Gaupset Sparks a Goalfest
I swear that it feels like twice as many days as usual have passed since the last issue because the Olympics seem to make time slow down. I went entire days this week without thinking about football at all! But now with the Games officially closing today, it's time to lock back in to Tottenham Hotspur at a pivotal time for both teams, though with very different stakes in play.
After a thrilling 3-7 away win at Aston Villa in the Women's Super League, Spurs Women get back to the FA Cup campaign with an intriguing matchup at London City Lionesses. With such a dominant attacking display last week, it's hard not to dream about going on another cup run to Wembley. But that doesn't mean that Martin Ho and the team will be willing to give up any ground in league play since we're still in the mix to improve on our best-ever table finish in the top flight.
Spurs Men's situation is a completely different story. They're still alive in the Champions League after a surprisingly strong league phase, but there's a very real danger of dropping into the relegation zone in the Premier League if new interim manager Igor Tudor can't right the ship. With a few of the medium-term injuries set to return to the squad soon, there's some hope of being able to catch a new-manager bounce, but the short-term schedule isn't going to be kind to us. We have a run of three London derbies coming up to begin Tudor's tenure—starting with the most dreaded one of all, the NLD.
In this issue: Aston Villa recap | News from around the Lane | Pub chat
There's a handful of club news to round up, including the announcement of Tudor's coaching staff, and then I have a podcast-centric edition of pub chat to close out the issue.
WSL MD 16 | Aston Villa 3 - 7 Tottenham
Hanson 16' • 80', Jean-François 68' | Gaupset 10', England 19', Holdt 26', Tandberg 69' • 82', Hamano 72', Blakstad 85'
That's, uh, a lot of goals, to put it mildly.
It does feel like this flood of goals was a long time coming for Spurs, who have looked competent in the attack all season under Martin Ho's new management, but particularly so since the addition of the January transfers mid-season. We've reliably put together promising chances on goal but were still lacking efficiency until this game—although we still left several big chances unconverted, despite what the lopsided scoreline would have you believe. But let's not be churlish after a four-goal margin win, right?
The fact that Beth England scored the least remarkable of the seven goals shows that we've moved past relying on her as our sole consistent goal threat. If I had to narrow it down to one player who scored the most "clutch" goals to secure the win, it would have to be England's understudy, Cathinka Tandberg. Both times in the second half, when Aston Villa looked poised to build up momentum and get back into the game with a goal, Tandberg answered with two emphatic finishes to protect the three points for Spurs. Oh, and she completed her brace from off the bench, scoring her first goal just two minutes after coming onto the pitch.
I know Tinka always cites Harry Kane as her football idol, but I personally hope she emulates another Spurs legend, Son Heung-min, in playing for the club until she has helped win a trophy—at least one! Regardless, the fact that she's so openly loyal to the club is a beautiful thing to witness as a fan, not to mention how exhilarating she already is to watch in her debut season.
Spurs spread the love for the other five goals, including three players scoring their first goals for the club. Signe Gaupset kicked things off with an early goal in the 10th minute, followed by two more first-half goals from the aforementioned England and Olivia Holdt to enter halftime with a 1-3 lead. Maika Hamano scored her first goal for her loan club (it really is important that I continue to emphasize this, because I know if I'm already at risk of falling in love with this loan player, surely many of y'all are too) with a cheeky run that evaded Villa's offside trap by starting ahead of the halfway line. The last player to get her first Spurs goal was Julie Blakstad, who had started the game in the winger position once again, but had moved back to fullback by the time she scored, and it was off a set piece besides. That doesn't diminish the quality of her headed finish, which made it one of my favorite goals of the game.
All of the substitutes put in a great shift, but Lenna Gunning-Williams in particular is building a strong case for additional minutes while Maika Hamano is away at the Asian Cup next month. On that note, it was also good to see Molly Bartrip get some gametime since she will be a de facto starter during that period with Clare Hunt and Tōko Koga both confirmed to be at the regional tournament.
