Defensive Lapses End in a Draw

Spurs Men pick up a point at West Ham | Previewing Fulham | Deadline Day (lack of) drama | August Player of the Month

The away match at West Ham was a great example of the conventional knowledge that derby games ignore current form. West Ham have not been good this season, not by a long shot, but they were able to reach a higher level and steal a draw from London rivals Tottenham on Wednesday. It didn't help that Spurs had yet another uninspiring performance.

West Ham 1 - 1 Tottenham

There was some early controversy when the original on-field call for a handball on Aaron Creswell was overturned after a very lengthy VAR review. It does seem like a decision that it took that long to reach probably doesn't meet the criteria for a "clear and obvious error" needed to overturn the original call, but alas. This is now two matches in a row where a controversial handball has impacted the game.

We were fortunate to take the lead through a West Ham own goal in the first half, though this was definitely one of those own goals where the error was forced by pressure. If Thilo Kehrer hadn't turned the ball into his own net, Son Heung-min would have gotten the final touch—and a much-needed first goal of the season, so it's a shame he didn't. The move was an excellent combination from the entire forward line after Eric Dier initiated the counterattack, finding Harry Kane in midfield, who quickly laid the ball off to Dejan Kulusevski for the Swede to carry up the pitch. After cutting in, Kulusevski found Kane overlapping on the right flank just onside, who then crossed the ball into the congested six-yard box.

It was also a defensive lapse from Spurs that allowed West Ham's equalizer, however. Most of the team was completely switched off when West Ham took a throw-in (which you could argue was a foul throw) and Michail Antonio was able to make quick work of flicking on the ball to Thomas Souček to fire past several Tottenham defenders into the net. If you watch the replay, you'll see that Pierre-Emile Højbjerg was arguing with the ref about something as the throw-in happened (not long after PEH's disagreement with the ref about having to leave the field to swap his boots), so it wasn't just the Tottenham defense that was distracted. I was particularly sad to see the clean shot lost on the 10th anniversary of Hugo Lloris signing with the club. He'd had some important moments in the first half, but his second half was one to forget.

Unlike in the Nottingham Forest match, we won the possession battle this time (and pretty decisively), but the same problem carried over into this match—an inconspicuous and ineffective midfield. Yves Bissouma, who got his first start for Tottenham, was hampered by an early, needless yellow card. He struggled to assert himself in the game after that point, with half a mind on the possibility of a second yellow holding him back from fully committing to winning balls. I was also disappointed by his pass selection though, which should not have been affected by his disciplinary concerns the way his ability to aggressively claim a ball had been. With Rodrigo Bentancur's head injury likely to keep him out for the Fulham game on Saturday as well, Bissouma will need to put this game behind him and get back to the inventive, dynamic kind of performances that encouraged the club to sign him in the first place.

It's rare that I find myself disgruntled with Conte, but I will admit I was a little miffed with his in-game management on Wednesday. Bissouma played on that yellow card for 70 minutes, when there were (technically) two available players on the bench to replace him. You can argue that Sarr is too young and inexperienced to be trusted in such a fraught match scenario as a London derby, and you could also argue that Skipp should only have been used as a last resort since he's fresh off an injury, but then why have them taking up spots on the bench? Even Harvey White could have been an option for the bench if Conte didn't feel like Skipp was quite ready to be back.

I do acknowledge that his options for other substitutions were somewhat limited, with plenty of wingbacks on the bench but only Richarlison available for the forward line due to injuries to Lucas Moura and Bryan Gil. The defense had been looking increasingly shaky in the second half, but that's perhaps the worst possible time to make a change and add further instability. Still, players like Ryan Sessegnon and Djed Spence will probably feel disappointed that they weren't given a chance to affect the result. Part of me wonders if Conte had half an eye towards the Fulham match and is planning for quite a bit of rotation in the lineup, and therefore wanted to keep some of those bench players fresh—and uninjured. Fair enough, if so.

This was a match that we would all like to forget and move past, but once again, Spurs have notched another result that's an improvement over the same fixture last season. That's been the case for every match we've played so far this season, with the obvious exception of the match against newly-promoted Nottingham Forest. So, the sky is not falling. Yet. You do feel the performances will have to improve soon though, with the fixture schedule already ramping up and plenty of difficult opponents on the near horizon.

No place like home

Luckily, after a two-game road trip, the team is back at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the next two fixtures. First up is another newly-promoted (but more recently familiar) team, Fulham.

They don't have Scott Parker at the helm this time around (poor lad finds himself without a ship, as it happens—he was just sacked by Bournemouth earlier this week), but rather Marco Silva. While Fulham were good for a few shock results in their last stint in the PL, they seem to be a little better equipped for consistency this season. They've already managed draws at home to Liverpool and away at Wolves, as well as home wins against Brentford and Brighton. Their only PL loss of the season was a narrow 2-1 away loss at Arsenal, where they had scored first. Fulham were also knocked out of the League Cup, but I suspect that competition ranked exactly at the bottom of Silva's priorities for the season.

