Groundhog Day Came Early

I think I speak for the whole fanbase when I say that I'm tired of thinking about Manchester City.

As if it wasn't enough that both the Men's and Women's teams had to play the blue side of Manchester this past weekend, the Women's side will have to face City for a third time this season (just as the Men's team did) after drawing them in the Conti Cup quarter-finals. The calculus is a little different on the Men's side, where key absences reduced our ability to compete directly with City's squad, but on the Women's side, there is still a clear gulf between the two squads. It makes for a frustrating matchup no matter what competition it's in, home or away. At least we saw some progress in the most recent WSL matchup—although anything would be an improvement over the previous 7-0 blowout.

On a positive note, the Women's team did have a successful final game in the Conti Cup group stage midweek before the disappointment against City in the league. The win against Southampton put us in the draw for the quarter-finals as we avoided the drama surrounding Aston Villa's rule breach.

Despite a tough weekend of results and the threat of another trophyless season across the club, the mood is still positive because of the overall progress being made. Plenty of valuable lessons were learned over the last week and the Vilahamn and Postecoglou projects are still firmly on track.

In this issue: Southampton recap | City Men recap | City Women recap | Previewing Brentford | News from around the Lane

I'm going to keep my recaps of all three of the most recent Spurs games brief in the interest of time (the Men's team is back in action in less than 24 hours), focusing on key highlights and takeaways. Then, I'll preview the Men's match against Brentford and round up a few news tidbits.

League Cup — Group Stage Matchday 4 recap | Southampton 0 - 3 Tottenham

Petzelberger 29', Grant 67', Clinton 78'

In a three-game matchweek, you ideally want a fixture like this one in the middle: a lower-division opponent in a cup competition. It did end up being a pretty straightforward win, thankfully, allowing us to bypass all of the controversy around Aston Villa's fielding of an ineligible player by finishing free and clear as the best second-place team on points per game. Phew!

Starting XI:

There was plenty of rotation from the West Ham game. Amanda Nildén made her Spurs debut with her first start, while Matilda Vinberg also made her first start. It was notable that Becky Spencer was between the sticks after not making the matchday squad at all for the previous league game. It suggests there truly is a changing of the guard at the goalkeeper position and we're more likely to see her in cup games from now on. Otherwise, there weren't any real surprises to the lineup considering the outstanding injury and fitness management concerns.

Key highlights & takeaways:

• Both keepers had their crossbars rattled by near-misses in the first half. Our chance came when Jess Naz linked up with Nildén for almost her first involvement to take out two Southampton players and cross the ball to Ramona Petzelberger, who found Martha Thomas in the box for a header that just glanced off the frame of the goal.

• Petzelberger opened the scoring with her first goal for Spurs (yes, really) just before the half-hour mark. Her rebound of a blocked free kick took a heavy deflection before going into the net, but they all count!

• Grant also scored her first Spurs goal as she capitalized on an errant corner kick from close range.

• Grace Clinton made an impact off the bench with her third goal in two games, a stunning strike from a tricky angle. This goal was created by three substitutes in total, as Ellie Brazil made a smart flicked-on header to find Beth England for the assist to Clinton.

• Ash Neville got some much-needed rest, having featured in every WSL game so far, and didn't come off the bench. Eveliina Summanen and Olga Ahtinen were likewise allowed to watch from the bench as they are both freshly returned from injury layoffs.

SAtP Player of the Match: Charli Grant

The young Aussie got it done on both ends of the pitch, showcasing her range as a fullback. And of course she would celebrate her first goal in lilywhite with enthusiasm, but I suspect we'll see similar jubilation every time she finds the back of the net. That's just her personality. I'm glad we get to develop her talent and not the likes of Arsenal or Manchester City!

Notable and quotable:

• This was Spencer's first clean sheet of the season. She had a strong game overall, particularly with her distribution.

• Grant on scoring her first Spurs goal:

It was a special feeling to score my first goal for the Club, it doesn’t happen often though, so I was very excited for that to go into the back of the net. I think when you score a goal for a new team, that’s when you really feel part of the squad.

We have been working on set pieces, so to score from one of those was great as we worked hard on them heading into the game.

• We ended with the best goal difference in Group D, which I will just remind everyone contained Arsenal as well. Ahem.

• We have now made it into the knockouts for the third season in a row.

We were drawn to host Manchester City in the quarter-finals on February 7 or 8 (fixture details still TBD). Obviously, this was not a favorable draw for us when both Arsenal and Chelsea drew Championship opponents and the team that really should have been disqualified altogether (if the FA was following precedent), Aston Villa, drew 10th-place Brighton. But it is what it is. We do have two games worth of experience playing City this season already, so you never know... but it's looking like the FA Cup is the easier route to a trophy for now. We'll be playing the next round in that competition not this weekend but next, against Charlton Athletic at home, after the Conti Cup quarter-final midweek. Hopefully our hopes will still be alive in at least one cup when all is said and done.

