Derby Doldrums

The margins for the Premier League top 4 race are tightening after a lackluster midweek result for Spurs. The matchday weather reflected many fans' moods, but the performance wasn't the worst we've seen this season. Disappointment is just a common theme when we play at the London Stadium.

In this issue: West Ham United recap | Nottingham Forest preview | News from around the Lane

PL Matchday 30 recap | West Ham United 1 - 1 Tottenham

Zouma 19' | Johnson 5'

I'm going to be honest with y'all: I'm already feeling the end-of-season fatigue when it comes to writing this newsletter. It doesn't help that the last few matches (Men's and Women's) have been lacking true intrigue. Even the lopsided loss to Fulham could be simply chalked up to a bad day at the office, not evidence of a more serious weakness in the Angeball system.

So today, I will once again revert to the quick recap format in lieu of a chronological play-by-play. I'm sure that once we get to the anxiety-inducing run of fixtures that starts with the home NLD, there will be much more to talk about and dissect. Fingers crossed that it will be positive talking points then.

Starting XI:

As expected, Micky van de Ven was selected to start for this contentious derby match over his recent understudy, Radu Drâguşin. The only other changes from the starting lineup against Luton Town were Brennan Johnson instead of Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur in place of Pape Sarr. Johnson and Bentancur had both had strong substitute performances in the Luton game (Brennan especially) and earned the chance to make an impact from the beginning this time.

Key highlights & takeaways:

• Johnson immediately justified his inclusion in the starting XI by scoring his fifth goal of the season. It was another winger-to-winger connection that has become so common in Ange Postecoglou's side, and a tidy finish by Brennan.

Timo Werner had come under some fire amongst the fanbase for his previous performance, so it was good to see him get on the scoresheet with the assist. He's now up to five goal contributions in just seven starts since joining on loan.

Bentancur was also heavily involved in the buildup.

• We are still terrible at defending set pieces. Now that we've become so preoccupied with protecting Guglielmo Vicario in goal during corner kicks (since the officials won't), we've gotten into the habit of neglecting marking assignments elsewhere in the box. Enter: Kurt Zouma. The enemy of cats everywhere had an easy route to goal for a header, but ended up bundling it in off his back instead.

A ridiculous goal to concede, but nevertheless effective in equalizing the scoreline.

• The second half happened...

... I mean, there's more to it than that, but it was a pretty dull, scoreless half of football. We dominated possession but struggled with West Ham's mid-block defense.

And it still feels like we're too reliant on production from the wings—even if it's been effective at times in recent games. The midfield needs to get much more involved in general to add some variety to the attack and make us less predictable to the opposition. It seems notable that completely swapped out by the end of the last three games. Ange doesn't appear to have settled on his favored midfield trio yet, now that everyone is back (mostly) fit.

• And one more note on substitutions: in contrast to the last match, where Ange got the timing and personnel of the subs just right, the strategy was a bit muddled against West Ham. The changes came much later and didn't seem to prioritize the fitness levels in evidence on the pitch. How Son made it through the whole game without relief was beyond me. Although I suppose there is one theory—hoping Son could notch a goal on his career milestone night. Alas, not to be.

It would have been great to secure all three points since Aston Villa lost to Manchester City, but it's still in our hands—especially since they had a draw today with Brentford. Cheers to Sergio Reguilón' for his two assists for the Bees!

SAtP Player of the Match: Guglielmo Vicario

As usual in a close match, Vicario made the difference in salvaging a point. For his sake alone, we must get a better defensive set piece coach into the staff for next season (sorry, Mile).

Notable & quotable:

This is the big section this week, so buckle up!

• Johnson's 5th-minute goal was the first goal for the club in a first half since February 3. There were 12 straight second-half goals previously.

• Johnson's goal brings him up to 3rd in the squad for PL goal contributions this season, just one below Richarlison. I don't support the idea of pitting players against their transfer fees, however, he is doing a pretty decent job after all the discourse about him being a failed signing earlier in the season.

• Cristian Romero picked up just his first yellow card of the second half of the season. On a less positive note, Bentancur is on yellow card watch now with five.

