The Chaos Chronicles

We knew going into last weekend that there was high potential for nonsense across both Spurs games. Everton have long been a bogey team for Spurs Women, and Chelsea in the Premier League... well, that rivalry needs no rehashing.

Thankfully, the Women's team knuckled down and put in a much-improved performance than we've seen of late to beat the Toffees 2-1, earning a well-deserved three points and a boost up into the top half of the Women's Super League table.

I wish I could say it went equally as well for the Men's team, but a few moments of lapsed concentration resulted in a frustrating 3-4 home loss.

In this issue: Everton recap | Chelsea recap | Previewing the midweek fixtures | News from around the Lane

Since this is a midweek issue, I'm just going to focus on the key takeaways from the games. I'm certainly not going to get involved in the Ange/Levy in/out debate again (besides, I think all of you reading this already know how I feel about that). And for what it's worth, I continue to be exasperated by talk of the board investing too little in the Men's team when the far more glaring issue is the lack of investment in the Women's team, comparatively.

Anyway... on to the recaps, cup match previews, and a quick news update.

WSL Matchday 9 recap | Tottenham 2 - 1 Everton

England 25' • (Pen) 48' | Holmgaard 40'

Because of the less-than-stellar start to the season, this match against a "beatable" team had basically become a must-win—both for morale and for points. The players were up to the task; those who had remained at Hotspur Way during the break had clearly put together some learnings while the traveling players brought back a spark from international play. And as Robert Vilahamn is so fond of saying in his press conferences, the team as a whole "[took] some steps" in their development as a unit.

Starting XI:

Becky Spencer was ill and unable to play, so Eleanor Heeps got her WSL debut in her place. And although Maite Oroz wasn't quite ready to start after her lengthy injury absence, she provided a nice lift in the second half when she subbed in.

Key highlights & takeaways:

• Offensive set pieces were obviously an area of practice during the international break because we saw several new corner and free kick routines on display, one of which we scored from for our first goal. Jess Naz and Clare Hunt were unlucky not to combine for the goal as Hunt's header was saved, but Beth England was on hand to tap in the rebound.

• Patterns of play were clearly defined, and the overall team passing vastly improved since the last game against Aston Villa. The attack sometimes broke down in the final third, but we still created several high-quality chances, particularly for Hayley Raso and Martha Thomas.

• Courtney Brosnan, who probably needs no introduction because of how many times she's traumatized us as Spurs fans, had another strong performance between the sticks for Everton. She ended the match with six saves, and none more impressive than a reaction save on a superb strike from Thomas.

• Heeps' WSL debut didn't result in a clean sheet, but showed why she's hopped ahead of loan keeper Katelin Talbert in the pecking order to become Becky Spencer's backup. The one goal she conceded was a long-range effort that any keeper would have struggled to save, but she did keep out a similar effort earlier in the match. Most importantly, she got some valuable game time to build up partnerships with the backline and work on her distribution skills.

• Thanks to the WSL's refusal to use additional cameras for their broadcasts, we were limited to one replay angle of the penalty, and it still wasn't very clear. But referee Amy Fearn showed no hesitation in calling the blocking foul on Thomas, so I don't think we need to feel too guilty about winning the game in this manner. England stepped up to take the penalty and finished with her usual gusto.

• Once Oroz made her long-awaited return, we were even better able to progress the ball up the pitch, especially with Drew Spence freed up to play in a more advanced role.

• Spurs had to survive a late onslaught of set pieces from Everton but put in several strong blocks and clearances to hold on to the lead.

SAtP Player of the Match: Ashleigh Neville

England and Raso were also strong contenders, but this was such a vintage Neville performance that I couldn't let it go unnoticed. Not only was she pulling off huge tackles and evasive maneuvers in defense, but she also got heavily involved in the attack, nearly assisting a goal at one point only to be thwarted by a Brosnan signature save. Ash was just interviewed on Inside Spurs over the break and noted that she had worked on a lot of individual skills in training, and all the hard work showed up on the pitch against Everton. When she's at her best, so goes the team.

