Too Many Derbies

Spurs Men continue to lose momentum in the top 4 race after a draw at Brentford | Spurs Women suffer a loss in the first of two games this week against Chelsea

This weekend's matches definitely didn't pan out the way we would have liked. The Men's team dropped two valuable points away at Brentford and lost ground in the top 4 race, while the Women's team failed to capitalize on rare mistakes from likely title-winners Chelsea. Let's start this downer of a recap post with the Men, since they played first on Saturday.

Stagnant squad and stubborn Conte

Brentford 0 - 0 Tottenham

Unfortunately, my notes for the scoreless draw at Brentford aren't too different from my observations from last week's loss to Brighton. It was another flat performance all around and another case of subpar in-game management from Conte. Some of the performances he's gotten out of the team this season have felt miraculous, but he's not above criticism when they're mundane instead.

My two hopes for this match were that we would limit Brentford's set-piece opportunities to neutralize the threat from Christian Eriksen and see an improvement from our front three. Well... we certainly didn't limit corners and free kicks for Brentford--they had plenty. But we defended them pretty well and secured our 13th clean sheet of the season, so it wasn't a total wash on that front. On the attacking front, we improved our possession from the Brighton match but didn't do much with it; we didn't have an answer for the congested Brentford box since we lack creativity in our midfield and the wingbacks simply weren't getting it done.

A drawback to Conte's wingback-reliant system is that when we don't have the right personnel due to injury (Doherty, Reguilón), lack of form (Sessegnon), or just a mismatch of players' preferred positions (Royal, also Reguilón), we're going to have a bad time going forward. Sometimes Kane's individual playmaking ability can compensate for uninspired performances from the wingbacks, but Thomas Frank isn't stupid--he had his midfield and defense committed to smothering Kane every time he got on the ball, making him a non-factor on offense when he's usually integral to our build-up play. Defensively, Kane contributed to maintaining the clean sheet with a crucial goal-line clearance, but it was frustrating to see him stymied going forward. Son and Kulusevski weren't getting much service as a result, though I would have liked to see them do better with the few opportunities they did get. Not to be basic, but really:  just take some shots! This marked our second game in a row without a single shot on target.

I would also argue that we lacked a more assertive midfielder to control the tempo of the match, and that's no disrespect to Højbjerg and Bentancur, who were actually two of the better players on the day. That's just not their forte. I'm thinking, of course, of Oliver Skipp. Thank god the club has already extended his contract to keep him at the club through the 2026/27 season, because we will need his proactive style of play if we're mounting a CL campaign next season.

As for the Conte of it all, I'm growing increasingly weary of his stubbornness. We've all seen what happens when Plan A is working brilliantly, but he seems either incapable or simply unwilling to have a Plan B ready when Plan A fails. And let's face it, Plan A hasn't exactly panned out since Doherty's season ended with an injury. I don't think it's a coincidence, either. True, Conte is a bit hamstrung with personnel constraints, since Doherty and Sessegnon are the only two players on the roster truly suited to a wingback role; Royal and Reguilón are both fullbacks on paper, which isn't to say that they can't develop into proper wingbacks--it's just going to take some time, time that we don't have in this business end of the season with top 4 on the line. So why not try a new formation?

And even if he wanted to stick with the usual formation to start the game, he has to do better with the in-game management. The subs came too late considering we had seen basically the same performance last match, they were the wrong subs (justice for Bergwijn, seriously), and they were insufficient--Conte left one of three possible substitutions unused. I honestly didn't hate the idea of bringing Sánchez in for Sessegnon to take over at LCB and shifting Davies up to LWB, since we know Davies likes to get forward, but if Conte is favoring Sessegnon over Reguilón for the starting LWB spot I think he would have done better to let Sess stay on the pitch and try to work his way into some form--unless there was a fitness concern, of course. It wasn't working for Kane today, so why not give him a rest and bring on a player like Winks who, despite his inconsistencies, does have a decent cross in him from time to time? Or, for the millionth time, I would suggest giving Berwijn some actual minutes instead of just garbage time (or no time, as was the baffling case today).

