Snow Day

Spurs got a reprieve in the PL after a disappointing European defeat

This might be one of the shortest issues of Spurs Across the Pond yet, because there isn't that much to talk about this week! Spurs Women aren't playing again until December 12, and the Men's side ended up missing out on PL action this weekend due to it being an even more cold, wet night in Burnley than usual. Snowy, to be precise. It does seem strange to me that they didn't just delay the game a few hours to see if the snow let up, but I'm also not a football groundskeeper, so perhaps there were legitimate reasons for the match not to happen. I'm just so used to seeing my Bundesliga team struggle on snow-covered pitches that it took me by surprise that a pitch in northern England wasn't properly prepared!

It'll be a while before this postponed match is made up, thanks to the congested fixture schedule heading into the holiday period. Something tells me that by the time we do get around to playing it, the starting lineup might look a little different than the lineup that was already announced before the game got called off. You know how the Germans have a word for everything, like geisterspiel (literally:  ghost game) for a match played behind closed doors? This nearly-played lineup should have its own term. I was amazed to see that Sánchez was going to get a run out after his disastrous performance last game. Bold decision from Conte!

Either way, Burnley will probably be happy to play the fixture another time since they were missing several players due to injuries and suspensions, but since it's certainly going to take place after the January transfer window opens, Spurs could have brought in some reinforcements by then too. We already have a stronger squad than Burnely on paper, so it's should be a win whenever it happens. Not that it's ever that simple for Tottenham...

Another European embarrassment

I purposefully did not send out an update after the mid-week loss to NŠ Mura in Slovenia, a) because it gets old saying the same things after every lackluster away loss in Europe and b) it was Thanksgiving, so I was relaxing for the holiday. I don't enjoy sounding like a broken record, and I think every Spurs fan knows by now that our "B team" simply isn't cutting it, even against weaker opposition. Sessegnon's needless second yellow/red card was particularly frustrating to witness. But he wasn't the only player looking to impress the new boss that utterly failed to do so. Dele was sloppy on the ball, Ndombele was anonymous, and Gollini was once again rooted to the spot in goal. It's looking very unlikely at the moment that he'll be given the requisite number of loan appearances to trigger his permanent transfer clause. A second-half quadruple substitution improved the quality on the pitch and led to Kane's equalizer (assisted by Lucas), but we lacked the killer instinct to find the winner, and Mura got it instead--on the literal last kick of the game.

Tottenham are now unable to finish top of the group, which means that we'll be facing a playoff with one of the teams dropping down from the Europa League. That is if we manage to finish second in the group after the final matchday of the group stage. If Vitesse beat Mura in their match and we fail to beat Rennes, we'll be out. We'll see how much the team actually cares to stay in this competition.

A new London derby

Although we faced Brentford last season in the League Cup semi-final (successfully), this will be the first time we face our fellow London club in the Premier League.

Brentford are off to a decent start this season, considering that they're newly promoted. So well, in fact, that if the worse happens and they beat Spurs on Thursday, they will actually go ahead of us on goal difference (keep in mind that we do have a game in hand now, thanks to the Burnley postponement). Yikes. So let's make sure that doesn't happen.

Although they won their last match against Everton, it was only a 1-0 win thanks to a penalty goal from Ivan Toney (their top goal-scorer). Previous to the last matchday, they had picked up a draw and four straight losses before that in the league. Not a great run of form.

Brentford are without their first keeper, David Raya, due to injury, along with quite a few defenders. This goes for every game, but against Brentford especially I would like to see Kane and Son just take some shots. The thought of another half of football without a shot on target is unbearable anyway, but this team is definitely there for the taking.

On a lineup note, I would prefer to see Tanganga get the start over Sánchez. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with the lineup we would have played against Burnley. It'll be nice to have Skipp back on the pitch. Hopefully scoring last week will have given Reguilón a new burst of confidence.

Conte(nt)

Let's end things on a light note:  why does this tweet from the club look like Conte's Christmas card?

Look out, Hallmark. Conte's ready for his starring role in the next small town Christmas movie! A manager who's won it all takes on a struggling team that's become a shadow of its former glory, in a tale of found family and second chances.

Okay, I'll stop 😝.

If you haven't checked out the Tottenham Depot podcast yet, be sure to give their latest episode a listen since yours truly is making her podcast debut! I contributed a segment on Tottenham Hotspur Women, discussing their recent history in the top flight and a few of the key fixtures so far this season. Cheers to the Depot crew for giving me another venue in which to evangelize about Spurs Women.

COYS