Ivan the Great

Kane's record-breaking goal secures a win against worrisome Wolves | Previewing newly-promoted Nottingham Forest | Reflections on the Women's Cup

(I am fully aware that I have used that title too early in the season and will regret it later on, but here we are, he's given me no choice!)

Well, I didn't get my wish for a more decisive scoreline than usual against Wolves, but we still got all three points.

Tottenham 1 - 0 Wolverhampton

I was thrilled to see Ivan Perišić named in the starting XI for the first time on Saturday, and he immediately made clear the quality and versatility he brings to the team. Otherwise, the lineup was unchanged from the Chelsea match, with the forewarned exception of Davinson Sánchez coming in for an injured Cristian Romero.

While Perišić had a strong performance for the entire duration of his shift (he didn't play the full 90, but put in 76 minutes of sustained excellence), most of the team took a while to get fully into the game; the old early-kickoff woes were back for another season, at least for this match. Also back, unfortunately, was the doomsday vibe on Spurs Twitter, but I personally wasn't too concerned. We lacked some cutting edge in the first half, but it was still an entertaining watch. I don't think people give Wolves enough credit most of the time, either. As the great Musa Okwonga would say, "they're no clowns."

Other than (or in conjunction with) Perišić's should-have-been Man of the Match performance, the big talking point is the effectiveness of new set piece coach Gianni Vio's tactics, which have been paying early dividends already this season. If you count Dier's headed goal coming in the aftermath of a corner kick in the first game, we have scored from a set piece in each of the first three PL games. It's also worth noting that Ivan has been involved in two out of three of those set piece goals, so besides what he brings to the squad in open play, his transfer was valuable from a set piece perspective alone.

However, I would like to take this opportunity to make my first impassioned defense of Son Heung-min for the 2022/23 season (y'all knew it was coming!). He got a lot of flack for taking some of the set pieces in this match over Perišić, but let's not forget that he assisted Dier for that cleaned-up corner kick goal against Southampton, and his corner kick was the pre-assist for Ivan's flick-on to Kane for the game-winning goal against Wolves. Sonny's own scoring efforts haven't quite been up to his usual standard yet, but he had kind of a slow start to the previous season as well, even as he carried the team through those initial Kane-less games. I always repeat this line, but I'll say it again:  even on an off-day, Son is better than most, and you have to keep him in and around the starting lineup. Plus, I'd rather have him standing over a direct free kick than Kane any day. The refreshing thing is that now we do have another formidable option for set pieces in Perišić. Depth is the name of the game.

I had predicted that set pieces would be important in this match since Wolves are usually tough to break down, which proved to be true. I would have liked to see Bissouma starting (or at least brought on much earlier, considering that Højbjerg picked up an early yellow card) to see him get more of a chance at adding some creativity to the midfield. The good thing is that Spurs have a higher likelihood of scoring at least once in these tricky matches than we did in recent seasons, thanks to the variety of attacking options we have now. As Ben Davies said in his post-match comments, "With the quality we've got up front, we always feel confident that we're going to get a goal."

I can't wrap up this match recap without mentioning that Harry Kane hit several goal-scoring milestones with his headed effort against Wolves, including:

• 250 total goals for Tottenham

• the outright record for most PL goals with a single team

• 4th place on the all-time PL goals leaderboard with 185, one goal ahead of Sergio Agüero and only two goals behind Andy Cole

Harry just needs to score 24 more PL goals this season to leapfrog Wayne Rooney, too, which is certainly feasible if he continues his current form. It'll take him at least a couple more seasons to reach the ultimate milestone of passing Alan Shearer's mark of 260 goals.

Another thing I appreciated from this match was the lively support from the home fans. I know there's been a concerted effort from the folks at THFCFlags to bolster the atmosphere with new flags and special tifos for key matches, and they've done a great job so far. Spurs Song Sheet are also trying to get some fresh chants and songs going for our fabulous new players, so check that out as well (looks like they have some away day meetups planned, too, if you're local!).

Spurs announced that they've already sold out the next five home matches (which included Wolves), and it's great to see there's so much excitement and belief around the team this early in the season.

Speaking of matchday attendance, Spurs had a notable guest for the Wolves match—the superior Ronaldo.