Fulham made a few deadline day transfers, including one very familiar face for Spurs fans:  Carlos Vinícius. I think it's great that Viní is getting another chance at his Premier League dream. I also think it's going to be really frustrating when he inevitably scores against us. Or maybe not so inevitably—Spurs' defense will be wanting a clean sheet after conceding such a poor goal in the West Ham match, so they aren't going to make it easy for him. To be honest, I'm not even sure if he'll be available to Fulham in time for our game on Saturday, but we'll see. They also brought in Willian (yes, that Willian) and Layvin Kurzawa, whom I know exactly nothing about, but appears to have still been playing regularly for PSG last season. Other incoming transfers from the summer window include Issa Diop, Shane Duffy, Kevin Mbabu, Andreas Pereira, and our old Arsenal nemesis, Bernd Leno. Meanwhile, the most handsome man in football, Paulo Gazzaniga, has left Fulham on loan to Girona, and Ryan Sessegnon's twin brother Steven has also gone out on loan to Charlton in League One.

Of course, the biggest threat from Fulham's squad is going to be Aleksandar Mitrović. He broke the record for most goals in a Championship season last year as Fulham won the title and automatic promotion, and this time he appears to have figured out how to translate that hot form into actual Premier League goals, too. It helps that Silva seems to trust him more than Parker did and is starting him consistently. Mitrović is already up to five goals from the first five matches, one goal above Kane and four below Haaland in the Golden Boot race.

US readers may also know that Fulham has two American players featuring regularly, Antonee "Jedi" Robinson and Tim Ream—keeping "Fulhamerica" alive.

Injury-wise, Fulham have two players out with knee injuries (Harry Wilson and Manor Solomon), while we just have a handful of "doubtfuls" (Gil, Romero, Lucas, Bentancur). I do wonder if the transfer window closing will result in a sudden recovery for both Gil and Lucas...

I haven't actually had a chance to watch very much of Fulham yet this season because of fixture schedule timing, but any team that can eke out a draw with Liverpool is one not to be taken lightly. I won't attempt to predict Conte's lineup since there are so many variables factoring in right now (the midweek Champions League match, Bentancur's head injury, Richarlison making a strong argument for earning a start), but there will have to be some changes simply for the sake of keeping players fit. At the very least, I would hope to see him utilizing his five (5!) possible subs to greater effect this match. If I could make just one change for the starting lineup, I would want to see Richarlison given the nod—whether that's for Son, Kane, or Kulusevski is up to Conte. I would also really like to see Sessegnon and Matt Doherty starting, too, so that Ivan Perišić and Emerson Royal can get some rest. Clément Lenglet is also an option who is surely looking to prove himself.

The squad is settled

...until January, anyway.

The transfer window closed earlier today, and while I'm maybe just a tad disappointed we didn't have a surprise deadline day signing after all, I'm not upset about it. I still believe the club did very strong business this summer, and all the better that it got done early and allowed Conte enough time to work with all his players during pre-season in some capacity. The players that left on loan in the last week or two were not in his plans to begin with.

Since last writing, we had two more senior players leave the club on loan, Harry Winks to Sampdoria and Sergio Reguilón to Atlético Madrid. Winks' deal comes with an option to buy, while Reguilón's deal has neither an obligation nor option to buy. There's a good chance that both will be "back" at Tottenham next summer and the club will have to find them a permanent home at that juncture. These are both players that looked like they had a good chance of working out and even excelling at the club at various times, but found themselves out of favor under multiple managers in the end. C'est la vie.

Youth player Marcel Lavinier also left the club, but on a permanent deal, to Swindon Town in League Two.

Thanks for the memories, lads!

Player of the Month spotlight

I thought it would be fun to start a new feature on the newsletter this season and award a Player of the Month for both teams. Since the Women's team only played friendlies and there wasn't enough conclusive data, I am going to hold off on selecting a Women's player this month, but the winner seemed pretty clear on the Men's side.

Men's Player of the Month:  Harry Kane

Once taunted for his relative lack of success in the month of August, Kane really showed up this year. He's scored four goals in the first five games on just 3.19 xG, and three of them came from headers—a sure sign that Harry is back to his striker best. Not only does he appear to have started the season fully ready to go, unlike last year following his troubling transfer saga, but he's also been a step above the rest of the starting forward line in every match so far (keyword "starting," because Richarlison is nipping at his heels). He hasn't notched an assist yet, but as Sonny gets into some shooting form of his own I'm sure that will quickly change. Harry has also made some important blocks and clearances on the defensive end, proving that he's still the same well-rounded player we've come to appreciate in the most recent years of his career. We'll forgive the missed penalty against Nottingham Forest!

Men's Honorable Mention:  Ivan Perišić

The Croatian may as well be a Swiss Army knife, because he can do it all—and he has slotted seamlessly into this Spurs team. Most importantly, he's made an impact in key moments already this season, like finding the assist for Kane's equalizing goal in the dying seconds of the Chelsea match, as well as assisting Kane's game-winner in the Wolves match. It's comforting to know that when Son is lacking his usual end product, Perišić has a strong enough partnership with Kane to make up the difference.

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