Poised for Pressure

This week kind of got away from me, so it's a quick late edition of the newsletter today.

The matchday is also feeling a little delayed, with Spurs Women playing on Sunday as usual, but Spurs Men not kicking off until Monday. The latter have been under a lot of pressure since the beginning of the season, but the Women's team are looking to bounce back after their first bad result of the campaign prior to the international break.

Chelsea away is not the easiest of fixtures for this scenario, but we have tended to perform well against them in recent seasons—we've just never managed to turn those good performances into a result. Chelsea remain the only top 4 team that we have yet to gain a single point against in our Women's Super League history.

But first, the Men's team find themselves in a must-win situation against newly promoted Coventry City. They are still without a single win this season in the Premier League. And unfortunately, Coventry are coming off a big morale boost since they secured their first two PL wins of the season in back-to-back matchdays, including a big 4-1 result against Newcastle United.

In this issue: Manchester United recap | News from around the Lane

Let's briefly look back at Spurs Men's latest draw against Manchester United (and the red card drama), then wrap things up with some club news and a look ahead to the upcoming games.

PL MD 6 | Manchester United 1 - 1 Tottenham

Mbeumo 73' | Solanke 90+2'

As is often the case against United, we outplayed them but failed to take all three points at Old Trafford. At some point, these statistically superior performances need to start translating into actual wins, or RDZ might actually land in the hot seat.

I think a lot of us kind of side-eyed the starting lineup, particularly Mateus Fernandes remaining on the bench, as well as captain Micky van de Ven not making the XI despite being declared fit after his international break injury scare. Dominic Solanke was also sensed to be playing on borrowed time with Omar Marmoush waiting on the sideline. It was also curious that Solanke was wearing the captain's armband despite not being in the designated leadership group.

To the credit of these players, they did not show any signs of post-international break rust and put in a very positive attacking display—minus an actual goal. That wouldn't come until second-half stoppage time, as Solanke finally scored his first league goal of the season, relieving some of the personal pressure on the striker.

But before that late point-saver, Spurs suffered a double whammy of disappointment. Bryan Mbeumo scored his obligatory goal against Spurs, and then, just a few minutes later, Rodrigo Bentancur was sent off for violent conduct after barely (and I mean barely) making contact with Luke Shaw's head. Shaw, it should be noted, had roughly pushed Bentancur into the advertising hoardings with a stiff two-arm shove and somehow got away with not being sent off himself. As my hometown team's commentator always says, it was "not a soccer play," with Shaw seeking retribution after the ball had already gone out of touch.

Ironically, going down to ten players seemed to motivate the group to push for the equalizer and they were able to prevent conceding another goal. I am on record as not being much of a fan of Bentancur, so I'm not going to lament him being suspended for several games. Nevertheless, RDZ's defense of Bentancur after the game did not sit right with me, as I don't think this is a Spurs team that can afford to make a habit of indiscipline, regardless of the outcome.

Plus, I thought we had all agreed after the World Cup incident with Luis Rubiales that officials, coaches, and anyone else in positions of authority should not be kissing players, period. I don't think "passion" is a valid excuse to be crossing that boundary.

With the draw, Spurs avoided being dead last again in the PL table. But the longer the winless streak in the league continues, the sooner we may have to contend with the reality of being in a relegation battle again.

Notable & quotable:

• Dominic Solanke's strike was his first goal in the Premier League since March 5 against Crystal Palace.

• Solanke was very pleased about being given the captain's armband for such a contentious game:

That was a great moment for me, a moment I’ll remember forever, to be honest, captaining this great club at Old Trafford. Yeah, that’s not bad, is it?

• Sandro Tonali registered his first PL goal contribution for Spurs with his assist for Solanke.

• Mohammed Kudus made his first PL start of the season.

• Both starting lineups had three yellow cards apiece in what was a very physical game.

News from around the Lane

• If you'd like to catch up on all the highlights from the women's international break, including which nations progressed in the UEFA World Cup qualifying playoffs, I would recommend checking out Spurs' live blog in full. But the highlights included a worldie goal from Olivia Holdt, a hat trick for Victoria Pelova, the first minutes for Lenna Gunning-Williams since recovering from her operation over the summer, and first international goals for Academy players Rania Oukriss (England U19s) and Eloise Summers-Mee (Scotland U19s). I kind of wish Shekiera Martinez had not been called up to the Germany squad at the last minute since she didn't end up playing and probably could have used the training time with Spurs, but alas.

• Oliver Irow, on loan at Plymouth Argyle, won the League One Goal of the Month award for September.

• The club announced a series of initiatives to celebrate Black History Month, including a special stadium tour and honoring the First Black XI players for the Men's team and trailblazers for the Women's team.

Up next:

October 18 | Spurs Women @ Chelsea
Team news — Olga Ahtinen has been sidelined with a knock and will miss at least this game, possibly more; other players are being assessed after returning from international break, so there could be more absences

October 19 | Spurs Men vs Coventry City
Team news — Rodrigo Bentancur will be serving the first game of his three-match suspension for a red card; other team news not available at time of writing

On a side note, I am a bit disgruntled that Sonia Bompastor has said that everyone is available for Chelsea Women this weekend, while the USWNT had to struggle without Naomi Girma against Spain during the international break... hmmph.

The Men's team had a mini training camp in Spain this week, and we'll see just how well the team-building went.

Let's close with a delightful photo of Conor Gallagher and his dog, because why not?

COYS

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