The Rise of Royal

For once we had a peaceful, winning weekend for Spurs—so naturally, there would be bad news waiting for us early this week in the form of a player suspension for the Women's team. But first, let's look back at the Men's win over West Ham for some positive vibes before I go into full-on rant mode.

In this issue:  West Ham recap | Update on Eveliina Summanen's FA charges | Previewing the weekend matches

Tottenham 2 - 0 West Ham

While significant moments were few and far between in this match, I thought the overall performance was much improved from the dreadful showing against Leicester, and it's nice to have an uncomplicated, solid win every now and then.

Perhaps uncomplicated is not the best term to use, because there were some surprises in the starting lineup, not to mention that Cristian Stellini was back on the touchline in place of Antonio Conte, who had to stay behind in Italy after the CL match against AC Milan to further recover from his gallbladder removal surgery. Hopefully he will get the proper rest to heal this time. In the meanwhile, Stellini has been a very capable deputy. Almost too capable! I'll elaborate on that in a minute.

Back to the lineup, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg did indeed resume his place in the midfield after serving a suspension in the CL, and Oliver Skipp was selected alongside him, perhaps getting the nod over Pape Sarr due to seniority (Conte had a lot of trust in him prior to his season-ending injury last year, after all). Richarlison started in place of Son Heung-min on the left wing, while Dejan Kulusevski retained his place on the right wing despite some rusty form of late. But the biggest surprise was seeing Ben Davies placed at LWB to start for the first time this season (IIRC, there was a game or two pre-WC where he played limited minutes at that position to close out the game). This meant that Clément Lenglet filled in at Davies' usual LCB spot to complete the back-3 with Eric Dier and Cristian Romero, back in PL action after his one-game suspension. Rounding out the rest of the lineup was Fraser Forster in goal, Emerson Royal at RWB, and Harry Kane at striker.

It's time for my semi-regular defense of Ben Davies. I saw a lot of chatter pre-game from other Spurs fans saying that this lineup was going to be way too defensive in nature, largely directed towards Davies' inclusion at LWB but partially at Skipp, too. I think that sells both players short when it comes to their ability to be progressive with their passes, but especially Davies. In recent seasons he hasn't been given a lot of license to get forward by Conte and show off his attacking nous, but it's definitely there in his locker. He got the job done against West Ham with an assist for Emerson's goal in the 56th minute, a wingback-to-wingback connection. Of course, PEH also deserves a lot of credit for the buildup to that goal; his line-breaking pass to Davies was one of the best we've seen this season. I genuinely think we would see more attacking output from players like these four if we set out with a more fluid, front-foot game plan to begin with, rather than the conservative style we have tended to play under Conte in most games.

Sonny put the result on ice with his 72nd-minute goal (assisted by Kane), just four minutes after entering the match as a substitute for Richarlison. It was a classic Son goal; he ran in behind West Ham's defense to connect on a pass from Kane with a perfect first touch and effortless shot past Łukasz Fabiański. As Peter Drury said, "You cannot suppress that smile."

Luckily, we don't need to dwell on the incorrect VAR decision from the first half, which allowed Thilo Kherer to get away with a blatant handball in the box, since it did not end up affecting the result after all. Still, though, VAR has been having an absolute nightmare lately in multiple PL games. I will also note that Spurs have only been awarded three penalties this season (with Kane converting two of them), although penalties are down across the entire league this season.  

So... we need to talk about Stellini. This win against West Ham ensured that he still has a perfect record when managing Spurs, winning all three games he's overseen in Conte's absence. I don't think it's unfair to say that we have played some of our best football of the season under his watch, either. We'll get a chance to see if his winning streak can continue since Conte is not expected to be back for at least a couple more games.

It's kind of difficult to suss out just how much of the success under Stellini can actually be attributed to him. He claims to be taking on board lots of input from Conte (apparently via text during games, though it's not clear how responsive he was to the actual messages), and I can't imagine Stellini openly defying Conte's wishes in terms of team selection and formation decisions, considering how long they have been working together. And yet, we've seen some significant changes throughout Stellini's caretaker run, including subtle tactical shifts (Dier playing more in midfield at times during the City game), unexpected positional moves for starting XI stalwarts (Davies moving to LWB in the West Ham game), and much earlier substitutions than we tend to see from Conte (Son in the West Ham game, but also Royal in the Marseille match pre-WC). What's next, the mythical 3-5-2 formation?? (This is a joke—we really don't have the numbers in midfield depth right now to risk playing more than two of them at once.)

