Comeback on the Coast

Spurs Women had to do it the hard way against Brighton after conceding an early goal, but key players came in clutch once again. They'll have one more league match to take care of before the next international break. Meanwhile, the Men's team is returning from its own international break with a London derby to look forward to—albeit on a weekday.

In this issue: Brighton recap | Previewing the weekend(ish) matches | News from around the Lane

WSL Matchday 3 recap | Brighton 1 - 3 Tottenham

Terland 8' | Thomas 45+3', Clinton 65', Percival 90+4'

I'm not gonna lie, the first half of this match had me a little nervous that we were slipping back into bad habits, especially after conceding the early goal on a set piece. Not ideal! But an equalizer just before halftime allowed the team to rally for the comeback win in the second half, sealing the deal in second-half stoppage time. It was another test for Robert Vilahamn's plucky team, and they passed it.

Starting XI:

Vilahamn opted for the same starting lineup for the third WSL game in a row. We also saw the exact same four subs as in the previous league game; standouts from the recent Conti Cup game like Zhang Linyan and Asmita Ale didn't make an appearance in the Brighton match after all. On the one hand, it's good to build some consistency and let players build up their form. On the other hand, there will come a time in the season where more rotation will be needed for the sake of keeping everyone fit. More on the timing/selections for the substitutions in a minute.

As I mentioned above, Spurs were put on the backfoot almost from the start after conceding a headed set piece goal by Elisabeth Terland, who is in hot form for Brighton so far. The goal for the home side came against the run of play, as Spurs started brightly and looked most likely to score first. Unfortunately, Terland was poorly marked at the near post on a corner kick and was able to head it in past Becky Spencer, who didn't have a clear sightline due to her own defenders blocking her view.

Ash Neville had a good chance to score a set piece header of her own, but couldn't get enough power on it. Spencer made a couple of saves on long-range shots, including one from new Brighton captain Vicky Losada. Martha Thomas and Drew Spence also had big chances as the first half wore on.

Our keeper was integral to the move for the first Spurs goal, capturing a shot from Katie Robinson and quickly distributing the ball out to Angharad James on the right flank, who passed the ball up the pitch to Celin Bizet. Bizet's cross just missed Thomas but found Spence, whose shot from the edge of the 18-yard box rattled the crossbar before rebounding out to Thomas. Martha's shot ricocheted down and off the pitch, making it too tricky for Nicky Evrard to save. That makes it four goals in four games (all comps) for Martha.

Scoring just before halftime was a big boost for morale, but it still took until almost midway through the second half to gain the lead. Olga Ahtinen registered her first assist in the WSL by cooly sending a vertical pass to Grace Clinton, who fired from well outside the box to score her first goal for Spurs after a tidy turn.

Jess Naz had subbed on shortly before Clinton's goal, and was followed onto the pitch by Kit Graham and Rosella Ayane just under fifteen minutes later. All three were involved in a flurry of attacks as Spurs tried to find a decisive third goal. Thomas was also heavily involved, so much so that she picked up a cramp late on and had to be subbed out just before stoppage time began, replaced by Ria Percival. This was a bit ironic, because just as I was thinking "ah, we're finally going to see a bit of bus parking from Vilahamn," Ria only went and scored.

However, I do think we became a little more conservative in our efforts to attack late on, not wanting to make a risky pass that would allow Brighton a chance to hit us on the counter attack. So it makes sense that Percival scored by cleaning up a surge forward in the box from Naz that fizzled out. Jess smartly passed back once it was clear her window to score had closed (although I wish her first attempt at a backheel pass had worked, since that would have been a much spicier assist). It wasn't the cleanest strike from Ria, taking a deflection from Guro Bergsvand before hitting the back of the net, but it counts as hers.

Brighton had a huge chance to grab a consolation goal as newcomer Pauline Bremer's dangerous cross found Madison Haley, who sent it just over the bar. But Percival's goal had sealed the win regardless and three more points for Spurs, sending us up to 4th in the table after all the weekend's WSL action was said and done.

In this first match of the season against a team of a similar caliber of squad, it was important to earn full points and make a statement to the other likely mid-table teams. We have another such matchup this weekend against Aston Villa, but for now we can appreciate the challenges the team has met so far and handled with confidence and plenty of flair on the pitch.

