The Best Defense is Offense
If we pretend the Premier League Chelsea game never happened (if only), this was a pretty good week for Spurs. Spurs Women consolidated their table position in the Women's Super League with a comeback win, and Spurs Men maintained their undefeated streak in the Champions Leaguephase despite a red card—a much-needed shift in mentality.
In this issue: Chelsea recap | Liverpool recap | København recap | News from around the Lane
As I mentioned on Bluesky, I had intended to have the recaps of the weekend matches out before the CL game, but ended up having a longer-than-usual episode of N17 Women to edit. We did a round of listener questions, including essential info for new fans of Spurs Women. If that's you, I highly recommend giving it a listen.
All right, on to the recaps, then a quick round-up of club news.
PL MD 10 | Tottenham 0 - 1 Chelsea
João Pedro 34'
I really don't want to dwell on this one too long. It was just a bad performance, from effort to execution.
We also had our usual portion of bad luck for this fixture come early on in the game, with Lucas Bergvall getting a concussion within the first two minutes and finally exiting the game in the 7th minute once it was clear he couldn't continue. He therefore missed the midweek Champions League game and will also be out of selection this weekend for the Manchester United game.
I wish I could say that Xavi Simons looked prepared for his early introduction off the bench, but alas. It was another frustrating game from him, and I'm sure the abrupt change in personnel affected the rest of the players as well. We never really got going in the attack. Unfortunately, he was also involved in the goal concession. His short back pass to Micky van de Ven threw the latter off, and Moises Caicedo was able to pick the ball off him and assist João Pedro for the close-range goal.
Guglielmo Vicario couldn't do much about the goal, but overall, his performance was the one silver lining from the game. He made eight saves in total and has been on a very strong run of form over the last couple of weeks. Chelsea weren't hugely threatening after their first-half goal, but it was still a relief to see the goal difference not take too large a hit thanks to Vicario.
I'm not going to get into the booing discourse, because I think I've made my opinion on that subject known plenty of times in this newsletter. And the situation with Van de Ven and Djed Spence seeming to brush off Thomas Frank after the game was quickly resolved by the next press conference, thankfully. But these two controversies just go to show how fraught this derby always is. I yearn for the day when we don't experience any major fallout from it—which I'm sure will never happen until we start picking up some wins. I wouldn't count on it happening at Stamford Bridge later this season, but that should go without saying.
In the big picture, I wasn't terribly surprised by this result, nor the underlying performance. Frustration is normal in this scenario: we're experiencing a third season in a row of heavy (and early) injuries, summer signings have been slow to adapt (at least compared to previous seasons), and the loss marked our 5th in a row against Chelsea. The question, then, was how the team would bounce back (or not) in the next game. More on that soon.
But for all the handwringing over the sputtering attack, we're still in the top 6 in the table, and only two points (and a few goals) off 2nd. Nobody is really running away with it this season in the league (except the team that shall not be named, and hopefully will bottle it in spectacular fashion when all is said and done), so this is a good time to be experiencing growing pains under a new manager.
Notable & quotable:
• Spurs' 0.05 xG was our lowest in a PL game since 2012/13. We had just one shot on target.
• Brennan Johnson made his 100th appearance for the club.
• Thomas Frank copped to the poor performance and inevitable disappointment from the fans:
We were the second-best team today. There's no two ways about that. It was bad performance. So, we’re frustrated about that in a London derby against Chelsea, a game that means the world to the fans, we're very irritated about it.
WSL MD 7 | Tottenham 2 - 1 Liverpool
Koga 19', England 52' | Olsson 11'
Thankfully, we were immediately cheered up by Spurs Women on their return from international break. It was a slow start to the game, and Liverpool did score first (mostly thanks to a lapse in the offside trap), but the comeback from Spurs seemed both inevitable and fairly effortless. It's nice not to be stressed about an inability to score goals as we have been in seasons past.
