently passed away, and she dedicated her goal to him. She showed a lot of mettle in coming to play in this match at all, let alone putting in such a spirited and productive performance. She was my player of the match. Much love, Ash.

I want to give a special shoutout to Ria Percival for her performance. I've definitely been guilty of overlooking her contributions at times, but she was truly exceptional against Brighton. She showed great vision in her assist to Neville, and also placed her free kick nicely to start the set-piece that led to Zadorksy's goal (Rachel Williams and new signing Eveliina Summanen were also involved). She's one of the players that best embodies Rehanne's "always be the hardest working players on the pitch" mentality. She really gets stuck in, and we love her for it. Rachel Williams and Maéva Clemaron also put in strong performances, even if they weren't reflected on the scoresheet. I should also note that Eve Sumannen and Viktoria Schnaderbeck both made their WSL debuts!

Finally, congratulations are in order to Tang Jiali for winning the Women's Asian Cup with China! They pulled off a comeback win to defeat South Korea despite being 2-0 down at one point. Jiali got the comeback started with her penalty goal, and also got an assist for the second goal. Commiserations to Cho So-hyun for her second-place finish with South Korea, but it was still an impressive tournament from her. I can't wait to have them back in the Tottenham squad!

Next up is an away match at bottom-of-the-league Birmingham City. This match isn't until Sunday, so I'll do a short preview in the next issue of the newsletter where I'll also recap the Men's midweek match.

COYS