Notable & quotable:

• This was the first win over Everton since 2021 and only the second ever in WSL play.

• Beth England doubled her season goal tally in the league.

• Spurs haven't scored an assisted goal since matchday 5.

• This was the last home game until after the winter break.

• Robert Vilahamn had a lot of praise for England's well-rounded performance:

I was very happy to see... the way she pressed, the way she was in the box, her touch, how she was moving and running and the two finishes as well. The leadership has always been there. Her way of acting as a great character is really good, but now she's also getting the connections right.

He also noted that England hasn't yet had much game time playing together with Maite Oroz or Hayley Raso because of their injury spells, and noted that those partnerships have a lot of potential to create goal opportunities for the captain and star striker.

PL Matchday 15 recap | Tottenham 3 - 4 Chelsea

Solanke 5', Kulusevski 11', Son 90+6' | Sancho 17', Palmer (Pen) 61' • (Pen) 84', Fernández 73'

There's no getting around how disappointing this result was. You would think scoring three goals at home would be enough to win, but alas, you can't give up two penalties to a team with Cole Palmer.

I really don't want to get too into the narratives around the game, but I do think it's interesting—with the benefit of a few days hindsight, of course—to think about how the blame is shared amongst the players. Do you weigh defensive errors more heavily, or missed chances?

Again, we scored three goals and created several more decent chances. Every member of the starting forward line notched a goal contribution, plus James Maddison off the bench. The partnerships are in full effect and you can argue that they accomplished their portion of the game plan.

But it's also important to acknowledge that the defense was almost destined to fail when both starting centerbacks had to be subbed out due to injury—the very centerbacks who had just returned from injury. It's difficult to weather that kind of setback even when you don't have two very out-of-form central midfielders making poor decisions in crucial moments.

Oh, and then you add in the bizarre, curse-adjacent vibes that this fixture always has without fail. It be like that sometimes.

Starting XI:

As alluded to earlier, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero were surprise (you might even say shocking) picks for the starting lineup. It turned out that it was probably too soon for them to be returning, unfortunately, because they immediately got hurt again. Fortunately, it sounds like it was only muscle tightness for Van de Ven, though Romero is confirmed to have suffered a quad injury and will miss some additional matches now.

Elsewhere in the lineup, the only real judgment call from Ange Postecoglou was selecting Dejan Kulusevski over James Maddison for the #10 role.

Key highlights & takeaways:

Because this club makes me unwell, I have made a matchday graphic to show the timeline of important events, from goals to injuries to botched VAR decisions.

You're welcome/I'm sorry?

• As usual, neutrals probably enjoyed the hell out of this match; it wasn't short on drama. That includes the curious case of Marc Cucurella's slippery boots. His self-sabotaging footwear directly contributed to the first two Spurs goals when he lost possession both times in Chelsea's half. The first goal involved a skillful finish from Dominic Solanke on a Brennan Johnson assist. The second required a brave foray around the box from Dejan Kulusevski to find the space to shoot.

• The joy of going up 2-0 within 11 minutes was short-lived as Cristian Romero was forced off with a quad injury. To add insult to injury, his replacement, Radu Drăgușin, lost his mark for Jadon Sancho's set-piece goal.

• At the same time as we squandered a few chances on goal, Moisés Caicedo got away with a red card foul on Pape Sarr. It should have at least triggered an automatic yellow card from referee Anthony Taylor (sigh), but Caicedo ended up with zero punishment since the VAR deemed the contact to not be excessive. I obviously disagree, and it was made more frustrating by the fact that he would go on to draw the equalizing penalty for Chelsea.

• That first penalty of two for Chelsea happened not long after another Spurs starter was forced to exit the match early (Johnson apparently was feeling ill). It was one of those annoyingly common Yves Bissouma errors where he gives away possession in the midfield and then overcompensates trying to make up for it on defense. You will rarely see a clearer penalty in Premier League play. And to make matters worse, this was his fifth yellow card of the campaign, so he'll be suspended for the next PL game... while Rodrigo Bentancur is also suspended for his racist interview remark. That's our top two options for the #6 role taking themselves out of contention. To say that I am out of patience with both of them is putting it mildly—I'll be happy to see the back of them sooner rather than later, though that will probably have to wait until the summer transfer window.