Amazingly, this was only our fourth draw of the season. It would at least appear that the squad has internalized Conte's message from last week's post-match that if they cannot win, they cannot lose. Mission accomplished in that sense. Unfortunately, Arsenal secured all three points against Manchester United, and moved above us into 4th place. But as Dier noted in his post-match interview, top 4 is technically still in our hands as long as we beat Arsenal in the home NLD. It does kind of feel like we need to get something from the Liverpool match at Anfield now, and that is a tough ask no matter what our form is looking like.

On a happier note, it was extremely heartwarming to see the players greeting Eriksen in the tunnel before the match, as well as the reception he got from the traveling Spurs fans. And he did admit to still being a Spurs fan in his post-game comments, so who knows... maybe he'll be back in lilywhite next season to help us with that midfield creativity issue. We can dream!

Round 1 of derby week ends in defeat

Tottenham 1 - 3 Chelsea

I had to laugh when the Hometown Glory podcast referred to this horrible time in the Tottenham Women fixture schedule as "Chelsea Hell Week," because honestly... accurate. Knowing that we have to face them again on Thursday, at their home ground, does not make this defeat any easier to take. Especially when the match itself saw us tantalizingly close to pulling off an upset result.

I don't think it's unfair to say that Spurs largely dominated in the first half. And even though our sole goal of the match came from a Chelsea own goal, it was definitely of the "forced under pressure" variety rather than a "pure luck" style of own goal. Kudos to the Spurs Women Twitter admin for the brilliant "Bend it like Bartrip" caption on the goal announcement (and happy 20th anniversary to, no joke, my favorite film of all time). It was Bartrip's corner delivery that hit the crossbar and was turned into the goal by Sophie Ingle.

The mood was dampened a bit when Guro Reiten scored off a shot/cross, but quickly turned jubilant again when Chelsea's keeper Ann-Katrin Berger was sent off with a straight red card. Berger had taken Williams out on a clear goal-scoring opportunity, so the ref had no choice (but took her sweet time getting the card out, let me just say--I was so worried she was going to let Berger get away with it!). Chelsea had to use an early sub to bring in their second keeper. For the rest of the first half, we did look capable of making the most of the player advantage and scoring another goal, but entered halftime tied at 1-1. I should probably mention here that we had been denied an obvious penalty decision in the first half, and Korpela was not far off saving Reiten's shot, so the game felt very much in the balance going into the break.

Sadly, we were unable to find another goal early in the second half, and when fatigue started to take its toll we were faced with the undeniable gap in quality between our bench and Chelsea's (and I don't just mean numerically, though they did have three more players available than Spurs did). They were able to bring on such world-class players as Pernille Harder, Magdalena Eriksson, and Jessie Fleming, while we... well, I don't want to disrespect anyone on the Tottenham squad, but there's obviously no comparison. This just reinforces my previous call for strong backing in the transfer window this summer, because the only way we will truly be able to compete with the top WSL clubs is to ensure we also have game-changers on the bench.

In the end, Chelsea's influx of talent was too much for Spurs to withstand. Sam Kerr, who had been threatening all game long, finally broke through with a headed goal to gain the lead, and substitute Fleming scored a worldie to put the result on ice in stoppage time.

I do want to commend both Cho and Summanen for putting in strong performances from the midfield, as well as Schnaderbeck, who got a rare start thanks to Rehanne's decision to play a back three and had some superb defensive moments holding off Kerr. The wingbacks, Neville and Harrop, also put in spirited shifts. The wingers were the weak spot today, with Naz taking too long to fully get into the game and Simon not doing enough with her opportunities. Williams, of course, was unlucky to be denied a surefire goal thanks to Berger's red-card foul.

Despite the result, I still think we put in a performance worthy of respect from fans across the league. This season has been such a refreshing change from years past, when Spurs Women matches could often be a tough watch due to the (even more noticeable) gap in quality between us and the other WSL teams. We didn't have enough in reserve to hold onto the win (or even a draw) this time, but I enjoyed watching this lively and contentious match--and that's not something you could credibly say about our matches against Chelsea in previous seasons.

Is the match on Thursday going to be painful? Probably. But it's important to keep an eye on the big picture and recognize that this is a Spurs team on the rise, and it's always going to be difficult playing the team that is likely to win the WSL title. I'm sure Rehanne will have a few tweaks and tricks up her sleeve for the reverse fixture, so let's get behind the squad and hope for the best.

I'll be back on Thursday with a recap of that match as well as a preview for Spurs Women and Men's weekend fixtures.

COYS