Strength of Opposition
This issue's title is an interesting turn of phrase in the world of football, in that it can be used both as an excuse and as a cudgel. If you want to justify, say, a mid-October Premier League loss to Aston Villa, you could mention that Villa are expected to be difficult to beat. If you want to temper expectations after, say, a Women's League Cup group stage win over a WSL2 team, you could point out that scoring three goals should be achievable against a team in the league below.
Am I saying these things? Well, yes. I'm also vamping because I watched these two games at the same time on two different screens, studiously trying to avoid seeing figure skating spoilers on Bluesky while still getting a gist of the Tottenham Hotspur Discourse™ du jour, which waits for no one. So the finer details of these matches may have been lost on me, but I think at this stage of the season I'm more interested in the big picture anyway.
In this issue: Aston Villa recap | Birmingham City recap | News from around the Lane
After the briefest of recaps, it's on to club news and the latest injury report for Spurs Men ahead of another Champions League matchup.
PL MD 8 | Tottenham 1 - 2 Aston Villa
Bentancur 5' | Rogers 37', Buendia 77'
This result was tough to take because both of Aston Villa's goals felt like they came against the run of play, and certainly weren't high-probability chances. It was Spurs, rather, who squandered the best opportunities of the game. At least we minimized the goal difference damage thanks to Rodrigo Bentancur's early goal—which was a great example of the team's improvement on attacking set pieces, to the point that even our recycled set pieces are now bearing fruit.
As I alluded to in the intro, I do think this is a tricky fixture in general due to Aston Villa's physicality and penchant for the dark arts. Add in their alarming ability to somehow be invisible to the officials in charge of checking said dark arts, and it becomes a difficult fixture to secure points from. It's frustrating that we had the lead and then squandered it, but it always felt like a potential banana peel—especially in rainy conditions.
Plus, there was a last-minute curveball thrown into the lineup when Cristian Romero had to pull out with an adductor issue after the warmup. It's not that Kevin Danso played poorly in replacing him, but the change necessitated a different tactical approach.
The big chances missed by Mathys Tel and Randal Kolo Muani late in the game are going to haunt us. It's important for the two of them to get minutes in this early stage of the campaign, but you could argue that Brennan Johnson would be better suited to finish those chances, and he's largely featured as a substitute in recent games.
We were clearly on the wrong side of luck in this game if Villa's goals are anything to go by. It happens, and it's still early enough in the season that losing to a decent team whilst carrying a lot of injuries isn't the end of the world.
Notable & quotable:
• Kevin Danso made his first Premier League start of the season.
• Randal Kolo Muani made his first appearance for Spurs in the PL, coming off the bench.
• This was Rodrigo Bentancur's first PL goal of the season.
• Likewise, it was João Palhinha's first assist in the competition for Spurs, building on his two goals to start the campaign.
• We're down one point this season compared to the identical fixtures from last season (newly promoted teams excluded, but we gained all six points from the two such matches so far).
• This was only the fourth time (in twelve competitive matches this season) that we've scored one or fewer goals.
• Thomas Frank commented on the disparity of xG in contrast to the actual result:
We lose because of two moments quality, especially from Rogers. That's an unbelievable finish. On the day, they had more quality in not only nearly moments, but in a nothing moment, especially the first one.
On the day, I think it's also fair to say we probably didn't hit our highest offensive level, but that can happen.
• Captain Micky van de Ven echoed Frank's thoughts:
We knew from the beginning it was going to be a tight game, but I don’t think they created big opportunities. They scored two goals outside of the box. I have to see it back if I can say there is something we could have done about it, but I think it was not necessary to lose today.
We also had some great opportunities, but we didn't play the best pass, so I think sometimes in the final third, we need to be calmer and just play the best pass to make the biggest opportunity out of it. I don't think we did that today.
Women's LC Group Stage MD2 | Tottenham 3 - 0 Birmingham City
Holdt 40' • 75', Nildén 53'
This match was much more straightforward. After taking the advantage over Aston Villa in the first group stage game's penalty shootout, we needed to take full points against the WSL2 opposition in the remaining two games to ensure we claim the top spot. We're halfway there now.
Olivia Holdt is not-so-quietly mounting a Player of the Season campaign—for Tottenham, for sure, but if we continue to exceed expectations in the Women's Super League, she could be in with a shout for the main competition's individual prize as well. But I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, we can be content that she provided a brace and an assist to dominate this game.
