Clutch Goals and Clutch Saves

So, is everyone still on cloud nine after Sunday's thrilling results? I can hardly believe the games went so well in our favor. But both wins were fully deserved and reflective of a club firmly on the rise.

While the Men's win over Aston Villa was crucial in the top 4 race, the Women's penalty shootout win over Manchester City was truly historic—clinching the club's first-ever semi-final berth in the Women's FA Cup. We're one game away from Wembley, and after a favorable home draw, we can feel encouraged to dream.

In this issue: Aston Villa recap | Manchester City recap | Previewing the weekend fixtures

Read on to relive the revenge on Villa and the magic of the cup, then look ahead to the next round of league games.

PL Matchday 27 recap | Aston Villa 0 - 4 Tottenham

Maddison 50', Johnson 53', Son 90+1', Werner 90+4'

Aston Villa might have had hopes of doing another league double over Tottenham in the first half, but Spurs quickly put that hope to bed with an utterly dominant second-half performance. Every member of the forward line got on the scoresheet—either with a goal or an assist—including substitute Timo Werner. After such a disappointing loss in the reverse fixture, it was gratifying to beat them at Villa Park.

And in the end, the Matty Cash drama ended up being a non-factor. Rodrigo Bentancur did put in a token tackle on him, but Lolo is obviously too good of a guy to go in with any intent to cause actual harm. On the other hand, John McGinn was sent off in a moment of madness that didn't necessarily change the result (we already had a 0-2 lead at that point) but cemented it. I don't think there can be any real debate about the severity of the foul warranting a straight red card, because I didn't even need a replay to know it was excessive force.

Spurs having the rest advantage helped, but I think it was pretty clear who the better team was regardless.

Starting XI:

Pedro Porro was right back into the starting lineup after missing the previous two games. Despite Richarlison's hopes, he was not able to make the matchday squad and Son Heung-min kept the striker spot. It was a bit of a surprise for Brennan Johnson to start over Timo Werner, but he proved to be one of the standout players of the match.

Key highlights & takeaways:

• The starting lineup suffered an early change when Micky van de Ven had to be taken off shortly after halftime for a knock picked up in the first half. Radu Drăgușin replaced him and played the most minutes of his Spurs career so far. After an initial period of shakiness he grew into the game and capably covered for Van de Ven's absence (who had been on track for a PotM performance before he went off).

• The first half was mostly a story of patience, although Johnson in particular had some promising moments in the attack. Unlike other matches where Spurs have had a "slow" start, we seemed firmly in control of this one. And Villa already looked visibly fatigued after their midweek match in the Europa Conference League. It was clear that the second half would be the time for Spurs to feast.

• And we did, scoring a lot of pretty goals, four to be exact.

• The first might have been the prettiest of them all, to be honest. James Maddison and Pape Sarr transformed themselves into a classic striker and a world-class winger, respectively, with the box-crashing finish and curling cross for the assist. Angeball at its fluid best!

• For the second goal, Dejan Kulusevski got the move going by winning the ball off Youri Tielemans, after which it was three-on-one for Spurs. Son registered the assist for Johnson's calm finish. I didn't even realize Tielemans played for Villa now but god, he must really hate us at this point. Johnson might have had my favorite goal celebration of the night, winking to his teammates then shushing the Villa home crowd. What a difference a couple of months can make for a player's confidence.

• Halfway between Spurs' scoring output, McGinn got his red card for a barge into Destiny Udogie. Luckily Udogie was okay and able to play on, but it was an easy one for the referee to deem a sending-off offence.

• Kulusevski got a proper assist for the third goal, scored by Son arriving in acres of space in the box. Talk about an emphatic finish.

• Son completed his brace of assists with a cool cutback for Werner, who had subbed into the game just before stoppage time. This was Timo's second goal in two games, and this time he got a real celebration with the squad.

Scoring stoppage time goals is not unusual for Spurs this season, but it was nice for them not to be crucial to the result for once.

I guess the only real surprise of the rest of the game is that we didn't score more. But as it is, the additional two goals allowed us to bring our goal difference above Aston Villa's, which could prove crucial further down the line in the top 4 race. The important thing is that our Champions League qualification fate is now in our hands. We will have to win our game in hand against Chelsea to go above them, but that seems very feasible on current form.

SAtP Player of the Match: Son Heung-min

With three goal contributions, it was a true captain's performance from Sonny.

