Conte Course Corrects

A second-half comeback results in Conte's first PL win with Tottenham | Kit Graham's early injury brings Spurs Women's hot streak to a halt

After yet another half of football without a shot on target, Spurs put on a second-half surge to beat Leeds 2-1 at home. Oh, to be a fly on the dressing room wall at halftime as Conte delivered his remarks. Whatever he said worked! I know I wasn't the only person wondering why a manager can't win Man of the Match.

It really was a dreadful first half, reminiscent of the stilted, lifeless football seen in Tottenham's worst Nuno-led matches, but the mentality change after halftime was clear to see. The team was able to produce several quality chances to score, and although the eventual goals came from somewhat unlikely sources, it can only be a good thing that players from outside the forward line are able to contribute.

Lloris kept us in the game with six saves, making the comeback possible. He just might be our player of the season so far. You can't point to too many of the goals we've conceded this season that were directly caused by an error from our captain-keeper. Spurs board:  please lock down his contract extension! He's still playing at his peak and we'd be crazy to let him walk away if he would prefer to stay (and there haven't been any signs to suggest he isn't still committed to the club).

The defense was actually pretty decent, Dier especially. The one goal we conceded was the result of some fine work from Leeds' Jack Harrison to get around Royal (who put in a solid performance otherwise), whip the ball past Tanganga, and connect with Daniel James for the close-range shot. It looked like Davies and Reguilón weren't clear on who was marking James in that moment, because they both arrived too late to stop him. It probably goes without saying, but it was James' first goal for Leeds. Of course.

I was a little surprised that Tanganga was subbed off so early in the second half, because he had definitely earned more time on the pitch, but perhaps it was pre-planned. Sánchez was a capable replacement. It was refreshing to see substitutions that at least made sense, for once. I'm okay with some like-for-like subs for the sake of rotation and keeping the squad balanced, and the players can only adapt to the new back-three system if they stick with it (unless a change in formation is clearly warranted by the opposition, obviously). It's still too early to have a clear idea of which players are in and out of favor with Conte, though.

Højbjerg has a knack for scoring at times when the team could really use a boost of confidence, so I'm not surprised he netted our first goal of the game. Or should I say "Hobby," as Conte has apparently taken to nicknaming him? Maybe we can all dispense with the illusion that our Viking is not an attacking player, too. He's shown that he feels empowered to get forward and take his chances in the right system (Denmark certainly has it figured out). I appreciated that PEH kept his goal celebration subdued and urged the team to keep going to find the game-winner. It should also be noted that although Lucas had a bit of an up-and-down game, he did very well to set up Højbjerg's goal and worked tirelessly for his full 88 minutes on the pitch. The main concern with Lucas is that he's such a liability defensively. Maybe Hugo should get into a verbal tussle with him like he did previously with Son...

It wasn't a complete performance from Reguilón on the day, but he won't mind, because he finally got his first goal for Spurs. He reacted quickest after Dier's free kick attempt deflected and hit the post (I breathed a sigh of relief when Kane walked away from the free kick spot) and tapped in the rebound. Calling it a tap-in doesn't even feel right--he put so much oomph into it. He wanted that goal. And you could see how genuinely thrilled the whole team was for Sergio. Let's hope this is the first of many goals for the Spaniard! It should also be mentioned that he had the best post-match interview yet this season.

Reguilón:  "I'm dead, but I'm so happy, I'm so happy."

Interviewer:  "You're the happiest dead person I know."

And now, time for everyone's least favorite recurring topic that just won't stop recurring:  Harry Kane's PL goal drought and disappointing form. I know some fans are feeling like he's starting to get back to his old self when it comes to Spurs, but personally, I think it's wishful thinking. There are still way too many frustrating moments where he looks off the pace and, frankly, unmotivated. Conte isn't going to tolerate that, of course, so you would hope that will change soon. But just take a look at his body language. He's in his head in a way that hasn't been happening when he's on international duty. My theory is that something is off with the team chemistry at Tottenham that he's not experiencing in the England setup--any friction within the Spurs squad is likely to be a result of his summer transfer saga, however, so he only has himself (and his brother, and City's lowball offer) to blame if that's the case. Either way, Kane's performance against Leeds reminded me more of Lucas on one of his more headless-chicken days (I say that affectionately, but you know what I mean). He wasn't getting his head up often enough, he let countless passes blow past him when he was slow to react, and he just lacked his typical killer instinct in the box. Something is going to have to give soon. If only we had a second striker that wasn't an inexperienced teenager so that the threat of benching him would actually mean something.