We're still showing some defensive vulnerabilities, which was the one downside of the game. But one of the goal concessions was a pure mistake, just a rare poor choice of pass out from the back from Lize Kop. The other two were symptomatic of the issues we've had dealing with teams attacking in transition, exacerbated by Hanna Wijk still being new to the backline and needing to acclimate her positioning.
I have to say, games like this sure do make the now-typical 6:00 am CT kickoff a lot easier to bear. I was glad I didn't miss a moment of this one!
The win brought us back level on points with Arsenal, though they now have two games in hand thanks to a waterlogged pitch postponement for their game at Brighton. There's still too much of a goal difference disparity for the points tie to matter, but we did make some progress in that regard and are back in the positive for GD. Thanks to the FA Cup matchweek and upcoming international break, however, we won't be back in league play until March 15, so we'll stand pat in 5th for a while.
Notable & quotable:
• There were six distinct goal-scorers and five distinct assisters.
• There were four players with a goal and an assist (Julie Blakstad, Signe Gaupset, Olivia Holdt, and Maika Hamano).
• Cathinka Tandberg scored her first brace for the club.
• Matilda Vinberg, Hamano, Blakstad, and Gaupset all registered their first WSL assists of the season.
• Holdt still leads the team in WSL goal involvements, but Tandberg is only one behind, and England is two behind.
• This game’s goals accounted for just over a quarter of our goals total this season.
• The team's goal difference went from -2 to +2.
• This was the fourth time we’ve given up three or more goals this season.
• We've now gone four WSL games without a clean sheet.
• We only gained one point from Aston Villa last season; this season, we have done the league double on them.
• Spurs Women have the same current league points total as Spurs Men (h/t Kirsty) in 10 fewer games played; the Men's team has already played more games than the Women’s team does in their entire season.
• We have equalled our best-ever win tally in a WSL season from 2021/22 with nine wins; there are six games left to go, only three of which are against top 4 teams. One more win would also see us equal our best-ever points tally for a WSL season.
• Martin Ho reflected on the productive output of the team:
We've been speaking about having a more ruthless edge with the ball in front of goal because we're creating chances... I'm just glad for the players because I challenged them before this game and I said to them, they need to start being more clinical in front of goal. We've got forwards that can do that, but we're not doing it, and that might seem like too much pressure for some players, but it's actually just the belief that we have in them that we know they can finish. If we don't shoot, we won't score from it.
He also added that the players would be "disappointed probably as a group because they want to score more." Ruthless, indeed!
• Cathinka Tandberg always says what's on her mind, expressing how nice it was to get back to scoring after an injury layoff:
I'm a striker so all I want to do is score goals and I think this was good for me. I've been waiting for this, being injured is, of course, boring, but coming back and scoring goals is what I love, so it's good to be back with the team and getting three points.
News from around the Lane
• The club announced details for 2026/27 season tickets, including a price freeze for both Men's and Women's fixtures.
• Les Ferdinand was inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame.
• After Tōko Koga and Maika Hamano were previously confirmed for Japan's squad for the Women's Asian Cup, Clare Hunt was also confirmed for Australia's squad. See here for a schedule of all the group stage games for the trio.
• Spurs Men's new interim manager, Igor Tudor, gave his first comments since taking charge.
Of course, I'm coming here knowing the situation. There is no time to find excuses. What I said from the first day here, each of us, each of the players, needs to give something, something more, something extra, because the position of the Club in this moment is not [one] that anybody can accept - every fan of Tottenham cannot accept the situation. We are aware of that, but it's not enough to just be aware of that.
He also acknowledged the need to work around the constraints of the current injury crisis in the playing squad.
The situation is not easy because, as you know better than me, we have a lot of injured players, so, we need first to find the best system that suits the players that are available at this moment.
• Tudor's coaching staff has been announced. Bruno Saltor (Assistant Coach), Tomislav Rogic (Goalkeeping Coach), and Riccardo Ragnacci (Physical Coach) join the holdovers from Thomas Frank's coaching staff (Andreas Georgson, Cameron Campbell, Fabian Otte, Stuart Lewis, and Dean Brill). Justin Cochrane, John Heitinga, and Chris Haslam were confirmed to have left the club alongside Frank's departure.
