Pickford's No Good Very Bad Day

In an ideal world, I would not have been moving cross country during the first week of the new Premier League season, but that's done now at least. Thanks for bearing with me not being able to do a match recap for the opening game; I'll touch on it briefly before going into more depth on the season's second matchup against Everton.

In this issue: Leicester City recap | Everton recap | Previewing Newcastle United | Transfer talk | News from around the Lane | Kit room | Pub chat

After drawing two likely relegation candidates for the first couple of PL games, we now have a much tougher test with Newcastle United away. I don't think I have to remind y'all how that fixture has gone the last two seasons...

Then there's some transfer news to wrap up (literally on the Men's side, with the window now closed), general clubs news tidbits, and the new third kit to review. I'm going to throw in some bonus pub chat, too.

At least if I was going to have a week to be hopelessly behind on the newsletter it happened before the Women's team started action. The new Women's Super League season kicks off in just over three weeks, so keep an eye out for a preview post soon. And unlike with the Men's transfer window, the Women's will officially close before the league begins, giving us a much better idea of what we'll have to work with for the season ahead.

All right, buckle up for an unintentional bumper issue.

PL Matchday 1 recap | Leicester City 1 - Tottenham 1

Vardy 57' | Porro 29'

Like I said, this is going to be a speed round recap. Let's start with the lineup for posterity, as always, a few key takeaways, and my player of the match. No notable & quotable this time because I neglected to save any quotes and the only real facts of note were the team/league debuts for a few players, included below in the takeaways section.

Starting XI:

With Yves Bissouma suspended, Rodrigo Bentancur got the start at the #6(ish) alongside Pape Sarr in the midfield. The only other real question mark for the lineup was who would start at striker, and sure enough, Dominic Solanke was trusted to make his debut straight away. Dejan Kulusevski was unfortunate to miss out after such a strong pre-season run of form.

On Leicester's side, the big shock was Jamie Vardy's miraculous recovery in time to start. I'm being sarcastic, obviously; we should expect nothing less from the PL's trickster-in-chief. And naturally, he would go on to score the Foxes' only goal.

Key takeaways:

• Unfortunately, Spurs only scored one goal as well—but not for lack of trying. There were ample chances on goal, several of which fell to the player literally getting his first minutes in a Spurs shirt (Solanke). Considering that he had barely trained with the squad and hadn't had time to build up partnerships with the rest of the forward line, that was an encouraging sign. As for the successfully converted chance, Pedro Porro scored a lovely header with a striker-esque run in the box to get on the end of James Maddison's looping cross. I'm hoping he'll be able to improve upon his tally of three goals from the previous season.

• Less encouraging is that the injury bug is already biting so early in the season. Solanke picked up a knock and won't be featuring again until after the international break (spoiler for the Newcastle preview, sorry), while Porro had an injury scare that thankfully didn't prove serious. Most concerning of all, Bentancur went down with a concussion and had to be stretchered off after extensive treatment on the pitch.

• Rusty conditioning was also a concern for some of the players who had a truncated pre-season due to injury or international team involvement. So add that to the sources of context around the result. Destiny Udogie and Micky van de Ven completed the full 90 but flagged noticeably in the second half.

• The less said about the Vardy goal, the better. The defense simply switched off, and I mean the entire defense—midfield included. As for Vardy himself, he's the personification of the Spurs/Leicester grudge. It's not quite a rivalry, but there's some bad blood for sure.

• On a positive note, both Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall came on to make their Premier League debuts, getting just over 10 minutes under their belts. They had almost the opposite of rust, both playing with a little too much eagerness and often canceling each other out in the midfield. But their entrance did provide a necessary spark to try to reclaim the lead in the late stages.

• I found the general fan response to this opening day draw to be quite overblown. Bentancur's serious head injury was a grim turning point in the game's momentum, albeit coming after Leicester's equalizer. This wasn't the first time I've felt Ange Postecoglou was too slow to make changes, nor will it be the last, but the substitutes did bring a fresh dimension to the game and we could have gone on to win it on another day. As we saw last season, starting things off with a draw away from home isn't the end of the world; in fact, it was the start of an unbeaten streak. Fingers crossed we continue to build from it as we did straight away in the next fixture.

SAtP Player of the Match: Dominic Solanke

Remember, this is my reward, I can give it to whomever I want to, stats be damned!

Honestly though, despite not getting on the scoresheet this was a very promising Spurs debut for Solanke. He was getting into all the right positions and forced one very good save from Leicester's keeper Mads Hermansen. The fact he was able to get on the end of so many chances without having built up basically any chemistry with his wingers and #10 was impressive. And he looks to be the perfect tactical fit for Angeball. Fingers crossed he comes back from his minor injury spell looking just as lively as he did against Leicester—and gets his first goal soon.

