Constant Vigilance

Spurs Women dealt another dose of stoppage time disappointment | The Men's team faces Leicester in the first of four (so far) postponed matches

I decided to sleep on the Tottenham Hotspur Women vs. West Ham Women result so that I could hopefully be a little more level-headed with this recap, because I have to admit that I was feeling quite disappointed after the final whistle.

We had to wait a long time to finally see the Women's team back in action after the winter break, thanks to a postponement of the Chelsea fixture, and at first, it looked like it was going to be a fully positive start to the second half of the season. Although it was still scoreless at halftime, Spurs were the dominant side and earned a penalty early in the second half, which Rosella Ayane converted with ease. West Ham went down to ten players shortly after the PK, thanks to a second yellow for Hawa Cissoko (who could easily have picked up her second yellow on the penalty itself), and with the way Spurs were playing, I genuinely thought we would score at least one more goal, if not several, and kill off the game.

Alas. After a lapse of defensive concentration from Spurs in the dying minutes of the match, West Ham's Kate Longhurst scored from a towering header for a 1-1 final score. It was gutting! You might recall a similar scenario from the now infamous match against Arsenal earlier in the season. In that game, too, a stoppage-time header was our downfall (courtesy of Viv Miedema in that case). Why are Spurs Women having so much trouble finishing their dinner?

The big issue is that we simply aren't scoring much from open play. Although Ayane certainly deserved her penalty goal after a strong performance, she was just as guilty as the rest of the forward line in not being clinical enough with their chances. And everyone had their chances--Ayane, Naz, and Tang started the match, but we also saw Williams, Addison, and Ubogagu earn plenty of opportunities in their sub appearances. We ended the match with 19 shots, 6 of them on target. I'm tempted to say we were just unlucky on the day, and to give some credit where it is due to West Ham's unyielding defense, but it has become a worrying trend this season that we just can't seem to overcome that second goal hurdle.

And the problem is, if we want to continue challenging the two Manchester teams for the third Champions League spot, we have to start catching up to their goal output. At the moment, we sit joint-third on points with Manchester United but have fallen to fourth place thanks to their six-goal advantage. Even with Manchester City's slow start to the season, they have already surpassed us in goal difference, if not in points.

I also just fear that this was one of those fixtures where we needed to secure all three points for the sake of our top 3 pursuit. Although we've shown that we can challenge any team this season (well, to-be-determined with regards to Chelsea, since they're the only team we haven't played yet), you can understand dropping points to the teams that are firmly at the top of the table. West Ham, on the other hand, should have been a beatable team. But just as we have shifted our expectations (in a positive way) this season against the top teams, we have also seen the new trend of derbies being way more contentious and competitive than they were when we were brand new to the WSL. You just have to read Longhurst's remarks after the match to know that scoring against Spurs was a big personal victory for her because of the rivalry. Still, considering that we had the majority of possession and West Ham's goal was their only shot on target, this was a winnable game that was squandered in the end. It might come back to haunt us at the end of the season.

Okay, now that I've gotten that doom-and-gloom out of my system, I do have a few positive points to highlight.

• We handled the aggressive nature of this derby game very well, not just by goading Cissoko into her second yellow card (West Ham debutant Emma Snerle was also flirting with a sending-off), but also by fighting fire with fire. Tang was lacking end product, but I admired her willingness to get stuck in. And Ayane is always skillful in that regard--she drew the foul from Cissoko that had her sent off following dissent to the ref. This is going to be a niche reference, but if you get it, you get it... Ayane has major Tim Duncan vibes.

• A few lineup notes:  Spencer got her first start in goal since her injury, and she was in fine form. There wasn't much she could have done about Longhurst's perfect header. Ayane impressed on one of her rare starts, and while Tang didn't convince me she needs to be a starter in the most important matches, she can certainly contribute this season. Addison made such a big impact when she subbed on in the second half, and I would love to see her starting against Manchester United on Sunday, probably in place of Percival.