For those keeping track at home, Son is now at 22 goal contributions total, 14 goals and 8 assists.

But honestly, this was a game where every player had important contributions. It's hard to say anyone had a bad game. More of these cohesive team efforts going forward!

Notable and quotable:

The fun stats just keep on coming.

• Keeping with Son, he reached the huge milestone of tying Spurs legend Cliff Jones for 5th highest Spurs goal-scorer in all competitions at 159 goals. Jones wrote a very gracious tweet to congratulate Sonny:

Excellent company for Son to be in! It's beautiful to know that two of our club's most important players in a sporting sense are equally delightful as people.

• Sonny is also inching ever closer to breaking Spurs' record for most assists in the Premier League. Now at 60, he is just two below Christian Eriksen and 7 below Darren Anderton. He could break it by the end of this season, to be honest.

• Four players have been involved in 10+ goals this season: Son, Maddison, Johnson, and Richarlison. Kulusevski just misses out with 9 so far.

• Drăgușin reflected on his unexpected gametime and his time at the club as a whole:

I’m very happy that we won today. It was a very important to bring the points back for our run to the end of the season. We’re very happy we can win this important game and also to continue our good run. I felt good, had a good rhythm and I’m looking forward to many more games... I feel very good here. I’m really happy and looking forward. I’ve settled well, especially the people at the club, they’ve welcomed me very good and I already feel at home here.

Some lovely words from Ange Postecoglou on Sarr:

For a young man, he’s very mature and the beauty of guys like that, and we’ve a few in our team, they’ve got such a high ceiling… in fact, they’ve probably got no ceiling to the kind of footballers they can be.

• A long (and I mean long) quote from Ange reflecting on the season so far, which I'm going to reprint in whole because it's worth reading:

I think with everything that’s happened, if I give myself that luxury of trying to reflect when there's still 12 games to go, I am super proud of the club, the players in particular, have responded to the adversity we’ve had this year. New manager coming in, new way of playing, new staff, squad changing over and we’ve had some real challenges, including losing Harry Kane two days before the first game, and I could envisage many scenarios where that could go very, very differently. With the way that we as a football club and the players took on that challenge, if you are looking for a bit of leeway or some excuses, we’ve had plenty this year for us not to be in the position we are. We’ve had some pretty big injuries, pretty big absences, international tournaments and I’ve been so proud of the competitiveness of the players we’ve put out there every week. Even in games we’ve lost, we’ve been in them and we’ve not been blown away by anybody.

I think if we had gone the other way, downplayed our expectations, downplayed any progress for this year, then I don't think we would have got as much out of the year as I think we have. I think we’ve set a really strong benchmark for competitiveness and not having any excuses for what we do now, moving forward. If we continue to grow then I think there will be other challenges - not the challenges we’ve had this year - but we can continue to refer back to this year and say ‘look, through the whole time, we never once laid down and we were fighting all the way.'

• I'll close with a contrast in captain (or vice-captain) quotes, first from McGinn:

Everyone knows how important the game is (tomorrow). It’s probably, in a league fixture, the most important game in the club’s recent history — the players are aware of that.

...and from Maddison:

It feels as big as any other three points but we knew there would be a lot on the game just because of the nature of the table. We had a game plan and we came away with three points with a convincing win.

Women's FA Cup Quarter-final recap | Tottenham 1 - 1 Manchester City, Tottenham advance 4-3 on penalties

Fowler 6' | England 90+6'

It took us four attempts, and we technically didn't win it in regulation time, but we finally beat Manchester City. And what a time to do so, in a cup knockout game!

Much like the Men's team against Villa, the Women's team benefitted from a rest advantage over City, who had played midweek in the Conti Cup (also exiting that competition). Both goals were a bit flukey but the end result was heading to extra time, at which point Spurs practically ran City off the park. We couldn't find a decisive winning goal, however, so it would be decided on penalty kicks.

Enter: Becky Spencer, the hero of the hour. She did her part to give Spurs an advantage in the shootout, saving the first two PKs from City. I'll give a full rundown of the penalties in a minute, but suffice it to say that Spencer's brave performance in goal gave us the hope and the confidence to win.

This jubilant moment rivaled the home NLD win earlier in the season, but it has even bigger implications; Spurs will now compete in our first-ever FA Cup semi-final on the Women's side.