Honorable mentions go to Harry Winks for not scoring against his former team (cheers, Winksy) and James Maddison for a beautiful assist against his former team.

PL Matchday 2 recap | Tottenham 4 - 0 Everton

Bissouma 14', Son 25' • 77', Romero 71'

This was the kind of match you live for as a fan. Goal contributions from the captain and both co-captains, a memorable marking of a milestone, and a season highlights-worthy assist (from a centerback, no less!). Ange and the team were cooking!

And sure, this demolition happened to a depleted Everton side that is looking in real danger of finally going down, but it was a much-needed course correction after a frustrating draw against a Leicester side equally lacking in quality. Ange demanded a response from the playing squad and they were up to the task.

Starting XI:

Bentancur was unavailable due to concussion protocol and Ange gave us a bit of misdirection in his pre-match press conference, insisting that although Bissouma was available for selection there were "other options." But it turns out Ange was willing to give the midfielder a chance at redemption and he lined up in the midfield alongside Maddison and Kulusevski, with Sarr dropping to the bench. Son shifted into the central role in the forward line in place of Solanke while Wilson Odobert made his Spurs debut as a starter.

James Tarkowski did not end up missing out for Everton, but Jarrad Branthwaite did.

Key highlights & takeaways:

• Perhaps more shocking than Bissouma getting the start was that he scored his first-ever goal for Spurs. I've been pretty critical of his lack of goal contributions since he joined (and he has yet to register a PL assist). Although I hear the argument that scoring and assisting is not his primary responsibility in the #6 role, I still think Ange expects everyone short of the keeper to be a goal threat at some point (however, my soul would ascend if Vicario ever scored), whether from open play or on set pieces. Bissouma has gotten himself into plenty of scoring positions in the past, so I maintain that he's been underperforming in that regard. But whatever, good for him? He's still on probation—with me and with Ange, if his post-match comments about needing more "consistency" from Bissouma are anything to go by.

• Kulusevski was a big part of that goal, drawing several Everton defenders to him to free up space for Bissouma to receive his pass and shoot unimpeded. The Kulusevski/Maddison progressive double pivot worked very nicely and was an experiment I'd like for Ange to run again for further data points.

• Sonny also benefitted from the attacking midfield duo freeing him up to focus on his pressing game, to great effect. His years of experience playing against Jordan Pickford were also an asset. He caught out Everton's keeper for his first goal of the game, though likely would have been awarded a penalty attempt if he hadn't found the back of the net.

• Odobert was the other bright spot from the first half, providing a contrast to Brennan Johnson's stylistic approach on the other flank. But I was just as impressed with his defensive work rate as his attacking prowess, which we already knew to expect. Udogie still looks to be getting up to speed with his fitness this season and needed a couple of recoveries from Odobert to cover his tracks.

• Although Guglielmo Vicario earned his first clean sheet of the season, it wasn't without some strife. Set pieces continue to be a vulnerable point for the defense and there was a particularly frightening sequence just before halftime. That was the only time Everton truly looked like scoring, however.

• Also just before the break, Van de Ven suffered would looked to be a painful and potentially severe knee injury, and we all assumed he would be subbed off at halftime. Not only did he return, but he would go on to make an incredible box-to-box run to assist Son's second goal, the fourth for the team. It was not an easy finish for Son by any means, but he showed his typical class in slotting it away.

• Ange was quicker to act on substitutions this time, taking off Odobert and Kulusevski to introduce Richarlison and Sarr. This necessitated some shuffling of the forward line, with Son sliding over to the left wing, and the midfield taking on a more traditional shape. Archie Gray and Djed Spence followed not long after, and Lucas Bergvall came on as the last sub, making it back-to-back PL appearances for all three.

• Romero's first (and likely not last) goal of the season put the game to bed before Sonny's insurance goal, and it was significant because it came on his 100th appearance for the club. He combined with his fellow co-captain for the goal, scoring off Maddison's corner kick (his second assist of the campaign already).

• On that note, there was an interesting variety of goals in this game: one from a nicely worked move in open play, one from opportunistic pressing of the keeper, one from a set piece, and one from Micky being an absolute unit with no fear.

Overall, this was just the sort of bounce-back the team needed after the disappointment at Leicester. It's hard to think of a better confidence booster than six players getting in on the goal contributions, not to mention a clean sheet for the defense's morale—which could prove very important with our upcoming opponent in mind.