• I don't have any complaints about Rehanne's in-game management. The bench was a little sparse because we have a couple of players away at the Women's Asian Cup (Cho and Simon), so she didn't have many options to choose from, but the subs came at the right time to keep up the dominant pace and all three of the subs looked threatening in attack. She was also wise to ensure Clemaron didn't risk a second yellow, since we have such an important match coming up and need Clemaron's stability in the midfield.

(Programming note for my fellow US Spurs fans who don't have the luxury of catching matches on SkySports:  I was lucky to win a year's membership for ATA Football in a giveaway, and this was the first match I watched on their platform. I have to say I recommend it! They have much more robust commentary pre- and post-match than the FA Player does, along with an actual halftime show. It definitely made for a more enjoyable matchday experience. But I have heard from friend-of-the-newsletter Sam that the desktop experience has some distracting pop-ups during the broadcasts, so watching on the app is preferable [I used their Apple TV app]. Just throwing this out there in case anyone was curious about ATA, since I know the game was blacked out on the FA Player and on USA/NBCsports.com instead.)

Up next, the Women will be taking on Liverpool in the Conti Cup on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I have heard that it won't be broadcast (my source being Anna of Spurs{XY} on the Last Word on Spurs podcast), so there won't be a thorough recap of that match. But I'm very eager to see how we do against Manchester United on Sunday. It was a close contest in the reverse fixture (our home match), but they've been in a good run of form recently (winning their last two WSL matches by a score of 5-0 each time, yikes). They will have to contend with Arsenal in the midweek cup matchday, however, so we have the advantage there, playing the current leaders of the Championship rather than the WSL leaders.

At long last, a Premier League match

Feels like it's been ages, doesn't it?

The Men's team is finally embarking on the task of making up the postponed games, starting with Leicester on Wednesday. I mean, surely they can't postpone an already postponed match again... right? 😬

Leicester actually do have a lot of injuries to contend with right now, in addition to some absences from AFCON, but as far as I know, they don't have any COVID cases and the game should be going ahead. Leicester will definitely be without their top scorer, Vardy, but will still have goal threats in Maddison, Barnes, and Tielemans. They could also get a boost to their defense if Söyüncü is able to return, but he may only be on the bench to start. Leicester haven't actually played a PL match since the end of December due to postponements, so really, their form is nonexistent.

Hopefully, Dier will be able to feature for Spurs, because I'm not sure I can take another match without him. That sounds dramatic, but honestly, we are a different team when he's not in the side, and not just defensively. We rely on him to get the attack started from the back so often, and he also provides stability behind the midfielders that frees them up to be more progressive. Am I making an argument that Dier has been our MVP this season? Perhaps I am! It's probably still Sonny, though (who definitely won't be available for this match, as it happens).

I'm also hoping that we see the return of Reguilón. This is definitely a game where he would thrive thanks to his pace. On the other hand, I wouldn't hate Sessegnon getting another chance to impress since we have Chelsea on the weekend, and Regui must start that match. Bergwijn could also be available for this midweek match, otherwise, I suspect we'll see Bryan filling in for Son. Besides the Winks vs Højbjerg vs Skipp decision (for this particular matchup, I'm ambivalent on who Conte chooses), the rest of the team picks itself. And I of course include Lloris in that statement.

As much as I would love to see Spurs get some revenge on Chelsea for the three (3!) losses we've already suffered to them this season, I think this Leicester match has to be a bigger priority. It's exceedingly winnable, and we shouldn't bother talking about our games in hand as an advantage if we don't actually intend to win them. Just get it done, lads.

Tottenham alumni

Two notable things happened to a couple of our former players this past weekend:

• Serge Aurier was forced to take over as keeper when his Ivory Coast teammate was injured in the late stages of their game against Sierra Leone. Fun times at AFCON!

• Erik Lamela won the Puskas award for his rabona goal in last season's away NLD. Well deserved! That makes two years in a row that a Spurs player (at the time of the goal) has won the award.

Link roundup

Finally, I retweeted these articles about Spurs Women but figured I would share them here too for anyone who missed them. I especially enjoyed the insight into Ashleigh Neville in the second piece! It's great to see the team getting more media attention of late (though perhaps we will come to miss going under the radar).

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COYS