Crisis Averted

Let's all let out that sweet, sweet sigh of relief we've been waiting for. Spurs Women finally got a league win! The prognosis for the season is already looking that much less dire after widening the gap between us and the bottom of the WSL table (sorry, Foxes). That doesn't mean the match was an unqualified success, however, and the long-term manager question remains unsolved.

In this issue:  Leicester City recap | Previewing the weekend match

Tottenham 1 - 0 Leicester City

The curse is broken!

I wish I could say that we're out of the woods and everything is definitely going to be fine from here on out in the 2022/23 season. But it would have been unrealistic to expect the team to look markedly different under the interim management of Vicky Jepson, the former assistant to recently sacked manager Rehanne Skinner, and indeed, there wasn't a huge degree of difference between the Liverpool loss and the Leicester City win—from team selection to the general performance to the standout performer (though that one was a surprise).

Speaking of the selection, I was more than a little frustrated to see Jepson stick with Amy Turner at the expense of Asmita Ale, who remained on the bench for another game and didn't even feature as a substitute. While it might have been tempting to replace Rosella Ayane in the starting XI with Celin Bizet, Ros had certainly earned another start with a well-taken goal and overall strong performance in the prior game. Instead, I would have preferred to see Angharad James dropped to the bench (I can't remember the last time I was happy with her performance—perhaps back in October?) and stuck with the midfield two to accommodate Celin coming in at right wingback. Jepson opted for a midfield three and kept James in the side, as well as starting Eveliina Summanen, who had only played half of the Liverpool game (and exited this one before the 60th minute). Nikola Karczewska got another start and was played as a wide forward in the relatively safe 4-3-3 formation Jepson chose, while Beth England of course played at striker.

It was reassuring to see Beth able to start again with no apparent ill effects from the previous game, although she would end up subbing out relatively early again, this time playing a little over ten minutes more. She made her time on the pitch count—and in classic Beth England fashion, scoring a screamer of a shot from distance in the 65th minute, the only goal of the match. Considering the exceptional form that Leicester's on-loan keeper, Janina Leitzig, had been in, I had figured it would take a shot of that world-class caliber to beat her, a belief which Beth echoed herself in some post-game comments.  (Her post-game interview with the club is a real must-watch, trust me. She's so delightfully candid!)  

I'll share the goal highlight below, but first, let's give it up for Drew Spence. I've been pretty critical of her in recent weeks because she's been running hot and cold in matches, and I still don't think this was the most complete performance from her against Leicester, but! the footwork she pulled off to evade several defenders and get the ball to Rosella for the assist for Beth's goal was simply sublime. I was delighted that Spurs Women's Twitter account gave her the fancy touch map graphic treatment—though it would have been even better with those few touches in the build-up to the goal highlighted in a contrasting color. Free content idea, Spurs!

Unfortunately, the highlight video from the league starts with Rosella's pass, so we'll have to settle for this ground-level view shared by the club that doesn't really do full justice to Drew's contribution (but does highlight a rare lapse of positioning from Leitzig that helped Beth's shot go in, though I think it probably had enough curve to throw Leitzig off regardless).

We also need to talk about Ros. This is two games in a row where she's been my vote for Player of the Match (not that it particularly counted for much in the last game since we lost, but it was still a great goal that she scored). Not only did she get the assist for Beth's goal, but she also put in a gorgeous through ball to Celin that would have surely resulted in a goal if not for a heavy first touch from her winger counterpart. It should have been in the running for pass of the season! Alas. And it wasn't just Rosella's passing that was on-point in this game; her overall work rate was putting the rest of the lineup to shame, to the point where her less-fit teammates were often one step behind her attempts to link up. One thing I've always appreciated about Ros is that her vision for the game is quite advanced, and it looks like her technical execution may be starting to catch up. The FA Player commentator also noted her stamina as an asset, and it's more impressive when you consider that she's played heavy minutes recently. I sincerely hope she can turn these couple of strong performances into an extended run of form.

The other player I want to praise for her recent consistency is Tinni Korpela. She's been making some absolutely crucial saves to keep us in games lately, and I'm glad she was finally rewarded with a clean sheet. The unfortunate truth is that the defense in front of her is struggling significantly compared to last season (check out friend-of-the-newsletter Harsh's superb statistical breakdown of the regressing defense and other obstacles for Spurs Women this season). We very nearly saw another costly defensive error in this game, but for once luck was on our side when it came to a deflection. Do I still sometimes miss Becky Spencer for her ability to play out from the back? Yes. But knowing what we know about the club and their secrecy around injuries, it's possible that Becky has had a recurrence of her persistent back issue and that's why we've seen Tinni get such a long run of starts. As I always say, it's a privilege to have two high-quality goalkeepers in the squad when some clubs don't even have one (I said what I said).

My positives from the Leicester game mostly end there, because the rest of the lineup largely struggled to connect paces and control the tempo of the game. This kind of disconnected overall team performance is not going to cut it against our next opponent, Arsenal. I hope Vicky (if she is still in charge for the next match—I would not be at all surprised to see an announcement of a new permanent manager between now and then) will feel empowered to make some bold changes and actually get the players into their best positions going forward—and get more of our best players onto the pitch, to begin with.

Actually, one last positive to end with:  Kit Graham continues to look decent as she ramps up her match minutes post-ACL recovery. If she doesn't get a goal within the next two or three games, I will be very surprised. It's coming!

This vital win widened the gap between us and the drop zone to five points—a huge margin in such a small league as the WSL. There's a reason this game was being billed as a "six-pointer." Granted, we will still need to be vigilant and pick up further points against the teams we can reasonably be expected to do so against, but these three points provided some much-needed breathing room. Again:  sigh of relief. I have rarely been so happy to hear a final whistle.

The next game for the Women's team isn't until next weekend (because we're out of the FA Cup, whomp whomp), so let's shift focus to preview the Men's PL match against Southampton.

I am feeling more optimistic about the Men's side too, despite the looming Antonio Conte of it all. Since Manchester United don't play this weekend (due to being in the FA Cup, which the Men are also out of, major whomp), we could go up into 3rd place with a win against Southampton.

Away trips to St. Mary's Stadium are never particularly fun, but Southampton are truly down bad at the moment—dead last in the PL table with no games in hand.

Our old friend Kyle Walker-Peters is out with a hamstring injury, so we don't have to worry about him getting some good-natured vengeance (at least I'd like to think it would be good-natured). It sounds like Emerson Royal should be back in contention for Spurs, though Conte may prefer to give Pedro Porro another start after he notched his first assist in the last game. I honestly wouldn't make any changes to the starting XI from the Nottingham Forest win, unless it was perhaps to rest Son and swap Richarlison to left winger to bring in Dejan Kulusevski. Otherwise, if it ain't broke don't fix it. This is mostly a Ben Davies at left wingback appreciation comment.

The funny thing is that when I try to think about potential concerns for Spurs in this matchup with Southampton, my mind immediately goes back to the absurd game when we lost thanks to two of the all-time most farcical VAR decisions in the short history of VAR. I see Fraser Forster spilling the ball... well, let's hope he keeps it tidy now that he's in goal for us.

Now that we don't have the "distraction" of cup games to balance with the league fixtures, there's no excuse for failing to win games against bottom-of-the-table teams. So please, Spurs, no funny business. Play on the front foot, and get it done.

COYS

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