Starting XI:

We were dealt a shocking change to the starting lineup just before kickoff with news that Molly Bartrip had fallen ill and could not play. Luana Bühler, who has seen scant minutes over the last few months, replaced her at the last minute. The only other change from last weekend's lineup was Olga Ahtinen coming in for Kit Graham.

Key highlights & takeaways:

• Keeping with this season's theme, we conceded a truly unfortunate goal in just the 6th minute. All credit due to Mary Fowler, an exceptional player and rising talent in the Australia national team, for her mazy run into the box past Eveliina Summanen. But the shot itself took a huge deflection to wrong foot Spencer. There was nothing to do but move swiftly on and look for a chance to get back in the game.

• That chance wouldn't come in the first half, in which Jess Naz was the only true standout player and worked so hard that she would only make it fifteen minutes into the second half before making way for fresh legs.

• Having so many high quality subs was a big factor in our ability to wrest back control of the game from the tiring City team. In addition to Rosella Ayane coming on for Naz, we also saw Ahtinen replaced by Graham, and then later substitutions of Beth England on for Martha Thomas, Matilda Vinberg on for Celin Bizet, and Wang Shuang on for Summanen. Perhaps on paper they were not as impressive as some of City's options, but in Robert Vilahamn's organized system they were able to shine.

• We knew this already from last season's relegation fight, but Beth England is a big game player. Form doesn't necessarily matter for a player like her. Sure, she hadn't scored in any of the WSL games since returning from injury this season and had only scored in the cup games against lower division opponents, but she was ready to make an impact in this crucial game. She is truly Tottenham's most clutch player in the current squad.

The goal came from an inventive flicked-on pass from Amy James-Turner (playing higher up the pitch once again as we searched for the equalizer) that befuddled Laia Aleixandri and keeper Khiara Keating thanks to their miscommunication. Keating was out of her box and had no choice but to attempt to control the ball with her feet and England was on hand to take full advantage. She chested the errant ball a few paces ahead of herself to run onto unimpeded and slot home with the coolest of finishes into the empty net.

I was laughing maniacally when it hit the net. Such an absurd goal in a massive game, but we will absolutely take it! And since it came right at the end of regulation stoppage time, extra time was guaranteed.

• Although we didn't manage to score in extra time, we fully dominated both halves. City's tired legs were a big factor, but we also witnessed remarkable substitute performances from Vinberg and Wang. Neither of them have played significant minutes yet for Spurs, so this felt like a huge coming out moment for them both. Wang of course has lots of experience in her career, but I was especially impressed by a young player like Vinberg being undaunted by the tense game state. Plus, these are two players who bring a lot of creativity with their style of play, which was much-needed to keep the tiring City on their toes defensively and therefore unable to mount any effective attacks.

• Now, the penalty shootout... absolute scenes, as they say!

As I mentioned before, Spencer made a real statement of intent to win the shootout by saving the first two spot kicks she faced. These included PKs from two Lionesses who are well known for their penalty prowess: Alex Greenwood and Chloe Kelly. I mean it when I say that fear was struck into my heart when I saw Kelly wind up for her signature penalty technique. Thankfully, Spencer was prepared and stopped Kelly's characteristically speedy shot.

• Our strong start to the shootout was bolstered by captain England's decisive shot. There was some disappointment when Ayane failed to maintain our two-goal advantage as her own shot was saved by Keating (a genuine surprise, since Ayane is well-known for her penalty accuracy). But after Yui Hasegawa scored City's first PK in round 3, Amanda Nildén converted her own with arguably the best penalty of the shootout, placing it top bins. Wang matched Filippa Angeldal in round 4 to make it 3-2. Fowler scored in round 5 to put huge pressure on our last penalty-taker of the initial, non-sudden death rounds. James-Turner stepped up to the spot knowing that if she scored, Spurs would win the shootout and knock City out of the cup.

And she made it! So while I still maintain that England is our most clutch player, Spencer and James-Turner made strong arguments for the vice-clutch roles.

The starting lineup pictured above started the quest to make history, and with the help of a few valuable substitutes they completed the task. Spurs will play in their first Women's FA Cup semi-final next month. And we got a very favorable draw: hosting Leicester City. This means that there will also be a historic first-time finalist as well between the two teams. I sure hope it's us! The winner of our semi-final will take on either Manchester United or Chelsea at Wembley.