Tōko Koga being the scorer of our equalizer was maybe less predictable, but it also felt like it had been coming for a while now. Fans of the USWNT will know she has the ability to show up at the right place at the right time to clean up in the box. Still, the movement from Olivia Holdt that led to the goal was definitely a practiced set-piece routine, and she was close to scoring herself. You could call it a shross. But regardless, Koga was there to ensure we scored. She also put in a strong effort in the defense, as usual.
But the game-winning goal was even more impressive in the team buildup. Holdt and Amanda Nildén have built up a great partnership over the last few weeks, and it was not surprising to see them combine again to assist Beth England's strike.
The linkup play has improved so much in general that it's actually a pleasure to see this team play, whereas last season, there were games where I could barely stand to watch. In situations where we previously would have turned over the ball or failed to make the right pressing action, the players are being proactive in retaining and gaining possession. The progressive, creative passing has been a joy, too, spearheaded by Holdt but with important contributions from Nildén, Eveliina Summanen, and Drew Spence—as well as Ash Neville off the bench.
And on that note, the ability to bring on impactful subs (and actually have the manager take advantage of that opportunity to influence the game) has been super refreshing. Although it was a bit of a bummer to see Tinka Tandberg on the bench to start, she probably needed the rest after playing heavy minutes to start the season, and she ensured that we didn't see a drop-off in the strike role when England went off. The aforementioned Neville provided a different dimension to the right fullback role than Josefine Rybrink, whom she replaced, but in a positive sense. The right flank became a more dynamic source of attack once she became involved, and Neville never hesitates to take risks with the ball.
Overall, it was an engaging match from kickoff to final whistle. Liverpool have had rotten luck to start the season (including Mia Enderby being stretchered off after an awkward landing; thankfully, she appears to be all right), but have not played as badly as their results would suggest, and were a decent test for a Spurs team that is still developing under new manager Martin Ho.
So far, the players are rising to the challenge against all of the non-top 4 clubs (going by last season's table), and for the first half of the season, we only have one more such opponent in London City Lionesses (we already faced Aston Villa once in the League Cup, so that league fixture in December will be more of a rematch). They've been on a very similar trajectory in WSL play, only losing to the previous top 4 sides and beating the rest. That makes this weekend's match a potential "best of the rest" six-pointer. Who will blink first? We'll find out on Sunday.
Notable & quotable:
• Amanda Nildén made her first assist of the WSL campaign.
• Tōko Koga became Spurs' first teenager to score in the WSL, as well as the youngest-ever Asian player to score in the competition.
• Beth England became the first player in WSL history to score 50 home goals, 17 of which she scored with Spurs.
• Olivia Holdt earned her second Player of the Match award of the WSL season.
• We have already equalled our win total from last season with five... and there are still 15 games to go!
• This was the first time in our WSL history that we've won three of the first four home matches.
• Koga's centerback partner, Clare Hunt, was full of praise for the young defender:
She has been such a bright spark for us and it’s great to play with her, she has brought a lot of composure, a lot of confidence to this team and she’s incredible defensively so, for me, it’s great to have a partner in Toko.
• Commenting on the move for the winning goal, Martin Ho said:
These are the moments we need more of. We need to put ourselves in positions where we can win games and we need to be ruthless with the chances we get. I think we did that today.
Champions League MD 4 | Tottenham 4 - 0 København
Johnson 19', Odobert 51', Van de Ven 64', Palhinha 67'
The attacking joy continued with Spurs Men in the midweek game. Despite the initial goal-scorer, Brennan Johnson, picking up a red card early in the second half (you have to appreciate the main character energy), Spurs still cruised to a dominant, clean-sheet win—and the scoreline honestly could have been more lopsided.
Johnson and Wilson Odobert both scored their first Champions League goals to put Spurs up to a 2-0 lead. The former picked up his red card not long after Odobert's goal with a late tackle. Xavi Simons was frustrated to be the one sacrificed from the lineup, but his work up until that point still earned him Player of the Match. It was a nice bit of redemption after his unfortunate subbed-out-substitute showing in the previous game.
After returning from injury in the Chelsea game, Cristian Romero was able to start this one, and he made a big difference, as did Destiny Udogie—both in creating a platform for the attack to thrive as well as keeping the clean sheet.