FA Cup Round 4 recap | Tottenham 0 - 1 Manchester City

Aké 88'

This is one that I really don't want to dwell on. Even though Manchester City weren't able to field as strong of a team as rumored, it was still a very capable squad and we were without key players of our own. Both sides had a key midfield substitution in their pocket (James Maddison for us, Kevin de Bruyne for them) but of varying fitness levels and therefore impact. And in the end, it went down just like the last cup matchup between us and City—they got a dodgy goal while we never looked like scoring, and that was that.

Starting XI:

The only real question was who would partner with Rodrigo Bentancur in the midfield, and ultimately Ange went with Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Dejan Kulusevski in the more advanced role. If it were me, I would have opted for Oliver Skipp over Højbjerg, but I am a known Skippy apologist. It also doesn't help that Giovani Lo Celso wasn't available for the playmaker role, which would have freed Kulusevski up to play on the right wing. I don't feel as down on Brennan Johnson as many in the fanbase do, but I probably would have benched him for this important cup game—for the team's sake and for the sake of his confidence. We have to cut him some slack since he's still young and fairly new to the team.

There was some intrigue on the bench, with Maddison finally back in the matchday squad as well as Ben Davies and Dane Scarlett. Yago Santiago was the designated youngster to fill out the bench, bless him. (Side note: Alejo Véliz is kicking a ball already! It'll be good to see him back in the squad after his injury rehab is complete.)

Key highlights & takeaways:

• This was perhaps the worst performance from our fullbacks all season, unfortunately—not that the rest of the players covered themselves in glory.

• I don't want to feel as frustrated about Højbjerg as I do since we can all see he's not long for Ange's squad (though it's looking like his exit will be in the summer and not this January now), but his lack of consistency is a real bummer in situations like this where we have limited options to begin with. If there had been a clinical forward on the end of the few well-executed passes he made, like Sonny, the poor passes probably wouldn't have stood out so much.

• Bentancur didn't make much difference either, and when Maddison finally made his return from injury he looked super rusty. It wouldn't have been realistic to expect him to be a game-changer in this match, but at least he got some minutes in his legs ahead of the return to league action.

• Rúben Dias may or may not have fouled Guglielmo Vicario as Nathan Aké headed home City's sole goal of the match just before stoppage time. It really just depends on what mood the referees are in, seemingly. When do goalkeepers get protected and when do they get thrown under the bus (Dias is the bus in this metaphor)? Search me.

Seriously though, my opinion is that it was a foul because Dias impedes Vicario from getting up to attempt a save, and from an offside position no less. I can't believe we had the debate about offside keepers interfering with goalkeepers last week around the Women's game at West Ham and somehow it's being overlooked in this conversation. For me, it's less about the nature of Dias' contact and the position where it occurs.

• But it's an extremely moot point at the end of the day because again: we did not look like we would ever score a goal. We only had one shot on target, in fact. I don't think you can say we deserved to lose the game the way we did, but we also didn't deserve to win it. A painful replay at the Etihad might have been the fairest outcome but now we can at least put full focus on the league.

SAtP Player of the Match: Micky van de Ven

Although he looked tentative in his first couple of games back from injury, he was back to his best in this match. Most relievingly, his pace doesn't seem to have suffered post-recovery of a significant hamstring issue.

Notable and quotable:

• Skipp reached his centurion with 100 appearances in a Spurs shirt. Congrats to one of our own for this huge milestone! I wish it could have been celebrated alongside a win.

• A nice quote from Ange about how the team has been dealing with their captain's absence:

There is a void because you're missing one of your leaders, but for me, on the outside [of the dressing room], you're kind of waiting on, 'is anyone going to step up here? Because we're going to need someone to, or do I need to interject myself into it', but [Romero's] stepped up.
There's been others too, Vic in goal, he's stepped up. There's a really good feeling amongst the group at the moment over where they're at. They understand that because of what we've been through. 'OK, somebody's missing, man down, but somebody fills that void and we keep going until they come back'. I think it's been good for the growth of the team.

• Ange (from the pre-game conference) on keeping perspective amidst hopes of ending the trophy drought:

...I’ve said before that can’t chart my course of what I want to build here. I want to build a team that brings success and challenges for trophies every year, because while one trophy will satisfy that thirst, which I understand, if the following year we struggle and fall back to mediocrity then it will quickly get forgotten and that’s not what this club is about.

My goal when I was brought in was to take this club to be a club which competes for honours every year and that’s what I’m focused on.

WSL Matchday 12 recap | Tottenham 0 - 2 Manchester City

Turner (OG) 9', Shaw 51'

Hey, it wasn't as bad as the reverse fixture! Let's count this result as progress.