• Speaking of racism, Chelsea's sorry excuse for a captain, Enzo Fernández, scored to put Chelsea in the lead midway through the second half. Hmph.

• Our second centerback casualty happened with just over ten minutes left to play. Micky Van de Ven experienced some muscle tightness and had to be taken off, long after he probably should have been, but that's what happens when the only true centerback sub had already been used.

• Then our other midfielder decided to get it in on the headloss and fouled Palmer in the box. I was suddenly reminded of that long ago penalty call near the beginning of Pape Sarr's Spurs career, against Ainsley Maitland-Niles, which was very debatable at the time. I only bring it up because Sarr had definitely cleaned up his movement in our defensive third since then, and therefore this penalty felt more out of character than the Bissouma penalty. But the effect was the same, and it looked like the game was fully beyond salvaging at this point.

• Then, naturally, Son Heung-min gave us some hope. The first moment was when he cleverly retrieved a ball that would have been offside for Destiny Udogie and had a one-on-one with Chelsea's keeper, Robert Sánchez. And... it was saved. This time I was having flashbacks to the chance against Manchester City near the end of last season—another shot you would have probably bet money on Son to finish. But he did finally get on the scoresheet a couple of minutes later with a close-range shot in the congested box, one that you would have expected to see from Solanke or Johnson instead if he'd still been on the pitch. At least Sonny's late goal minimized the blow to the goal difference.

• So there was a slim chance of pulling off a last-second equalizer, but it wasn't to be. Chelsea were fairly smart with their game management in the closing stages and Spurs weren't quite direct enough. On the balance of actual attacking play, you would have to say that a draw would have been the more fair result, but those two penalty concessions changed the game. And to look on the bright side for a second, last season's home fixture against Chelsea also involved four conceded goals, but at least we scored two more ourselves this time.

SAtP Player of the Match: Dejan Kulusevski

His goal was probably the pick of the bunch because of the sheer determination involved, and he continues to be integral to everything we do in the attack.

Notable & quotable:

• Brennan Johnson's assist for Dominic Solanke was his first assist in the PL this season.

• We have only lost games by one goal this season, across all competitions.

• This was just the second time we’ve had two league losses in a row this campaign, and the second time we’ve had a losing record.

• We doubled the number of penalties conceded all season in one game.

• I refused to listen to the post-game interviews, but I did see some quotes from Son on the club website that are worth sharing:

We all care, we all care about where we are now, and we all care about these results. Some people may think in a different way, maybe that we don’t care, but we do really care about this club. Everyone is working hard every single day, maybe you don’t see that behind the scenes, but everyone is working really hard to get it right.

Also, in one important moment I missed a chance, and I feel like I let the team down. I take the blame. I should take the big responsibility about this because I think the lads tried really, really hard... We’re all humans and we make some mistakes. Sometimes you’ve got to just take it and move on. Players also need to learn about it, but as a support, we should give some love, because it’s such an important time, crucial moments, such a young group, we just need big support and that’s what I want to say, as captain.

It's tough, very tough, especially as it's a London derby, especially at home, we have such amazing support, so yes, it’s very tough, but we’ve got to stick together, not only in good moments, in bad moments as well, as we always did. I think if we get out of this dark tunnel, we will be really strong, we will grow as a team and a group. First of all, we need big support from you guys, as always.

That last bit reminded me of something I heard Steff say on The Game is About Glory podcast (paraphrasing here) about the team going through a difficult time and how now is the time to support them. That I definitely agree with.

Previewing Women's League Cup Group Stage Matchday 3 — Crystal Palace

The good news is that when I started to write this issue last night I was under the impression that none of us would be able to stream the game since it wasn't showing up on the SpursPlay schedule, but that changed this morning (link here). Huzzah! I still think it's ridiculous that the FA is leaving it up to clubs to broadcast the group stage games since the demand to watch the competition has clearly increased in recent seasons. But a SpursPlay stream is better than nothing.