But it was Romero's centerback partner, Micky van de Ven, who got all the attention after scoring a potential Puskas Award nominee goal in a cross-pitch run reminiscent of Son Heung-min's against Burnley in 2019. It's always impressive when a player manages to evade the opposition across that much space, but the thing that most impresses me about Micky is how he continually shows such quality with his shots. He may as well be a striker at this point with those receipts.
Not to let the midfield contingent be totally outdone by the defense, João Palhinha contributed the fourth and final goal of the game—albeit with an assist from another defender, Romero. He also got the technical assist for Van de Ven's goal, but much like Jan Vertonghen's for Sonny's goal back in the day, it will only be remembered by the die-hards.
It should not have been the final goal, because late substitute Dane Scarlett—on what I believe is his Champions League debut—won a penalty. He was not allowed to take the penalty kick, however, and Richarlison failed to convert, hitting the crossbar. Besides the failed spot kit, there were numerous other chances to score, including from Richarlison.
Now halfway through the league phase, we are still unbeaten and in 10th place, comfortably within the playoff spots but also in touching distance of automatic qualification to the knockout rounds.
Notable & quotable:
• Randal Kolo Muani made his first Champions League assist for Wilson Odobert's goal.
• Odobert became the club's 3rd-youngest CL goal-scorer at 20 years, 341 days old, only behind Dele and Ryan Sessegnon.
• Micky van de Ven has now scored the most goals from a centerback in all competitions across the top 5 European leagues.
• His goal broke a CL record for longest ball carry ending in a goal at 67.7m, and only took 10 seconds from box to box.
Once he got there, he wasn't passing up the opportunity to score.
I need to score! That was the thing, at the last point when you arrived at the box, you're just like, nah, I need to finish this one.
I know when I get my speed and acceleration, it's difficult to catch up sometimes, and then in one way, I was like, hey, I'm through. I was like, "I'm going all the way now," just try to score.
• This was the team's largest margin of victory under Thomas Frank in any competition, and the first time the team has scored four goals under the new manager. It was also the first time Spurs have had four different goal-scorers in a Champions League game in the modern era of the competition.
• Spurs are unbeaten in the past 22 European home games—18 of them wins.
• Thomas Frank was pleased with the attacking intent coming off a poor performance in the previous game:
This was a good step forward, I'm very happy with that, especially on the offensive play... The relationship[s] gelled a little bit better and there's even more to come. That was positive. I think the way the players stepped up after the red card, wow, that was very, very impressive.
He also joked about what nickname to give Van de Ven after his amazing goal:
'Lionel Micky' or 'Heung-min Micky'.
News from around the Lane
• A moment that many Spurs fans have long wished for will finally arrive in 2027: AIA will no longer be the club's front-of-shirt sponsor—though they will remain as a sponsor for the training wear. Of course, there's the usual caveat that we sometimes have to be careful what we wish for, with no announcement yet on who the new main kit sponsor will be. But we can at least keep our fingers crossed that whoever it ends up being, their logo isn't red.
• In other sponsorship news, EXALT, which has previously worked with the Men's team, is now also a nutritional partner for the Women's team.
• The club's legal case against Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe's company, INEOS, has been settled out of court. The company will "pay Spurs an undisclosed sum" for exiting a sponsorship agreement early.
• Tōko Koga has been nominated for The Best FIFA Women's 11—bizarrely, as a midfielder. Regardless of the strange positional designation, you can and should vote for her here.
Up next:
November 8 | Spurs Men vs Manchester United
Team news — Mohammed Kudus is questionable after a knock picked up against Chelsea; Lucas Bergvall misses out due to concussion protocol; all previous injuries still out of contention
November 9 | Spurs Women @ London City Lionesses
Team news — no selection issues beyond the three long-term injuries (Ella Morris, Luana Bühler, Maite Oroz)
So just a casual weekend for Spurs, then, with a rematch of the Europa League final on the Men's side and the newest London derby on the Women's side. Should be fun!
COYS
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