Rounding Back Into Form

I didn't jinx it! Both Spurs teams won their league matches last weekend and vibes were high across the club. Add in milestones on opposite ends of the career spectrum (Luca Williams-Barnett making his Premier League debut and Drew Spence setting the new record for Women's Super League appearances), and there was plenty of celebration to go around.

Can we repeat the feat again this weekend? Time will tell, but I think there's a decent chance considering the two opponents: Leeds United for Spurs Men and Brighton & Hove Albion for Spurs Women. These are teams we should be beating if we want to continue building on the positive form.

In this issue: Crystal Palace recap | Birmingham City recap | News from around the Lane

For the Men's team, it's a simple matter of sharpening the attack further after some promising developments in recent weeks. For the Women's team, the goals are already flowing, but the games are racking up just as quickly, so balancing squad fitness management with win-worthy performances will be a key focus.

It was also a pretty heavy (but positive!) club news week, so read on after the match recaps for all the latest accolades and contract updates.

PL MD 9 | Tottenham 2 - 0 Crystal Palace

Gray 25', Van Hecke 73'

Spurs Men took care of business against Crystal Palace, made easier by an early red card for Jean-Philippe Mateta. It was clearly a reckless tackle on Micky van de Ven, but since this is Michael Oliver we're talking about as center referee, he needed the VAR monitor to assist him in making the right call.

In what would be a trend for fullbacks at the club this matchweek, Archie Gray got the scoring started with his first Premier League goal of the season, a nicely aimed header off a Mohammed Kudus corner kick.

The center of the attack (Omar Marmoush in the #10 and Dominic Solanke at striker) weren't pulling up any trees in this match, but the double pivot of Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes behind them did a great job of controlling the match.

We still had to wait until the second half for the security goal. It was another set piece, although since Jan Paul van Hecke scored off a rebound, there was no official assist from the corner kick. The remarkable thing about the goal was that Van Hecke scored his header from a seated position on the ground—apparently a first in Premier League history. It was only right that he celebrated with a knee slide to recreate his goal-scoring position (but did anyone else have the immediate reaction of "man, I miss Beth England," or was it just me?).

Dean Henderson deserves some credit for keeping the scoreline from getting ugly for the Eagles; he finished the match with seven total saves, several of them very impressive.

One chance that Henderson did not need to make a save on was a whiffed opportunity for Kudus set up by substitute (and senior debutant) Luca Williams-Barnett after an impressive run. I cannot lie, I fully shouted at the TV when Kudus somehow sent his shot parallel to the goal line instead of over it (and then fell into the goal himself).

But as frustrated as I was with Kudus in that moment for ruining what would have been an incredibly special assist for Williams-Barnett in his first PL game, I don't think his performance was a total wash (recall the corner kick assist), and he technically leads the team for PL goal contributions with his three total assists so far. I much prefer his flashes of quality to him being injured and not an option at all. Let's show him some grace.

In a similar vein, we shouldn't put unrealistic expectations on Williams-Barnett after just one substitute appearance. It's clear he's a huge talent with a bright future ahead of him, but that future should be managed carefully by the club. That being said, having watched many of his post-game interviews after Academy games, he is obviously a confident kid, and having that self-belief is half the battle when it comes to creating (and maintaining) a successful Premier League career.

Notable & quotable:

• Luca Williams-Barnett made his senior debut for the club and first Premier League appearance.

• Jan Paul van Hecke is the team's leading PL scorer with two goals.

• Van Hecke also set a new club record for most completed passes in a single PL match with 143; the entire Crystal Palace team only completed eight more as a collective.

• Meanwhile, Spurs as a unit set a new club team record for completed passes in PL game with 759 altogether.

• Archie Gray scored his first goal for Spurs since February 10 against Newcastle United; he had also scored for England U21s in March.

• Zero goal difference alert! Let's see if we can finally get it positive with tomorrow's result.

• On a similar note, this was the first matchday we ended in the top half of the table.

• This was the team's first three-game win streak in 616 days.

• Despite scoring, Van Hecke was more eager to praise the defensive effort to earn the clean sheet, starting with defending from the attack:

I think it's really hard work that starts up front. If you see the boys, how hard they work, how many balls they recover, it makes it so much easier for us. Of course, we have good defenders, we have good goalkeepers, so that does also help, but I think it's about the collective.

He also remarked on how much he is enjoying playing beside his countryman and close friend, Micky van de Ven:

We're really good friends, so it's really nice to play together in the same team. We love it. That's our fourth clean sheet and we're both really happy to play together, but it's not only us, it's the rest as well. If you see how much effort everyone puts in, it's great.

• Archie Gray reflected on the impact of the win for the team's morale:

It was a really good feeling, especially with them having a man sent off. It’s even more difficult to break them down because they want to defend more. It's just really important to get three wins on the bounce. It hasn't happened for quite a long time.

Like I said, we're just more of a team. We’re all like brothers. We all get on really well and you can see that out there on the pitch, even with the celebrations, all the subs running over to the players and everything like that. It's those little things that mean so much to us as players and I think that's the most important thing.

WSL MD 8 | Birmingham City 1 - 4 Tottenham

Herron 64' | Blakstad 37', Holdt 50', Gaupset 53', Pelova 84'

Spurs Women also held firm control of their game for most of the match, with one lapse of concentration losing the clean sheet. We're starting to see some concerning trends with Lize Kop's goalkeeping, unfortunately. But aside from that goal for Neve Herron—who, like Dean Henderson in the Men's game, got my vote for opposition player of the match—it was another dominant attacking performance from Spurs.

