16 Sep 2025 13 min read Men's Team

Clean Sheet FC

Both Spurs teams are committed to maintaining a stronger defense this season—and it's not coming at the expense of scoring goals.

We've seen six league games and five clean sheets total across Spurs Men and Women so far. The Men's team have only given up one goal, while the Women's team have a spotless record. Are we sure this is the same club from last season?

Jokes aside, it's made for much less stressful viewing to know that the defenses are basically doing what they're supposed to at any given time. If anything, Guglielmo Vicario and Lize Kop might be feeling a bit left out, hardly called into action so far. But the one big contrast between the two teams is that the Men's defensive improvement can largely be attributed to having the preferred centerback duo of Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven back to health and regular starts, whereas the Women's backline has consisted of a total newcomer in Tōko Koga alongside the previously downtrodden Clare Hunt. It's certainly more surprising to see the latter thriving together than the former.

In this issue: West Ham United recap | Everton recap | Pub chat

Let's take a look back at the two latest Spurs wins, and then I have a bookmarks roundup to close out the issue.

For once, there isn't an avalanche of club news to gather, but you should definitely vote for Lucas Bergvall for Premier League Player of the Matchweek if you haven't yet. When I just voted, he was in a close race with Erling Haaland and Martín Zubimendi.

The one notable bit of club news is that Kate Miller has been appointed Chief Communications Officer.

PL MD4 | West Ham United 0 - 3 Tottenham

Sarr 47', Bergvall 57', Van de Ven 64'

What a lovely scoreline, that—not just the away shutout result, but the goalscorers for Spurs in particular.

Pape Sarr was quickly identified as a key player for the Thomas Frank era, but had only scored in pre-season friendlies until this weekend (he did have an assist in the league opener). He's also been on a hot run of form with his national team, Senegal, scoring in both of their matches during the recent international break. It's officially Sarr Szn.

Then you had Lucas Bergvall finally, finally scoring his first Premier League goal. It was a long time coming, but rather than capitalizing on an impatient tap-in or a close-range set piece header (no shade intended towards Sarr's earlier goal, which was an important one to break the deadlock), he scored in style with a looping header from a ball over the top by Cristian Romero. We're more used to seeing James Maddison get on the end of those passes and finish with his foot, but Bergvall got a little more cheeky with his strategy. Mads Hermansen had no chance of stopping the header.

Lucas Bergvall leaps in the air with fist raised.

I should also mention that in between those two goals, Tomáš Souček was sent off with a straight red card for a horrible kick on João Palhinha. He was attempting to reach a loose ball, but his kick was far too late and far too high. I had a lot of complaints about referee Jarred Gillett in the first half, but to his credit, he showed no hesitation in producing the red card. And to Souček's credit, he didn't complain too much, looking more disappointed with himself. The main lesson from this incident? Wear functional shin guards, kids, not those paltry ones that are en vogue! Palhinha might not get the distinction of being a "low sock baller", but his shin is intact thanks to his proper protective wear.

Few things bring me more joy than seeing Micky van de Ven score a goal, because he always looks like a jubilant child on Christmas Day as he celebrates. There are some players that you can tell are genuinely playing for the love of the game, and I would argue that all three of our goal-scorers in this game fall into that category.

Micky van de Ven, smiling, is surrounded by his teammates after scoring.

I thought I would have to write about the frustrating limitations of VAR protocol after the incident that saw a fairly early Spurs goal chalked off, but thankfully, it didn't end up being a decisive moment in the result. Although if you factor in the possible penalty that wasn't called in Spurs' favor as well as the disallowed goal, the scoreline could have been even more impressive.

Notable & quotable:

• Xavi Simons registered his first assist for Spurs on his debut, setting up Pape Sarr's goal with a corner kick. He didn't have a flawless first game from an open play perspective, but he's already locked in to the set piece strategy.

• With Simons earning legacy number 898, we're very close to the 900th Spurs player. Perhaps Kōta Takai, since Randal Kolo Muani will likely be number 899?

• This was the largest win margin for Spurs at the London Stadium (h/t Andrew Stetka).

• A fun fact from OptaJoe: Lucas Bergvall became the second youngest player to both score and assist a goal for Spurs in a Premier League game.