It also seems like Stellini has been relying on in-game observations and advice from the other assistant coaches, such as Ryan Mason, in a way that we don't normally see Conte doing (at least visibly). It's almost as if the touchline team has become a democracy overnight, a stark difference from Conte's stubborn adherence to his personal vision of how to manage the team.

I know I am not the first to wonder if Stellini is a less intimidating presence for the players than Conte. It does sometimes seem like they are playing on eggshells in front of Conte, afraid to make a mistake (although really, they shouldn't be overly worried about being yanked—Conte rarely makes early subs!). So I kind of suspect that it's more a case of the players feeling empowered to play with more freedom and individual expression (which has naturally made them perform better overall) than a case of Stellini implementing wholesale tactical changes against Conte's orders. Which isn't to say that he hasn't made some changes; he has. I just doubt that they happened fully without prior knowledge (and likely explicit approval) from Conte.

Either way, I'm happy to see Stellini in charge for at least two more games if it means the players will continue playing like they're actually enjoying their football. I actually enjoyed watching them on Sunday, despite the relatively low scoreline, which hasn't always been the case this season. I don't think the first half was as turgid as many have suggested.

And yes, we should be beating West Ham handily (I would say winning 2-0 without any real threat of a goal from the Hammers counts as such), especially considering their recent relegation fodder form, but the fact is that we haven't always been able to get fired up for fixtures like this (as opposed to a high-pressure fixture like Manchester City) and therefore have dropped points many, many times against this opponent. I thought the performance marked a notable mentality shift from the team after a disappointing week of losses against Leicester and AC Milan, and I will take a derby win any day.

Not to get all philosophical on y'all, but the news of a potential takeover of Manchester United by a Qatar-backed investment group, juxtaposed with the gross overspending (in a literal and moral sense) by clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City over recent seasons, has got me thinking about what fans value most when it comes to sport. I realize there are some fans who are perfectly content to see their clubs engage in sportswashing if it leads to success on the pitch. But I personally cannot get behind this kind of mercenary model of team building. It can only bring about a hollow form of success.

Meanwhile, having such constant turnover in a squad can prevent fans from feeling a sense of continuity and unity with the players they support. I understand the frustration when it comes to wanting your club to upgrade in every position in every transfer window, but it's simply not realistic if the club is operating with financial sustainability as a key principle (as I think it's fair to say Tottenham has, largely). It should be a gradual process, and players should be given some opportunity to establish themselves at a club, as well as develop.

This match really made that concept hit home for me. There was satisfaction in seeing a beleaguered player, Emerson Royal, growing game by game even as he's been under huge pressure from fans. There was pride in seeing a reliable go-to squad member, Ben Davies, get to show off an aspect of his game that is generally overlooked. There was relief in seeing a beloved favorite, Son Heung-min, score a goal that made him look like his old self after a tough run of form. And there was redemption in seeing one of our own, Oliver Skipp, reclaim a starting spot after much trial and tribulation with injury (of course acknowledging that the opportunity arose through an unfortunate injury to another key player).

You don't get those moments if you "get rid" of temporarily underperforming players at the first sign of trouble for whatever shiny new talent has emerged from the continent. And let's be honest:  the direction of transfer rarely flows the opposite way, and the balance of power across the top 5 European leagues has become very unbalanced as a result. The cat is already out of the bag with regard to state investment in clubs, but the disparity will only get worse if the Premier League allows that investment to continue unchecked.

I just think this was a good week to remember that even though there are aspects of our club's ownership and board that can be frustrating, we should also appreciate the ways they have safeguarded the club from engaging in the kind of reckless behavior and ultimately less meaningful roads to success that other clubs have engaged in. I will take Emerson Royal proving the haters wrong and Sonny scoring a goal off the bench any day over watching Chelsea's hastily (and expensively) assembled super-team look like they've never played together, or Manchester City challenging for their umpteenth PL title.

Blaming the victim

Now that I've (hopefully) convinced y'all that it's okay to not be an unstoppable oil money club and take the struggles alongside the successes, let's bring the mood way back down and discuss a miscarriage of justice.