She wasn't the only player brimming with confidence, though; Matilda Vinberg also put in a great shift with two assists for Holdt. It feels like the entire forward contingent is hellbent on making selection decisions difficult for Martin Ho.
The major disappointment in this game was the season-ending ACL injury to Maite Oroz, now confirmed by the club. She'd been having a fabulous game in the middle of the park and really making a strong argument for more minutes, so the timing of the injury felt even more cruel.
At the beginning of the season, it felt like we were well stocked in the midfield, but now with Oroz out long-term and Drew Spence having missed a couple of games in a row, this seems like an area of the squad that will need to be bolstered in the January window.
The minor disappointment of the game is that we can't build on the momentum, with the international break now beginning. The team will next be in action in WSL play against Liverpool, who just suffered two of their own ACL injuries over the last week or so.
Notable & quotable:
• This was the team's fifth clean sheet of the season in all competitions.
• Josefine Rybrink spoke about the team's commitment to defense in a recent club interview:
I think our mentality has been really strong. Protecting our goal is our main focus as defenders and everyone’s been eager to keep clean sheets. It’s something we all take pride in - from the forwards to the backline. Everyone contributes defensively and no matter who’s playing, we’ve all been doing a really good job.
• A common theme from Rybrink's comments and Olivia Holdt's post-game interview has been the importance of last season's January additions having a full pre-season with the team ahead of the current campaign. Said Holdt:
I think I’ve settled well now. Being here for a full pre-season and starting a new season with the team has really helped me... The team has come together after a tough season last year, and I’m just really enjoying my football right now.
• Martin Ho assessed the season's progress so far, with a note of caution:
I think up to this point we’ve done really well—12 points in the league and five points in the cup. I couldn’t ask for more.
The group has given me everything so far and I want to make sure we continue to build on that. We can’t get comfortable or think we can take our foot off the gas. We have six really big games after the break, and we need to go into those games ready to win.
It's not that we haven't seen positive periods for Spurs Women in the past, but maintaining that positivity has been a frequent challenge, so I agree that the focus needs to be on keeping up the mentality and not getting complacent.
News from around the Lane
• Dan Lewindon has been appointed as Performance Director for all of the club's senior and Academy teams.
• We had the darndest time trying to figure out international fixture details for all of Spurs Women's players when we recorded the latest N17 Women episode this afternoon, so I recommend (to myself and to y'all) bookmarking this page of live updates from the club and skipping the frustration of searching (my kingdom for better WoSo coverage on FotMob!).
The one major update is that Jess Naz received a late call-up to the Lionesses, replacing Jess Park. A Jess for Jess swap, it only makes sense!
• Three Academy players have been called up for England in the Men's U17s World Cup next month: Jun'ai Byfield, Luca Williams-Barnett, and Tynan Thompson. Good luck to the lads!
• The Women's Academy U19s were knocked out of the FA Women's National League Plate by Gwalia United, losing 4-3 in extra time. But on a positive note, Heidi Hills, who recently had her first club interview on SpursPlay, scored a hat trick. A new name to keep an eye on this Academy season!
• It's easy to be discouraged these days about racism gaining a renewed foothold in society, so I appreciate that the club takes the time to share stories like this one of Mathys Tel being vulnerable and brave about his recent experience of racist abuse, in conversation with youngsters in the Tottenham community. This kind of personal encounter with someone the kids can see as a role model will make a real difference in how they walk through life. Plus, I love that the program was about poetry. Well done, Mathys!
Tottenham Hotspur
Up next:
October 22 | Spurs Men @ Monaco
Team news — Cristian Romero out with an adductor strain; Destiny Udogie out with a minor knee issue; Ben Davies out with a hamstring injury; Kōta Takai and Yves Bissouma out with short-term injuries; Dominic Solanke, Dejan Kulusevski, and Radu Drăgușin out due to surgery rehab; James Maddison out with ACL rehab; Mathys Tel ineligible due to not being included in the Champions League squad
Opposition Note: Former Spurs player Eric Dier will be unavailable for Monaco due to injury, so no chance of a stoppage-time Dier dagger.
I saw this morning that Upfront podcast has an episode out about the Subway Women's League Cup and how to improve it. I haven't had a chance to listen yet, but they put out a social media post with some suggestions from listeners that was a good conversation starter. It inspired me to make a Bluesky poll to gauge satisfaction with the current group stage format. Vote and repost (you have to be logged in to view), and I'll share the results with some thoughts in the next issue.
I'll end with this hilarious photo of Djed Spence from the Men's recent training session:
Surely he's telling the Monaco forwards to bring it on.
COYS
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