And although we have to wait a while to witness that exciting match, just announced to take place at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, we do get to see a preview of the matchup since we face Leicester next in the WSL.

SAtP Player of the Match: Becky Spencer

It has to be Becky, despite so many heroic performances to choose from. Not only did she make those two crucial saves in the penalty shootout, she also got the goal move started for England's equalizer in regular time. Contrary to her usual short-range distribution, she gambled on a longer range pass to (I believe) Grace Clinton, who quickly moved it forward herself to James-Turner for the assist. Spencer took that risk knowing we had less than a minute to get the ball up the pitch and score.

This was the kind of game where we needed to lean on the experience of our most senior players, like Spencer, James-Turner, and England. It's also notable that Becky has played in even higher-pressure scenarios like last summer's World Cup. Although she doesn't have a reputation as a PK specialist, we never should have doubted that she would rise to the occasion.

Notable and quotable:

• Incredibly, this was Nildén's first professional penalty of her career. Begin as you mean to go on, as they say!

Speaking of Amanda, Vilahamn said in his last press conference that there is a "plan" to keep her at Spurs past her loan spell.

We didn't go for any loan player this winter without having any smart plan on how we could execute that. I am quite sure she will stay next season.

• I highly recommend watching the full Debrief from SpursPlay featuring Spencer.

Most interestingly, she remarked that although she had prepared for a penalty shootout, she knew that many of City's players switch up the direction they take their penalties from game to game and she would have to rely on her instincts in the moment to have any hope of making a save. And for a player like Kelly who has a signature style, it was a different kind of challenge in beating the incredible speed of her shot.

I actually felt like I could have saved any of them... but I think I'd done enough.

Indeed!

Previewing PL Matchday 28 — Fulham

I'm going to keep the previews short and sweet this week, purely for selfish reasons as my NWSL team is playing in the Challenge Cup in less than two hours and I need to wrap this up!

Although Fulham knocked us out of the League Cup early on this season in a penalty shootout, we beat them in the reverse PL fixture 2-0. The visit to Craven Cottage probably won't be as straightforward (it never is), but in light of Spurs' current goal-scoring form I can't see it ending in anything but a win.

Fulham have an almost fully fit squad at the moment with only Raul Jiménez doubtful due to a hamstring injury. We will be without Micky van de Ven as his knock from the previous match is assessed (thankfully he has the international break ahead to recover) but Richarlison is back in contention. However, with Son looking so lethal in front of goal it wouldn't make much sense to put him back into the starting XI right away.

Previewing WSL Matchday 16 — Leicester City

As alluded to previously, this match now has added intrigue because it will be a preview of the FA Cup semi-final next month. We've seen how beneficial a test run can be from the Manchester City series.

And while Leicester aren't near the same caliber as City, they are a team that's been improving compared to last season. They're certainly scoring way more goals this campaign! Jutta Rantala has been a key contributor and scored a brace against Liverpool to get them into the upcoming cup semi-final. Luckily, we have two of her teammates from the Finland national team to give us intel on her playing style.

Fitness-wise, it was reassuring to hear that Drew Spence is available for selection again after a brief illness—perhaps the same bug that Molly Bartrip caught? Bartrip herself is back in training but doubtful to play. It's good to see our overall injury/illness situation nearly back to full fitness as we head into the final stages of the season.

On Leicester's side, I believe their goalkeeper Janina Leitzig is a possible miss since she's been unavailable for many games now.

Robert Vilahamn has some tough selection choices to make for the starting XI because the whole team put in great performances against City. I don't envy him the decision! I will say that it feels like Beth England is ripe for another start to build on her confidence after scoring that all-important equalizer.

This match is also important from the league perspective because Leicester are hot on our heels in the table (just three points behind), and we also want to make up some ground on the two teams ahead of us (Liverpool and Manchester United, both on 25 points versus our 19 points). Per Robert:

You can see this as good preparation for the semi-final but, on the other hand, this is a fixture in the Women’s Super League and it’s an important game because they can go above us in the table. We need to be 100 per cent focused and I know the players want to compete and be better every day. I’m really clear that we will put in a good performance and have full focus on the league game.

Hopefully we can start a run of positive momentum in the WSL.

Let's hope for another two-win weekend for Spurs, although it will be far less stressful this time around since the games are on different days. Phew!

COYS

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