SAtP Player of the Match: Cristian Romero

As we have already established, this is my newsletter and my rules, so I'm giving it to Cuti on his milestone appearance.

He got his job done on both ends of the pitch, so you really can't ask for more.

Notable & quotable:

• Whereas the Leicester match will be remembered for inefficiency, the team overperformed their 2.43 xG against Everton. Our opponents in both matches had very similar xG of around 1 goal, but the defense kept focus and kept the clean sheet against the Toffees.

• Similar to the start of last season, we have more goals scored so far by the combined defense and midfield (three) than the forward line (two).

• Fun stat about Van de Ven's assist:

• I also appreciated this snapshot of play from Spurs' play-by-play commentator Rob Daly, which highlights just how fluid Angeball can be:

• The club recognized Ben Davies ahead of the game to celebrate his 10 years at the club—and counting!

• Son has now scored in 10 consecutive PL seasons. Not bad for a player who seems to have half the fanbase manifesting his downfall at any given moment!

• Ange praised Bissouma's "disciplined" performance after the game, but I think his full quote is worth sharing for context:

You know what it’s like when you punish your child and they do everything right for the next two days? He’s first in the meetings, he’s doing everything right but there’s always temptation down the road, so we’ll see. I’ve always believed in opportunity for redemption and learning. We’re still in that space at the moment with Biss.

But obviously that door closes after a while if there’s repeated [indiscretions]. He’s been good but I would have been surprised if he wasn’t. It’s always the key with Biss is consistency. The consistency of behavior, what he does… it’s not that he’s doing a lot of bad things.

Obviously the last transgression was very serious but it’s the little things along the way also. I think sometimes that manifests in his game where he’s really good and he’ll have a moment when he’s not. I think it all correlates. From our perspective, it’s about trying to continually guide him, but it’s up to him. He’s got to continue to try to be the best version of himself that he can possibly be.

I'm on the same wavelength as Ange—time to wait and see. But in the meantime, Bissouma's starting spot is far from guaranteed with Bentancur and Gray both competing for the position.

Previewing PL Matchday 3 — Newcastle United

No, I'm not looking forward to this game either. It's a horrid fixture, playing away at St. James' Park. And every season I try to find reasons to justify optimism that never pans out. Maybe this season I should just try to manifest survival?

But if we were open to feeling hope, what would be the lucky breaks we can (allegedly) count on? (I say allegedly because Jamie Vardy just proved you can't actually believe availability reports.)

Frequent annoyance Fabian Schär is suspended, so that's one bogey player down. Joelinton should have been suspended several games for violent conduct but somehow escaped a red card in their previous PL match. Jamaal Lascelles and Sven Botman are both out with ACL injuries, so we can feel legitimately secure about them not making the pitch on Sunday. Less certain, injury-wise, are Callum Wilson and Joe Willock. The latter scored in the 1st minute of Newcastle's League Cup win (albeit on penalties) over Nottingham Forest in the League Cup but had to sub off in the 15th minute with a thigh injury. Lewis Miley and Martin Dúbravka are also likely misses, although Nick Pope has long since supplanted Dúbravka in the net anyway.

Spurs' injury situation got a little worse, with Richarlison joining Solanke in the injured strikers camp; he's expected to be out for a few weeks, while Solanke will be back after the international break. Son put in a good shift at striker in the previous game, and then later at left winger, but we'll see where Ange chooses to deploy him in this match. Kulusevski is a reasonable option as a false 9, or we could opt for a wild card option of playing one of the wingers at striker; Timo Werner probably has the best skillset for such an adjustment, but he's not been in the best form to start the season. Unfortunately, we don't even have a youngster option for relief in the second half since Will Lanskhear is also out injured (not long-term, thankfully). Bentancur is available for selection again, so Ange has a big call to make for the #6 as well.

That's all I've got. Go ahead and light your prayer candles now to increase their potency on matchday.

Transfer talk

Let me run through these as quickly as I can, because frankly, the Men's transfer window is done and so am I done with it.

Transfers in

Psyche! There are none. The Men's team didn't make any surprise deadline-day signings, although there's a complicated situation going on with Johnny Cardoso that may or may not amount to anything in the future. Meanwhile, the Women's team still has half a month left to go in their transfer window and really need to get a hustle on signing another goalkeeper. Stay tuned.

Transfers out

• Oliver Skipp has departed for Leicester City on a permanent transfer. Heedless of the emotional turmoil that this might cause some of us, his loyal defenders, it was announced mere hours before our opening-day matchup against his new team. What a cruel sport. Farewell and good luck, Skippy!

• Jude Soonsup-Bell is signing with Spanish second-division side Córdoba CF. It's a good move for a player who had fallen down the pecking order of young forwards at the club.