I want to note two examples of consistency that stood out from this game:

1. Signe Gaupset scored for the third time in four games
2. Drew Spence, who has rarely missed extended game time through injury since joining Spurs, put a further flourish on her long and storied WSL career by setting the new record for all-time appearances in the league

Gaupset has quickly become one of the most reliable young players on the team, but they equally need the experienced leadership of Spence. With these two players holding down the midfield for Spurs, it's easy to see why the squad is reaching a new level of attacking confidence this season.

To be fair, Victoria Pelova also deserves to be in that conversation about consistency. Since she was promoted to the starting lineup a few games into the season, she has not looked back. For the second time this WSL campaign, she contributed both a goal and an assist, and she leads the team in overall goal contributions so far with nine (six goals, three assists).

But you know what, I'm actually not done talking about consistency within this team. Because you know what Olivia Holdt is consistently good at? Blowing our minds with a fabulous free kick. What impressed me most about this one was that there wasn't any real brute force aspect to it, just pure placement. It was like a taunt of a free kick for poor Sophie Baggaley, who is far from an inexperienced goalkeeper. There was just nothing she could do about it.

The final (well, actually the first chronologically) goal-scorer stood out for being the most unlikely to find the back of the net, but that's not giving her enough credit for the effort she consistently puts into at least trying to score (and oh, how many times she has come close with a rocket of a shot!). As alluded to earlier, it was a fullback who opened the scoring in this game as well—Julie Blakstad.

I also have to give a special shoutout to Tōko Koga, who contained Birmingham City's potent scoring threat, Océane Hurté, and limited her to just the corner kick assist for Herron's goal. Koga hasn't had the flawless start to the season that I think we all kind of expected after she lit up the league in her first WSL season, but she looks to be getting firmly back on track if this performance is anything to go by.

It was concerning to see Eveliina Summanen have to be substituted back off the pitch not long after entering the game to replace Gaupset, but as we haven't received an update about a serious injury, I'm holding out hope that it was a "better safe than sorry" scenario and she'll be fit to feature again soon.

Notable & quotable:

• This was Julie Blakstad's first WSL goal of the season.

• Signe Gaupset has already surpassed her goal contributions total from her first half-season with the club (four goals + assists in 11 games last season vs six contributions in eight games so far this season).

• Though they didn't get a striker's goal of their own, starter Cathinka Tandberg and substitute Shekiera Martinez both got on the scoresheet with their first WSL assists of the season.

• We have more than doubled our goal total by MD8 of last season... but have given up five more goals in comparison.

• Drew Spence officially set a new WSL record for all-time appearances with 217.

• Martin Ho was full of praise for Spence on her milestone day:

It’s a remarkable achievement for anyone, and I’m glad it’s for Drew. She’s a wonderful person first and foremost, and a wonderful player. What she does on and off the pitch for this group is remarkable—she’s a role model for not just the players but the staff in terms of how she conducts herself and for her to be in that position, she should look at that with a lot of pride.

From where the league was to where it is now, she’d have been playing less games previously, so to get to that achievement takes some doing.

I’m really proud of her, she deserves that landmark and she’s put herself in the history books now.

• He also commented on the improved mentality of the team after conceding a goal compared to previous games:

We know we’ve got to be better on the set-play to make sure we don’t concede that chance, but also the mentality of the group to slow the game down, kill the game, defend properly… I think we had a spell in there too where we were down to 10 players for maybe six or seven minutes, so to manage and control that situation was really good and that shows the mentality of the group is growing. We’ve still got a lot of work to do in that area, but I believe with these kinds of moments we have in these situations, when you face that adversity, if we respond in that way, I think we’ll be fine.

News from around the Lane

• Spurs were well represented across the monthly league awards. Make sure to vote for:

• Lize Kop for WSL Save of the Month
• Jan Paul van Hecke for PL Player of the Month
• Mathys Tel or James Maddison for PL Goal of the Month
• Luca Williams-Barnett for PL Creative Moment of the Month
• Tyrese Hall for PL2 Player of the Month (no fan vote, unfortunately)

You can also vote for Tōko Koga for Women's Player of the Year in the FSA Awards 2026.

• Mikey Moore, on loan this season at 1. FC Köln in the Bundesliga, has received his first call-up to the England U21s.

• Two youngsters signed their first professional contracts with the club:

• Oscar Sandiford, currently playing with the Men's U18s
• Sophie Jackson, currently playing with the Women's U19s

Up next:

November 7 | Spurs Men @ Leeds United
Team news — Rodrigo Bentancur is available after completing his three-match suspension for a red card; Tosin Adarabioyo is also back in contention after missing the last two games; Pedro Porro is cleared to start the game; Archie Gray did not pick up a knock in the previous match but rather was substituted as a precaution due to his yellow card; Sávio, Lucas Bergvall, and Mykhailo Mudryk all remain out with medium-term injuries

Opposition note: Joe Rodon has been out with an injury for Leeds, but could return to face his former team

November 8 | Spurs Women vs Brighton & Hove Albion
Team news — Jess Naz was confirmed to have only missed the Birmingham City game due to load management and is available for selection again this weekend; Olga Ahtinen is still a couple of weeks away from a return; there was no update on Eveliina Summanen one way or another, so I suppose we assume that she's available...

Leeds United are winless in their last five Premier League games, so let's keep the streak going by extending our own winning streak to four.

As for the Women's Super League matchup, Brighton & Hove Albion are in much better form and have, in fact, scored at least two goals in every game they've played since we shut them out in the Players Cup on September 30 (a narrow 0-1 away win for Spurs).

In both contests, our opponent is only a point or two behind in the respective league tables, so it's important to take all three points and put some further distance in between.

I've been collecting some bonus bookmarks to share, so keep an eye out for that in the midweek issue ahead of Spurs Women's next Players Cup match.

Until then, enjoy the weekend's games, and happy NWSL playoffs to all who celebrate!

COYS

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