The day after the last issue of this newsletter, we learned that not only had Manchester United's Ella Toone had her red card from last week's match rescinded, but Eveliina Summanen was being charged with "successful deception of a match official." You can't make this up. Then yesterday, the FA announced that although Summanen denied the charge, she has been given a two-match ban.

I thought it would be helpful to establish what the facts are of the incident, as well as the more subjective factors framed through my own interpretation of the incident.

Facts timeline:
• Ella Toone came up behind Eveliina Summanen as the Tottenham player possessed the ball, pushed Summanen in the back, and tripped her.
• As Summanen fell to the ground, their legs got further entangled and Toone was also tripped and came down to the ground beside Summanen
• Toone retaliated by using both hands to shove Summanen back to the ground as Summanen attempted to get up.
• Summanen reacted by covering her face and turning over, then rolled back over onto her back and then back on her stomach again, with her face over her hands throughout.
• The referee had an unimpeded sightline for the entire incident, and after the ensuing melee of players, decided to give Toone a straight red card. Summanen was not given a yellow card.
• Toone alluded to the incident on social media after the game and although it was not an actual apology for her actions, she did appear to be acknowledging and taking responsibility for her overreaction.

My subjective take on the incident:
• Toone struck back out at Summanen with real intent and force and clearly was reacting with frustration at being tangled up with Summanen.
• The nature of her reaction fits the definition of violent conduct as laid out in the FA rulebook, despite not rising to the level of the worst infraction, which involves contact with an opponent's head. It meets both parts of the criteria—excessive force (this comes through really clearly on the video replay), and not challenging for the ball. Crucially, contact does not even have to be made for it to count as violent conduct; only an intent to make contact is required. In this case, Toone did indeed make contact with her opponent who was in a vulnerable position on the ground, and possession of the ball was no longer in contention.

• We know that the FA cannot give or rescind yellow cards after the fact, only red cards, so there was no chance of Toone's offense being downgraded to a yellow or Summanen given a yellow for simulation. What I'm less clear on is whether Toone's red could have been allowed to stand as a double yellow card situation (for the initial foul and then for her reaction with the shove).
• Regardless though, I personally think there was more than enough evidence to uphold the red and I'm frankly shocked that Toone is getting away with zero punishment after essentially admitting to her offense. That doesn't set a good precedent at all.
• Nor does it set a good precedent to punish Summanen for the kind of exaggeration that we see in every single game across both the women's and men's leagues. In this scenario, it feels as if Summanen is being made a scapegoat to make a larger point about what kind of behavior is and isn't acceptable in the women's game, which still holds the stereotype of being a gentler, fairer game than the men's game. In other words, the FA doesn't think her behavior was very ladylike. I am sure that every player who engages in some sort of simulation is most concerned with winning a game, not upholding gender stereotypes that would stifle the growth of the women's game.
• I also don't think you can objectively say that Summanen's reaction was simulation. There are many reasons she could have covered her face after Toone's shove, including fear of further contact from Toone, wanting to appear less threatening herself to avoid provoking further contact, or simply wanting to hide an expression of pain on her face. We see players cover their faces after non-head-related injuries all the time. For the FA to definitively rule that Summanen did so with the intent to deceive the match official is a big stretch, in my opinion.
• Finally, the most frustrating aspect of this ruling is that Summanen is basically taking the fall for the referee making a mistake—if, indeed, you agree that giving the red was a mistake in the first place, which I don't. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, it appeared that there was enough contact and intent from Toone for the offense to be a red card, regardless of whether or not she hit Summanen in the face, and the ref had a very clear view of the entire situation. So if the referee is now blaming Summanen for fooling her into making what was already a clear and obvious call, or the FA is using that premise as a convenient excuse to overturn a red card for a player who is a league and national team star, well... something stinks here.

To sum it all up, Summanen perhaps was not blameless (though not definitively), but there was no reason to overturn the initial red card decision anyway. The FA has badly bungled this situation and once again brought the league's officials into disrepute while simultaneously demonstrating that certain teams and players receive preferential treatment. It's all a terrible mess, and the result is that Summanen will now miss two very important games for Tottenham (an FA Cup fifth-round tie and a clash against top-3 side Manchester City in the WSL), whilst Toone is now free to play in United's match at Chelsea in a few weeks—a potential title decider with the way the table stands currently.