• Thomas Frank joked about Micky van de Ven scoring the wrong type of set piece goal:

Yes, I want a goal from him from set-pieces. It was a second-phase set piece, but it didn't count if it was left or right foot. I need a header!

WSL MD2 | Everton 0 - 2 Tottenham

Ahtinen 28', Tandberg 49'

Before I even get into praising some of the players who stood out in this match, it seems worth noting that we're keeping these clean sheets without the help of key defenders (like Molly Bartrip, Ash Neville, Luana Bühler, and Ella Morris) and scoring despite losing two of the goal-scorers from pre-season (Matilda Vinberg and Martha Thomas) to early injuries.

So what has made the difference? Perhaps the biggest factor has been the new signings (all two of them) being able to hit the ground running. But we've also seen returning players looking back to their best.

Or if not completely back to their best, then at least getting closer. Olga Ahtinen was a great example; she looked slightly uncomfortable at times playing at an unfamiliar position (winger), but still managed to get on the scoresheet after a nice give-and-go with Cathinka Tandberg. After her mysterious falling out of the starting lineup contention last season, it's honestly just nice to see her playing, period, but also playing with a smile on her face.

I don't know if it's a case of better physical preparation in training, better tactical instruction, or just better morale, but something is empowering the squad to press more effectively and make the kinds of interceptions and blocks that we just weren't getting to last season with any consistency. Beth England, as ever, is leading by example as captain. Her persistence to win the ball led to Tandberg's goal opportunity, though it required a lot of audacity and skill from Tinka to actually convert that chance into a goal from such long range.

Keeping up the fitness standard is going to require proper squad rotation throughout the season, and the early signs are promising in that regard. Though Martin Ho didn't utilize all five substitutions, as he did in the first match, the subs he did make were shrewd tactical tweaks to help see out the win.

And speaking of team selection in general, I thought it was smart player management not to start Araya Dennis again. Her development as a young player needs to be carefully, well, managed. We may not see her in the next game either, given the difficult opponent (Manchester City), but there's a cup game around the corner against Aston Villa that will provide a great opportunity for more minutes and more learning.

It's nice to see the team playing with some purpose again and at least handling the non-top 4 teams. But we have been here before, as recently as Robert Vilahamn's first season, and the challenge is always to sustain this level of organization and commitment on the pitch. We don't want to see another disappointing fall off after the winter break—or any sooner, for that matter.

The next match will be a difficult one, against Manchester City, so a poor result wouldn't necessarily mean an early regression, just that we dropped points to a team with a much more talented squad. But we can still learn something from the game regardless; we need to see the players maintain the nascent team identity that Ho has been instilling, and on a basic level, to not see heads dropping at the first sign of things going City's way.

Notable & quotable:

• We are the only team with two clean sheets across the first two matchdays.

• In fact, we've only allowed one shot on target (in the first game against West Ham United).

• This was our first-ever away win at Everton in any competition, as well as our first win at Goodison Park.

• Tinka Tandberg is not satisfied with her full debut goal, as fabulous as it was:

I would have liked to get one more goal.

She then elaborated on the goal itself:

I think it’s an easy way to get a goal. When you see someone pressing well and you get those chances, you just have to go for it. If you never try, you’ll never score those goals.

And just in case you didn't already love her for her play on the pitch, read this last quote:

It’s my dream club, so I have to fight for it.

• While Spurs kept Everton from putting a single shot on target, Martin Ho gave his players the challenge of increasing their attacking output from the first game:

I asked for more shots on goal - last game we had just one on target, but today we had nine on target and 19 overall.

He also had some funny comments on Tinka's goal:

Sometimes as a coach you think, ‘Why have you done that? We’ve just won the ball back!’ But instinctively she’s very clever. She did the same thing in training this week, scored over the goalkeeper from halfway. So, it didn’t surprise me, but it was brilliant to see it come off in the match. She was brilliant.

Pub chat: Bonus bookmarks

I didn't intend for all of the bookmarks to be Spurs Women-focused, but I guess that goes to show where most of my football energy is going these days. The men's football content mill will keep churning just fine without me!

• Megan Feringa has an interesting piece at The Athletic on the "patient" approach to progress at Everton Women, including their plans for updating Goodison Park.