This match is sure to have a different feel from our first encounter with Crystal Palace this season on the opening day of the Women's Super League. This is technically a must-win for Crystal Palace if they want to stay in the cup (and they'd need some help from Aston Villa losing, too), but since they currently occupy the relegation spot in the WSL on goal difference, I suspect that the cup is no longer a priority for them and we can expect heavy rotation from the Eagles. Meanwhile, we only need a draw to advance to the knockout stage.

Robert Vilahamn has hinted that there will be some rotation for Spurs as well. Although Eveliina Summanen and Luana Bühler have both been cleared to play, I would expect the former at least to get a rest after playing heavy minutes already this season. Becky Spencer is also available for selection after recovering from illness. Otherwise, the only injuries mentioned were the two long-term absentees, Kit Graham and Ella Morris. Amy James-Turner seems to be a doubt though.

Palace have the worst defensive record in the league (don't look up who has the second worst...), so Spurs will be well-primed to build on the attacking performance from the Everton game and ensure we finish the group stage strong. However, Palace have been scoring more goals themselves of late. I'm kind of surprised Katie Stengel hasn't had more success, but she's one to watch out for nevertheless. Annabel Blanchard is an up-and-coming talent. The question is whether either of them will make the starting lineup after all the rotation is done.

We're straight back in action on Saturday in the league against Brighton, so hopefully a decisive win in the cup will give us another momentum boost to end the calendar year on a high note.

Previewing Europa League Matchday 6 — Rangers

Ange Postecoglou returns to Scotland for a competitive match for the first time since taking over at Spurs. I'm sure he will get a very warm welcome from his old rivals...

This is somewhat of a six-pointer for Spurs since Rangers are one place ahead of us in the Europa Leaguephase table in the coveted 8th spot, which is the cutoff for automatic qualification to the knockouts. We simply don't have the squad depth or fitness to add two extra games to the schedule in the spring, so we need to make sure we finish in the top 8 and avoid the playoff round.

Spurs haven't faced Rangers since a friendly back in 2022. I can honestly say that I'm not familiar with their squad or their playing style. I don't even know what streamer has the Scottish league broadcast rights in the US. But it's worth noting that Rangers have lost some ground on their rivals, Celtic, in the league and are down to third place behind Aberdeen. This is probably not the strongest Rangers team at the moment.

Of course, Spurs are also understrength due to the glut of injuries. Suspensions won't be a factor for this cup game, so it will be interesting to see which of the #6 options is used. As of this writing, there hasn't been an injury update for the Men's team, so no word on whether Mikey Moore might finally be available again after his lengthy illness layoff or if Brennan Johnson is feeling better after his own sickness bug forced an early exit in the Chelsea game. Regardless, there's not a lot of flexibility for Postecoglou's team selection.

We aren't back in action in the Europa League until after the new year, when we travel to face Hoffenheim in Germany and then host Elfsborg at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. A win against Rangers would make sure we aren't anxiously awaiting those fixtures.

News from around the Lane

• Spurs Women were drawn away to Everton in the FA Cup Fourth Round. The fixture will take place right after the winter break before we get back to WSL action, on the weekend of January 11-12. Spurs Men are also in FA Cup action that weekend on Sunday, so hopefully it gets arranged for Saturday instead.

Robert Vilahamn reflected on how the team's disappointment in last season's FA Cup final has made them more motivated than ever to secure a cup trophy, including the possibility of a win in the League Cup.

We had a taste of what we can do when we have a great run in the cup and I feel like we realize that we can compete for trophies. I definitely realize that Tottenham is a sleeping giant... and if we have a good result [against Crystal Palace], we are just three games from a trophy... Hopefully we'll reach the final and then we have learned something from the other final so we can make sure we have a better performance.

Back to the FA Cup though, we know Everton weren't the easiest of possible opponents with so many lower-division teams still active in the competition. But the draw could also have been worse, and we showed this past weekend that we can beat Everton again. It will be a trickier prospect at Walton Hall Park but still doable.

Here's to staying alive in all the cups!

COYS

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