SAtP Player of the Match: Martha Thomas

Tempting as it is to give it to Grace for her first Spurs goal, I really think Martha needs to be recognized for the incredible commitment she showed in this match. She kept grafting, as the Brits would say, until she couldn't go on. Her muscles said, "it's time to rest!" And she's earned it, scoring in every game so far since she joined.

It doesn't look like Beth England will be back any time soon, so we will need Martha to continue her hot streak. So far, her tenacity and inventiveness in front of goal suggests that she will do just that.

Plus, she's already built up some great partnerships with her teammates, across the forward line but especially with the midfielders. They keep picking out the right pass for her well-timed runs past the opposition defense. Keep doing what you're doing, Martha!

Notable and quotable:

• This win capped off a run of three wins in eight days, and a perfect record since the initial loss to Chelsea on the first day of the season.

• In that three-game stretch across the WSL and Conti Cup, we scored twelve goals and conceded just two—and none conceded from open play.

• As Robert said, "A good week, right?" Just a bit of an understatement!

• More quotes from the gaffer:

Becky in the goal, I mean, she is brilliant with the feet and I don’t think there’s any other goalkeeper in the league that [has] that footwork.

The new players really give us something new for this group – I’m a new coach here but even the existing players are making sure that they are developing... The new players, the old ones, the young ones... everybody is performing and doing it and I just love it.

It’s a pleasure to work right now.

I think the point about the returning players stepping up their game is really crucial. Much like with the Men's team, players who had been written off or were underperforming under the previous manager are getting a new lease on life in their Spurs careers. The fact that they're meshing so well with the incoming players is also important, and youth development is finally looking like a real priority at the club.

Hopefully the young player getting most of the attention from this game, Grace Clinton, is somehow able to convert her loan into a permanent contract at the end of the season, but as I said at the start of the campaign: don't get too attached just in case.

Previewing WSL Matchday 4 — Aston Villa

I'm of two minds on this one. On the one hand, Aston Villa haven't looked nearly as threatening as I would have expected after their strong summer transfer business. On the other hand, it would be unwise to be lulled into a false sense of security ahead of this game; any team that's started their season with three losses is going to be dangerous in their pursuit of a turnaround.

None of those losses have been blowouts, it should be said, but so far Villa have shown the opposite mentality of Spurs when it comes to controlling games. They've blown a lead fairly late in the game twice already this season against difficult opponents (Manchester United and Arsenal) while failing to score at all against a mid-table team (Liverpool).

But like I said, we underestimate Villa at our own peril. They have so many attacking options both in their starting lineup and off the bench, including last season's Golden Boot winner (Rachel Daly) and a couple of new signings who most recently played in the NWSL (Adriana Leon and Ebony Salmon). And although she should have done better on Arsenal's two stoppage time goals in their last match, Daphne van Domselaar is still one of the most exciting goalkeepers in the league and sure to be an asset to her new team as she continues to grow her game (she's only 23).

If I'm not mistaken, Kirsty Hanson's suspension from her red card on the first matchday should extend through our matchup (I don't think the Conti Cup games count, although FA Cup matches might... I will research this and report back in a future issue), so that's one less problem for us to deal with.

As far as I've heard we don't have any new injury issues so we're likely to see the same starting lineup again. There's an international break after this match, so no real need to rotate if everyone is fully fit. I am still asking for some more Asmita minutes though, just saying.

This match will be another big test for the defense, and I'm hoping we will have done some intensive training on set piece defending since Daly is a big threat from headers. Speaking of defense, it looks like Carla Ward switched things up to a back three (or five, depending on how you feel about wingbacks) for their last game against Arsenal, so it will be interesting to see if she opts for that formation again on Saturday. There would be some real potential for Spurs to overload a sparse Villa midfield with our newly improved short-range passing and dynamic Finnish double pivot.

A win in this fixture would be huge not just as a statement of our quality relative to a team that was the "best of the rest" last season, but also because two of the teams currently ahead of us in the table play each other (Manchester City and Leicester), meaning we'd leapfrog one or both of them (possible if they draw). But perhaps it's way too early to be getting excited about table standings just yet.