• Ashley Phillips will be going out on another loan, this time to Stoke City. Can he do it on a cold, rainy night in Stoke? We are going to find out. Tottenham will seem like a breeze after that.

• Manor Solomon is going on loan to Leeds United as they aim to gain promotion back to the Premier League.

• George Abbott is heading on loan in League Two with Notts County. My only knowledge of them comes from watching Welcome to Wrexham, but there are probably worse clubs he could be gaining experience at.

• Giovani Lo Celso is leaving the club to sign with Real Betis. It's been... well, it's been something.

• From the Women's Academy ranks, Elkie Bowyer and Maia Lazaro are both joining Watford on a dual-registration loan (meaning they will still train with Spurs at times).

Best of luck to everyone who has moved on, and here's to fruitful loans for everyone else.

Contract updates

• Luca Gunter has signed a new contract with the club until 2029. He will continue to feature with the U21s.

• The other U21s goalkeeper, Josh Keeley, also signed a new contract (until 2027) but will be going on loan for the season at Leyton Orient alongside his Spurs teammate Jamie Donley.

News from around the Lane

• Spurs Men confirmed the Premier League squad numbers for the 2024/25 season, including numbers for the new transfers and one notable update: Pape Sarr is still wearing #29, but will have "P.M. Sarr" on the back for his official kit name.

• With the new "League Phase" of the Europa League, the Men's team got drawn to eight teams, four home and four away. I can't say I'm enthused about this new format, but the draw itself isn't too bad. The farthest away trip is Galatasaray in Turkiye; thankfully, the team from Azerbaijan is coming to us.

• Spurs Women got their group stage draw for the League Cup (formerly known as the Conti Cup), and it's not necessarily the easiest draw. Charlton Athletic gave us some trouble in last season's tournament, Crystal Palace are newly promoted but still a WSL team, and Aston Villa are a sleeping dragon that could awake at any time. There's always the possibility that Arsenal drops into our group again if they bomb out of the Champions League. That being said, our fixture against Arsenal last season was the most entertaining match of the group.

• I'm not going to go into depth on the most recent Spurs Women pre-season friendly (I mean, how can I when it wasn't streamed?), but you can read the latest match reports here. Clare Hunt got her first minutes in a Spurs shirt. The squad has also been in a training camp heavy on the team bonding.

• As for actual WSL fixtures, the club finally announced that three of them will be played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

• Arsenal - November 17
• Manchester United - February 2
• Chelsea - May 4

They sure picked the hard ones. If you're local, definitely take advantage of the ticket bundle—the team will need a lot of support for these matches.

• A few Spurs Women alumni notes:

• Grace Clinton won the PFA Young Player of the Year award. A trophy with Tottenham Hotspur on it, no less! Congrats to Grace, come back soon.
• Shelina Zadorsky officially signed with West Ham United after a successful loan in the second half of last season.
• Chioma Ubogagu is now playing with the newly formed USL Super League team Dallas Trinity FC and registered an assist in their inaugural game.

• There's an interesting interview with Robert Vilahamn out now on the Upfront pod. The big takeaways for me are that he will likely be relying on players already in the squad to replicate Grace Clinton's contributions, and he's prioritizing continuity over big squad shakeups this summer. Time will tell if that strategy proves successful—and how patient the fanbase will be as he attempts to build on the progress of last season.

• The club shared the full squad list for the Women's U21s team and also shared a match report from their first game, a 4-2 loss at Arsenal.

• The Men's U21s have had a tough start to their league campaign, losing their last two matches after an initial win on opening day. But they did pick up two valuable points in the EFL Trophy group stage with a penalty shootout win over Bristol Rovers, putting them top of the group so far.

Kit room

The final kit (unless the club goes rogue) of the new season is here, and it's certainly the most interesting of the trio.

2024/25 Third

There are far more pros than cons to this kit, for me. I am always in favor of a green shirt, the slightly retro badge looks great, and I like the three different colors of trim on the sleeves. I don't even mind the vertical Nike swoosh that much. The pattern I am kind of ambivalent about, but not in a bad way—you just wouldn't really get the nature references if you weren't told about them.

The cons are the silly collar (either commit to a full collar or leave it flat) and what appears to be a smaller neck opening than in the other kits this season. This is just something I'm personally sensitive to; I don't like to have things close to my neck unless it's a loose turtleneck or scarf. I worry this one would bother me. Hopefully, I can find a local soccer shop in my new area that has it in stock so I can try it on and see before buying. Because this is the one kit this season that I'm even somewhat tempted to get!