So all in all, a positive day at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Three matches into the season, we've already picked up seven points from fixtures (Southampton home, Chelsea away, and Wolves home) that we didn't get any points from last season. That sounds like "closing the gap" on the title chase to me.

Into the Forest

While Conte has a full week to prepare for the away fixture at Nottingham Forest, there is also a midweek match on the following Wednesday to keep in mind. Spurs have often struggled under Conte when midweek matches come into play, so this will be a big test of the pre-season preparations—as well as the reinforced squad depth post-summer transfer window. We'll surely need to see some level of rotation for the three matches coming up (West Ham is the midweek, followed by Fulham on the weekend), and I would expect Conte to prioritize having his best possible lineup for the West Ham match over the other two fixtures.

Still, Forest could present some problems, despite being a newly-promoted team. They have also had an eventful transfer window so far, making their last incoming transfer as recently as Friday. There will be some familiar names to regular watchers of the Premier League (Dean Henderson, Jesse Lingard, Neco Williams), the Bundesliga (Taiwo Awoniyi, Omar Richards, Moussa Niakhaté), and even the Championship (Emmanuel Dennis). Altogether, they've signed a whopping fifteen players so far, including loans. On the outgoing side of things, they've lost a few players to loans and will see Djed Spence, a player who was important to their promotion playoff run, on the opposing bench this time around. Getting a squad with so much turnover to click will be a big challenge for manager Steve Cooper, but he certainly has some talented players at his disposal to work with.

Although Forest lost on opening day at Newcastle, they have since managed a narrow 1-0 home win over West Ham and a draw away at Everton. I haven't had a chance to catch any of their matches yet myself, between all the traveling I did this past week, so I'm excited to get to watch them on Sunday and get an actual feel for their playing style.

Forest do have a midweek League Cup game to contend with, but as it's on Tuesday that gives them plenty of time to recover for the late weekend matchup with Spurs.

I wouldn't mind seeing Richarlison get a start for this match. I know I said earlier not to bench Son if at all possible, but he can't play every game, and this would be a good opportunity for Richarlison to get his first PL start for Spurs—and hopefully a debut goal. We haven't seen much of Matt Doherty yet since he returned from injury, so it wouldn't hurt to see him get some more minutes under his belt, too. Even Clément Lenglet would be a welcome addition to the starting XI in the spirit of rotation. I wish we could expect Skipp to be available for this one, but it sounds like his return is still a few games out. On the Forest side of things, Niakhaté is out with a minor hamstring injury and Richards is doubtful with a knock.

I fully expect Spurs to grab all three points from this fixture, and wouldn't be surprised if the scoreline is quite lopsided in our favor.

Reflecting on the Women's Cup

As I alluded to earlier about traveling, I am finally back home in Texas (and thankfully drove through Dallas just before the flash flooding started!) after attending the Women's Cup in Louisville to watch and cover Spurs Women.

It's hard to express just how special this past week was to me. Not only did I get to see the club I love playing in person for the first time, but I also got to meet a lot of friends I knew from the online Spurs community—which felt like reconnecting with family, to be honest. I was blown away by how friendly and welcoming the Louisville Spurs supporters group was to all of us visiting from out of town, and I really appreciate the hard work they put into organizing the fan events around the tournament.

I was also privileged to cover the tournament as a member of the press, something that still just feels wild to type out. It was a real "learn as you go" type of situation for me, but I'm so glad I got to have that experience. This was my first time covering a match from the press box, interviewing players post-match on the pitch, and conducting a Zoom interview with a player. Lots of firsts, but I am determined they won't be lasts! Huge thanks to everyone who supported me last week in this endeavor, with special mention to my N17 Women co-host Abbie, who joined me for the ride, and Jacob Cristobal, who helped me make connections at OL Reign to set up an interview with Bethany Balcer about her Spurs fandom. If someone from Spurs is somehow reading this, a million thanks for being so accommodating with access to the players and Rehanne!

In many ways it was a disorienting week, straddling that line between being a fan and wanting to cover the games as professionally as possible, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I'm especially glad to have gotten a firsthand glimpse of Spurs Women's new transfers ahead of the regular season. These pre-season tournament results might not have gone our way, but I have no doubt it will be a successful WSL season.

One final thanks to every Spurs Across the Pond reader who contributed to my Ko-fi fundraiser for the trip, you made this incredible experience possible for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

And as always,

COYS

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