/rant over

A few stray observations from the match to wrap things up:

∙ Winks was... decent, the first half besides--but then, nobody in the lineup was lighting the world on fire that half. It still feels like it's going to be a miracle if he manages to solidify a spot in the starting XI at this point. Increasing his transfer value would be a positive outcome for the club, though.

∙ Dele is also on the comeback watch, but he was only given two minutes plus stoppage to impress Conte. So, not nearly enough for a meaningful assessment.

∙ Ben Davies nearly scored! His first goal for Wales seems to have bolstered his confidence to attack. I don't hate it, especially since he seems to have Conte's trust in the starting back-three, for now. We simply have to start scoring more goals, even if they come from unlikely sources.

∙ Son looked brighter than he has the last few PL matches and had some quality chances. He'll be back on the scoresheet soon, I'm sure.

∙ Sessegnon lives! After a successful loan at Hoffenheim last season, we barely saw him under Nuno thanks to injury trouble. Now he looks poised to contribute with some valuable rotation minutes for Reguilón. He played well in his 10+ minutes and hopefully can kick on from here. The ECL match on Thursday could be a big opportunity.

Up next is the away leg against NŠ Mura. It will be interesting to see how much rotation Conte does with the lineup, since he put out a very strong lineup against Vitesse before the international break. He could choose to stick with most of that core group to continue assessing how he likes them in his system, or give some of the fringe players a look instead. Either way, a win against this team is a must. Regardless of Rennes' result against Vitesse, we should have group stage qualification in the top spot of the table in our hands, barring a blowout win for Rennes on Thursday. In that scenario, goal difference could be an issue. Of course, if Rennes draw or lose to Vitesse and we win both matches, goal difference won't matter at all.

Spurs Women lose more than just the match

The narrow 1-0 loss away at West Ham was overshadowed by an injury to Kit Graham in the 30th minute. I have yet to see an update on her injury status, but it was bad enough that she had to be stretchered off the pitch. To say it was deflating would be putting it mildly; Graham has been one of our top players this season and she will be sorely missed if she's out for a lengthy period (as seems likely).

I have rewatched the highlights and I'm still not sure either of Ubogagu's disallowed goals were actually offside situations (obviously, scoring after the whistle had been blown made it a moot point in the first instance). The WSL really needs to do something about these camera angles so that I can be properly mad at the sideline refs, instead of us just peevishly skeptical. Or, you know, VAR would be nice too. But there's no denying that we've had a couple of sketchy refereeing decisions go in our favor already this season, so some bad karma was inevitable.

Ashleigh Neville and Rachel Williams had most of our best chances besides Ubogagu's efforts. Kyah Simon is looking more and more involved with every game, but still lacking that final touch. Rosella Ayane and Angela Addison looked very lively when they came on as substitutes, and I would have loved for one or both of them to have built on their hat trick performances from the mid-week cup match with a goal against West Ham. Alas!

With West Ham's Brynjarsdóttir scoring in the 69th minute, there was still plenty of time to get a point or even three out of the match, but Spurs' surge didn't happen until the final ten minutes. I think we were unlucky not to at least get a draw, all things considered.

I was interested to see Maéva Clemaron given the captain's armband for (I believe) the first time. She's clearly a favorite with Rehanne, and it's easy to see why after her recent performances. You wouldn't know she was brand-new to the team this season with how quickly she's been integrated into the midfield.

Much like the curious case of Tanganga's early substitution in the Men's game, I would love to know the reasoning behind Ubogagu being taken off in the 88th minute since she had come on as a sub herself when Kit was injured. I thought she was our top performer on the day alongside Neville, so it's certainly strange.

Overall, it was another closely-contested London derby for Spurs Women. Going into this month, I would have laughed in your face if you told me we were going to draw the match with Arsenal and lose to West Ham. Football is a funny sport.

It's time for another international break, this time for the Women. I'm hoping we can get right back on track after the break is over. We have a couple of favorable matchups against Aston Villa in the league and Coventry United in the cup, before taking on Everton in the last league match before the next break. Brighton are just one point ahead of us in the table and they have two tough matches coming up (Manchester United and Arsenal), so if we get business done we could be back in the third Champions League qualification spot after this run. January will be a difficult month of fixtures, but we'll cross that bridge when it comes.

COYS