Pub chat: Podcast corner
• Gareth Dace, whose podcast Is Gascoigne Going to Have a Crack? covers Spurs history from the 90s era, was kind enough to put his latest interview episode on my radar.
In the episode, he interviews two of the original players of Spurs Women, back when they were just formed and called Broxbourne Ladies. Tracy Ryan and Denise Amasanti recount the early days of the team and reflect on how the women's football landscape has—and has not—changed in England.
Although it's been great to see the original players celebrated during the 40th anniversary of the team this season, I was astounded to hear that they had to pay their own way to attend the FA Cup final at Wembley two years ago. I know that for most Spurs Women fans, it's a point of pride that the team worked its way up the pyramid from humble beginnings to get to the point it's at today, so the club should be doing more to properly lift up the pioneers of the team and keep them connected with the current team.
I also think it's disappointing that Spurs Men players were previously such strong advocates for the developing Women's team (particularly Gary Mabbutt), whereas today we hardly ever see any notable support from the current Men's squad or even the more recent alumni. Ledley King is the only former player who really stands out in my mind as having been a visible supporter, and that's only because I literally met him in Louisville when he came along with Spurs Women to the States for a pre-season friendly tournament in 2022. The "one club" motto is lacking in follow-through in this regard.
It was interesting to hear how Tracy and Denise perceived the pathway into the England national team as being opaque and unnecessarily narrow, excluding a lot of talented players in their time. Today's Spurs fans will find that a familiar tale; how many times did we lament Ashleigh Neville being passed over for Lionesses consideration because her career path to the WSL was less conventional? Plus ça change...
• For the latest on the current iteration of our Women's team, make sure you check out the February edition of the monthly Spurs Women deep dive from Hometown Glory.
I particularly appreciated the conversation around the disappointing attendance at the most recent match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. I thoroughly agree on the areas of opportunity they identified for the club's marketing team (hopefully someone is listening, eh?):
- Focus on the actual football—which is really great at the moment!
- Cater to the core audience for matchday experience, not just families with young children
- Don't neglect promotion for the Brisbane Road games
I also think the club is really missing a trick by not having a presence on Bluesky. Since the site formerly known as Twitter is becoming an increasingly unsafe platform for women to be on—as highlighted here by my N17 Women co-host Rachel—a large portion of the Women's team fanbase has migrated to Bluesky. Meet fans where they're at.
Not a podcast, but this article by Charlotte Harpur at The Athletic is a good primer on the risks WSL clubs face by staying on Twitter.
Charlotte Harpur
• As if we needed another reminder of how hostile football fan spaces can be for women, I was appalled to hear about a popular Spurs podcast making frequent jokes about domestic abuse. I was almost speechless when I read about two different examples my Bluesky mutual Hannah noted from recent episodes of The Fighting Cock, only to grow more alarmed when she mentioned another such instance from this week. I've never listened to that podcast myself, but I'm aware that it's one of the most popular ones in the Tottenham fanbase. I appreciate Hannah calling them out explicitly because comments like that are in no way okay and should not be excused as mere banter. Making light of domestic abuse is a major red flag.
One of the reasons I originally got into podcasting about Spurs was feeling constantly frustrated at how obvious some podcasts made it that women were not part of their intended audience, and wanting to provide an alternative. These disturbing examples from TFC are some of the more egregious, but it all adds up to making women fans feel less welcome and less safe in football fandom. There's not much else to say, and I hope that if you listen to that podcast, you reconsider on behalf of all the women who would love to be able to participate in Spurs discourse without constantly being reminded of what a terrible world we live in.
Up next:
February 22 | Spurs Men vs Arsenal
Team news — Dominic Solanke recovered from a throat issue and was able to train, and will be available for selection; Cristian Romero is still suspended; no other changes to availability.
February 23 | Spurs Women @ London City Lionesses
Team news — Charli Grant is available for selection; Drew Spence will be serving the final game of her three-match suspension.
Spurs Men will have a familiar face as a special guest for the NLD—Dele. Hopefully he brings good luck to the lads!
COYS
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