I will freely confess that I have never been this worked up about a matter involving Spurs Women. But I least feel some comfort in knowing that the majority of neutral fans have been on Tottenham's side with this, and the suspicion that the FA ruling amounts to influencing WSL outcomes is not ours alone. I have learned over the last week that there is not much point in engaging with Manchester United fans about it, because half of them won't even admit that Toone made contact with Summanen's shoulder at all. That's why I laid out the objective facts of the situation to start with here, because if we aren't working with the same set of facts then there's no point.  

Previewing the (simultaneous) weekend matches

I can't remember the last time we had Men's and Women's matches overlapping, but sadly, that's the case this Sunday.

The Men have the first kickoff, taking on Chelsea in the second London derby in a row. This one should be much more difficult to get a result out of than the West Ham game, even though Chelsea are also in pretty terrible form.

Chelsea's biggest issue is that they have once again assembled a motley squad under a relatively new manager, and naturally, there hasn't been much cohesion in the performances on the pitch. And a couple of their most recent January signings have made costly blunders in their first few games, such as João Félix's red card on his debut and Enzo Fernández's defensive slip-up in their CL loss at Dortmund. Summer signings have also struggled, with Raheem Sterling getting limited minutes in recent games and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang hardly playing at all.

Still... it's Chelsea. And the match is at Stamford Bridge. We haven't won there since 2018.

This could be the ideal time to be facing them though, with a few key injuries on their side (César Azpilicueta with a concussion, Édouard Mendy with a broken finger, and N'Golo Kanté with a hamstring injury) and a lack of confidence, not to mention some rumors that the players are not behind the manager, Graham Potter. If ever they were going to be unsettled enough for us to get a win in the away fixture—after sneaking a draw in the home fixture—it's now. Plus, we have Stellini!

The only potential new injury concern for Spurs is that Harry Kane is supposedly recovering from an illness, but since there are still a few days left before the match, I would expect him to be in the starting XI as usual. I'm not sure we will continue the Ben Davies at LWB experiment in such an important game, especially since Ivan Perišić only played 12 minutes against West Ham. Perišić's set-piece proficiency proved important in the home fixture (he assisted Kane's equalizer), and should be useful again in the away game.

Then thirty minutes after the Men's game begins, the Women kick-off against Reading in the FA Cup. It's another home match at Brisbane Road, so definitely get out there if you're local. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be televised or streaming anywhere, so the rest of us will have to catch the replay on SpursPlay the next day.

We're poised to reach the quarter-finals for the third time in club history with a win over Reading. Although they did beat us in the last matchup in the league, it was only 1-0 by way of an Amy Turner own goal. And since Reading's consolation goal in our 1-2 away win in the Conti Cup group stage came from a penalty, they haven't actually scored from open play against us at all this season. Let's hope we can keep it that way with a clean sheet and a decisive win.

As far as I'm aware we don't have any new injury concerns—but then, the club usually doesn't make us aware. See also:  learning that Cho So-hyun and Chioma Ubogagu are both injured from non-club sources on Twitter over this past week. I wouldn't expect to see many changes to the lineup from the Manchester United game, with the obvious exception of Eveliina Summanen being suspended. Angharad James will just have to step up! It would also be nice to see Kerys Harrop get some rest since she's had heavy minutes lately, but Rehanne Skinner has been oddly reluctant to play Asmita Ale, so we'll see.

Since we last played Reading, they brought in two new transfers, Jade Moore returning on loan to her former club and new signing Easther Mayi Kith. Moore started in midfield for Reading's 2-0 away loss to Liverpool, but Mayi Kith, a defender, has yet to feature for the Royals. Moore could potentially be a difference-maker in the midfield battle since Summanen is missing out for Spurs, but overall we definitely had the stronger transfer window and enter the match with a clear advantage in creating goal-scoring opportunities.

This should be a decisive victory for Spurs, which is much-needed after a tough run of games. I almost wish it was a league game because we desperately need to break the WSL losing streak, but advancing to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup could also be a nice morale boost for both players and fans.

I will now take this time to shamelessly plug the N17 Women podcast's latest episode, an exclusive interview with Ashleigh Neville. And yes, we got her to admit which position she prefers playing—attack or defense? Give it a listen.

COYS

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