Previewing PL Matchday 9 — Fulham

I'm also trying not to get too ahead of myself with excitement around Spurs Men's table position, but it would be nice to keep the unbeaten streak going regardless.

It's time for the third London derby of the season, following Brentford on opening day and the tense away NLD. I guess this is technically the fourth since we already played Fulham in the League Cup, but I'd prefer to keep repressing that memory.

Because really, we all know that wasn't our best starting lineup in that fixture and Ange Postecoglou won't make the same mistake twice. Sure, that "B team" still should have performed better than they did, but we're fortunate that we won't have to rely on many of them to get the job done the second time around. It seems like we've escaped the international break mostly unscathed, although Son Heung-min's persistent groin issue is still a worry. Cristian Romero also had an injury scare in his second game with Argentina but is reportedly fit to start against Fulham. We could also see Brennan Johnson return to the matchday squad, though perhaps not as a starter. Yves Bissouma will be suspended for this match after his second yellow sending off against Luton Town, and I would expect Pierre-Emile Højbjerg to replace him in the starting lineup.

Fulham have a couple of players who are questionable: Kenny Tete and Adama Traoré, who signed with Fulham on a free transfer in the summer window. Other incoming transfers this season include Alex Iwobi from Everton, Timothy Castagne from Leicester City, and Raul Jiménez from Wolves. Aleksandar Mitrović jumped ship to the Saudi Pro League, and good riddance.

For my American readers, there's some USMNT interest here with both Tim Ream and Jedi Robinson starting regularly for Fulham. Robinson had an own goal in their last PL match against Sheffield United, which they luckily (for him) went on to win, partially with help from a United own goal by Wes Foderingham. And for general Spurs interest, don't forget that Carlos Vinícius still plays for Fulham.

Over the last few seasons (well, the ones where Fulham were actually in the Premier League) most of our results have been close and decided by a single goal. But we haven't lost to the Cottagers since 2013, for what it's worth.

They haven't had a great start to the 2023/24 season, losing as many games as they've won and only keeping clean sheets against two relegation-threatened teams as well as Crystal Palace. I will attribute this to Fulham continuing to start the worst German goalkeeper (gotta keep up my vendetta against Bernd Leno). But seriously, with how many chances we've been creating every game and how poor they've been at defending, it's about time we beat them by a larger margin than one goal, which we haven't done since 2018. Give them a real taste of Angeball this time!

Annoyingly, this match isn't until Monday. Just another chance for the team to prove their mettle if Arsenal and/or Manchester City win their matches and keep the pressure on us another week.

News from around the Lane

It was a quiet week around the Men's team with the international break, so just a few Women's team news tidbits to round up.

• Grace Clinton got her first call-up to the England senior team. She is also the first player to earn a first senior England call-up while playing for Spurs (Beth England was the first Spurs senior Lioness, but she had received her first call-up back in her Chelsea days). As the club's press release noted, Robert Vilahamn predicted this milestone would happen for Grace in his press conference last week—though perhaps sooner than expected—and she was happy to give her manager some credit for helping her reach this achievement:

Robert is one of the biggest factors in the call-up, I would say, just with the confidence he’s given me. To be honest, all my confidence comes from the team that I’m playing in, the manager and the staff behind the scenes. I think this is the most confident I’ve been in my career so far and you can definitely see that on the pitch.

• The home NLD has been moved to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, coincidentally increasing my severe FOMO from being across the pond. Seriously though, get yourself to the Lane if you're local. The team will need full support as they try to get a first win over Arsenal in Spurs Women's history.

As it happens, we play Arsenal away the midweek before in the Conti Cup, not at the Emirates but at Meadow Park. I feel nauseous already at the prospect of playing them back-to-back.

• Shoutout to the Proud Lilywhites for celebrating the UK's Black History Month by highlighting Spurs Women's Black players, like this post on our beloved goalkeeper Becky Spencer:

• And in Spurs Women alumni news, Alex Morgan won the NWSL regular season shield with the San Diego Wave. Yes, this is me finding an excuse to brag on my NWSL team. If you're not watching this league you're missing out! Send Alex some good luck for the playoffs.

COYS

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