The simple truth is that Manchester City have a huge advantage over us in the squad depth department—and also the starting XI department, frankly. But we squandered some pretty strong defense overall with a couple of bad errors and that ended up being the difference on the day.

Starting XI:

Barbora Votíková was back in goal but the defense was the same from the midweek cup game. Amanda Nildén made her WSL debut and Charli Grant got her first league start as well.

The Finnish midfield pivot returned after a rest and the forward line was as could be expected. It's worth noting that Martha Thomas is still looking a little off the pace after her recent injury and she and Grace Clinton both exited the match early with knocks.

Shuang Wang was on the bench for the first time and would end up making her debut later in the game. Luana Bühler also made the bench after missing a few matches but did not see any game time.

Key highlights & takeaways:

• Votíková made a huge save on a City free kick early on in the game. It's the hope that kills you, as they say, and that save gave me hope that maybe we could get something out of this game.

• I jinxed it by pointing out in my mid-season review that we hadn't scored any own goals yet. Enter: Amy Turner. I'm genuinely not sure how the ball ended up in the back of our net in this situation so I'm just going to chalk it up to pure bad luck/possibly a curse.

• However, Turner didn't do great on City's second goal either. You just can't give Bunny Shaw space to shoot. I think Votíková should have been able to save Shaw's shot though, so the blame is shared.

• Jess Naz had some promising moments off the bench, but the biggest bright spot of the second half was Wang's debut. She was super proactive in winning possession and always looking for the progressive pass. She also showcased some of her physicality, which was great to see since she's coming off an injury and could have reasonably been expected to be a bit more reluctant to go in for challenges full-throated. I'm excited to see more of her—especially in the playmaker role.

SAtP Player of the Match: Molly Bartrip

Not only was Bartrip a huge reason that the scoreline didn't get ugly, but I was proud of her for improving so much on her performance from the reverse fixture. She always leads by example and that's why she's a vice-captain for the squad.

Notable and quotable:

• All four January signings have now made their debut.

• We remain in 6th place despite the loss.

• In the pre-game press conference, Robert Vilahamn reflected on the progress the team has been making over the course of the season so far:

I think when you believe in something very much and you sort of know it’s going to work, but no one else knows, it’s kind of nice to show it actually works. But it also makes me proud to see the players enjoy it so much, they really want to do this, they really want to play this style of football.

It's also very interesting because we see the potential now, but we have only worked together for five months and we already look good together, so imagine one more year with this way that we play.

He also noted that the entire club is working together toward the same goal:

We are doing good stuff here, the Club are doing good stuff from all the way up to the board and down to us, everybody is on it and we are going to do it together. But, with building an identity, you need to build the right stuff in that and that is attacking football, so that’s what we are doing now.

Previewing PL Matchday 22 — Brentford

This will be an interesting matchup since the reverse fixture happened on opening day. We have definitely strengthened since then in terms of learning Ange's tactics and developing players, but we're also missing some key ones—and Brentford have Ivan Toney back from suspension.

All of Brentford's players out on international duty are still in their respective regional tournaments. While Son Heung-min and Yves Bissouma's countries are still competing, Pape Sarr's Senegal have been eliminated and he will be heading back to Spurs. I can't imagine he will play on such short rest, but we should see him in the weekend game against Everton.

Otherwise, our injury situation is the same as before. Brentford have some key players out injured right now, including Bryan Mbeumo (our old nemesis) and Rico Henry. Kevin Schade and Aaron Hickey are questionable.

Brentford have been having a pretty dreadful season compared to their recent standard and are just two points above the relegation zone—though they do have a game in hand. They won their last match against Nottingham Forest but hadn't won a game since the first week of December before that.

Having Micky van de Ven back at full speed will help with Brentford's counter-attacks, but we'll have to find a solution for their dense defense in our own offense. James Maddison being able to start would be very, very helpful in that regard. We'll see if he's fit enough.

We can go up into 4th place with a win since Aston Villa lost to Newcastle yesterday.

News from around the Lane

• Son Heung-min scored the first penalty in South Korea's penalty shootout win over Saudi Arabia in the Asian Cup. They now face Australia in the quarter-finals on February 2.

• Yves Bissouma was an unused substitute in Mali's 2-1 win over Burkina Faso in the AFCON Round of 16. They face hosts Ivory Coast on February 3 in the quarter-finals.

• The Men's U21s still have a perfect record in the PL2, with 11 wins in 11. Their latest result in the league was a comeback 5-3 win, but they also just advanced in the PL Cup yesterday. Will Lankshear has been a standout player of late.

• Spurs Women have the 10th largest revenue amongst European women's teams.

I'll be back later this week to recap the Brentford game and wrap up the transfer windows (Women's ends today, Men's tomorrow). Both teams' transfer business is probably already done, barring any surprise deadline-day signings, but it'll still be good to reflect on how the winter signings are getting on so far.

Until then,

COYS

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