• Our set piece goal difference is -4.97 on the season (h/t Scott). Yikes!

• This was our fourth draw in a London derby this season across all competitions (11 played).

• Ange on some of the less-than-stellar decision-making in the final third:

They are human beings, it is just football. I would love to have a joystick and put them where I want them, but it does not work like that. Our role is to try and help them through that.

• Son reached his 400th competitive appearance for Tottenham. Huge congratulations and love to Sonny!

The club has put out some very touching content (tissues at the ready for this video, you've been warned!) to celebrate the milestone, but my favorite might be this tribute from his longtime teammate and best friend, Ben Davies.

My mate Sonny, in 400 words, by Ben Davies

Tottenham Hotspur

Sonny’s a world-class player and, above all, a world-class person, and it’s been an absolute joy to get to know him on and off the pitch.

• And a follow-up to last issue's note that Giovani Lo Celso had reached his 100th appearance: he got a lovely commemorative photo to mark the occasion, presented by co-captain Cuti.

Previewing PL Matchday 31 — Nottingham Forest

This match has some interesting significance for two reasons:

• It'll be our first matchup against Nuno Espírito Santo since he took over at Nottingham Forest from Steve Cooper.
• Forest's late sale of Brennan Johnson to us in the summer led to their PSR issues and resultant points deduction.

Just what we need, another unnecessary grudge match when we already play a bazillion derbies every season!

And it's a good thing I don't believe in football math, because Forest's two most recent wins were a 3-1 against Fulham and a 2-0 against West Ham.

They won't have home-field advantage in our matchup at least. They've also had dreadful form outside of those two wins for most of this calendar year. Y'all know the saying... if Nuno is the answer, what was the question?

The only change in our injury situation is that Richarlison is being held out as a precaution to complete his rehab from a knee injury after featuring briefly as a sub in the West Ham game. Forest have a couple of players who are doubtful (most notably Taiwo Awoniyi) but otherwise have a pretty healthy squad.

It goes without saying that if we want to move closer to that 4th place spot and capitalize on Aston Villa dropping points once again, we need to be more clinical with finishing our chances in this game. Perhaps we can't expect any miracles when it comes to cleaning up our set piece defense this late in the season, but I would settle for simply giving up fewer of those opportunities to the opposition in the first place.

News from around the Lane

• The Men's away fixture against Chelsea has finally been rescheduled. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's going to come midweek between the home NLD and Liverpool away—that is, if the Arsenal fixture isn't also rescheduled due to their Champions League involvement. It pains me to say this as a Bayern Munich fan, but that possibility is looking more and more likely with how poorly Bayern have been playing.

• The Men's U21s are through to the semi-final of the Premier League Cup. I haven't been able to catch as many of the Academy games lately as I would have liked, but hopefully will be able to tune into this one and report back on the youngsters' progress since my last check-in.

• Plenty of Spurs Women players have been scoring on international break, but perhaps the most significant goal was Rosella Ayane's game-winner in the first leg of Morroco's playoff with Zambia for Olympic qualification. Hopefully she and the rest of the Atlas Lionesses can finish the job on Tuesday and secure that final spot in Group B with the US, Germany, and Australia.

• Big shoutout to friend-of-the-newsletter Sam Cornish for his incredible effort in raising money for the Tottenham Foodbank by taking Spurs fans' portraits in exchange for donations. Well done to everyone involved for showing up for the Tottenham community. Sports fandom can be a powerful thing.

• The club released its financial results for the previous reporting period, ending June 30, 2023. Look, I'm not a finance person. It was my least favorite course in business school (there's a fun fact about me...) and I can't say I retained much, so I don't have much to offer in the way of analysis. But I did appreciate this clip from Ange's latest press conference that puts things in perspective.

• This is not so much news, but definitely essential reading. Matt Hayes gathered together some truly stunning penalty-related statistics that show just how unlucky Tottenham has been over the years. Staggering stuff.

It's a late kickoff for the Nottingham Forest game, so maybe we can all convene on social media to enjoy another Ten Hag disasterclass beforehand. Either way, see y'all on the other side.

COYS

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