Considering that Everton has only really been serious about their Women's team since the club changed ownership last year, I think this is a fair take. The official attendance of just under 6.5K would have been disappointing for a club like Spurs, but the ambition for women's football just hasn't been there at Everton in the recent past. They're starting from practically zero investment under the previous ownership, and it makes sense that they want to make the stadium change a point to build from gradually and have put most of their summer investment into the playing squad, which badly needed reinforcement.

Now, on a similar note, I do think the fact that Spurs get decent attendance at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but have failed to meaningfully grow the attendance at Brisbane Road, Spurs Women's actual home ground, is a failure that needs addressing. Part of the problem is that the majority of the marketing effort for Spurs Women games goes toward the "marquee" matchups at the club's main ground, THS, while only putting perfunctory effort into promoting the Brisbane Road fixtures. I was particularly disappointed that we only managed 1,735 fans (just above last season's Brisbane Road average of 1,625) for the home opener—against a local rival no less, and during an international break. As Spurs Women fan Dan Thomas put it on Bluesky, the club was missing an "open goal."

I will also note that we still haven't heard about any games being held at THS this season, and considering that several WSL clubs are now playing all or most of their games at their clubs' main stadia, there really is no excuse to be so behind on these plans. This lack of clarity every season is a big reason that even the THS attendances have stagnated somewhat.

• I also appreciated this piece by Asli Pelit on the WSL's difficulties in capitalizing on increased interest in the league from US fans.

The late announcement of the renewed ESPN broadcast deal and the opening weekend technical difficulties were the big talking points, but in general, there's just an air of benign neglect toward US-based fans of the WSL—and this comes from the clubs, too.

I find it kind of funny because the WSL has a real advantage over the NWSL when it comes to attracting and retaining fans from the other side of the pond: time zones. I long ago gave up on expecting most of my UK-based Spurs Women friends to have any real opinions on the NWSL, because they simply can't watch enough of the games without becoming sleep-deprived zombies. And sure, I gripe about the 6 AM kickoffs to watch Spurs in the WSL, but it's feasible with the help of caffeine. And yet, you would never know from WSL's communications that they're even aware that US fans exist, let alone should be treated as a valuable fan demographic and prioritized.

• On a general WSL news note, Tom Garry has reported at The Guardian that WSL Football (WSLF) has established a minimum salary for WSL and WSL2 players in consultation with the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA).

This functionally means that the WSL2 is now fully professionalized.

Other important tidbits from the article:

WSL Football has introduced a mandatory "performance wellbeing role" for all clubs in the top two tiers.
WSL2 players will soon be represented by the PFA as well.
Although there is no intention from WSLF to impose a strict salary cap on individual players, there will be a new financial framework introduced soon, likely with an overall wage spending cap for clubs.

We’re at the investment stage of women’s football, so we don’t want to deter investment. We don’t want to put in rules that don’t make us an attractive investment. But we’re also really mindful that we have to have frameworks in place that protect our long-term future.

• There's a great profile on Tōko Koga at Doragon Sports.

I do agree that we need to see more players of Koga's potential signing at Spurs, but thankfully, this piece was written before the deadline day signing of Tinka Tandberg.

For more Koga content, check out the club's interview with her from last week.

• I enjoyed this post from my N17 Women co-host Rachel on the early positive signs from Spurs Women:

• This interview with Charli Grant at The Halfway Line is an older piece from pre-season, but I wanted to highlight one of her quotes about squad continuity.

She was asked about the importance of players renewing their contracts after a difficult season.

We’ve got a really great group of players and to come together again with a lot of positivity after a tough season. It just shows what characters we have in the team. I think having a good base is really good going to the season, because having connection on and off the pitch is huge for performing. It’s really positive that the girls have signed and want to stay and it just shows the confidence we have in one another.

Like Rachel observed in the previous bookmark, it can sometimes be beneficial not to have a lot of squad turnover between seasons because it doesn't take as long to build up familiarity at the start of the season.

Up next, we have a midweek game for Spurs Men in the Champions Leaguephase against Villarreal, the team that signed a credibly accused rapist over the summer, who just so happens to be due in court tomorrow. So please, Spurs, give them hell.

COYS

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