Cheers to Nike for not making this season a total wash in the kit department.

My grade: B+

Pub chat

This section is usually where I address the topic du jour or get something off my chest, and it's the latter situation this week.

I try not to get too worked up by the online Spurs fan community these days, because life is too short, but it does rankle me a bit that there's been so much negativity from the fanbase to start the season. This rant is mostly to do with the Men's team since the Women's team hasn't started their season yet, but there has been a fair amount of pessimism on that side, too (some of it fair, some of it not).

Personally, I'm not as down on the Men's transfer window as many folks are. We didn't know at the start of the summer that the #6 position would be feeling so tenuous (largely for off-the-pitch reasons) and that's one of the toughest positions to recruit properly for outside of goalkeeper. Speaking of goalkeepers, I do agree that we can't feel fully confident about any of our backup options, so fingers crossed Vicario continues his trend of rarely getting injured. But otherwise, I like the business the club did in this window. One of those key players (Bergvall) was technically brought in during a previous window, but we are just now getting to see his potential up close. I know it's easy to be cynical about Solanke after he got hurt in his very first game, but he won't be injured forever and will surely be a key contributor this season. And we picked up so many exciting young players that it's hard not to feel optimistic about the next few years.

And as I said before, I wasn't too stressed about the opening-day draw at Leicester. The season is going to have plenty of twists and turns, and if giving up two points in terrible rainy conditions away at a borderline grudge team ends up being one of the low points, I'm okay with that. We'll make up for it down the road, and there will be just as many surprisingly positive results. There always are. I know this image of Ange makes for a funny meme, but it doesn't have to set the tone for the season.

For me, the most important thing is that I'm enjoying watching Spurs these days. That wasn't always the case for too many seasons under Mourinho, Nuno, and Conte. I enjoy the style of play again, I enjoy rooting for players who are (mostly) likable, and I enjoy the tension of not knowing how the matches will play out. Sure, the ending of that Leicester game was bitter since we had played so well for large portions of the game, but it didn't ruin my weekend because the overall performance gave me hope for the season ahead.

And it always bears reminding that the other teams are trying their very best to win too, for their fans who really would love to see some goals and results for their own chosen team. Forgive me for being a bit kumbaya about it, but I'm still riding that post-Olympics spirit of friendship. Sure, we do have our "enemies," but at the end of the day, it's genuinely not that serious. Sports should be fun at least some of the time!

So with all that being said, here are three Spurs fanbase narratives I would happily eliminate from the discourse (if only I had that power!):

1. The anti-Brennan agenda. Please, let the young man live. He hasn't made it onto the scoresheet directly with a goal or assist yet this season (all two games of it so far), but he has been involved in positive moments in the buildup and is working his way into form. And to be frank, he never really got the credit he deserved for his contributions last season. Ange believes in this player and his development, and Ange is usually right about these things.
2. Injury doomerism. No, we aren't actually cursed. What we do have is a problem with bad luck, but that phenomenon is not exclusive to Spurs. Injuries are unfortunately an integral part of the athletic experience, and this squad will have to roll with the punches. There is no other option, short of assembling a (not so) super team as Chelsea have done (illegally) (allegedly). Truthfully, our squad is in a much better place to withstand injury absences than it has been in a long time, largely because Ange and the recruitment team have prioritized versatile players who can fill in at multiple positions. We are likely to see that squad-building strategy prove an asset many times this season.
3. Son needing to get on the scoresheet to ever be recognized as having a good game—and sometimes not even then. Similar notes to the Brennan situation, honestly, but it's even more galling in Son's case since the man has very little left to prove at this point of his career. He has been so consistent throughout his Spurs tenure in terms of season-on-season output, even if he may have the occasional goal drought—though such droughts never last long. I know I said earlier in the case of Bissouma that stats do matter, but putting up stats has never been a problem for Son; receiving recognition for those stats is the real issue. And on a basic level, it's frustrating to see a player who has shown such unwavering loyalty to the club constantly taken for granted by a vocal swath of the fanbase. I wonder at times what he could possibly due to earn their admiration... Win the Golden Boot? Captain the team when the homegrown hero left for greener pastures? Balance his commitment to the club with his national team ambitions? Take the stars of tomorrow under his wing as they settle in at the club? He's already doing all that and more. And he always shows up in a big way when people start to forget how important he is to Spurs. This tweet said it best:

I will leave y'all with this hilarious yet very helpful video pronunciation guide for the Men's squad.

And remember, we only have to play Newcastle away once a season... unless we draw them in a cup. Whoops. Forget I said that. And as ever,

COYS

Thank you for reading!

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