Tottenham Hotspur's Two Homes

The first weekend in the two home grounds resulted in two wins | Previewing the Men's trip to Old Trafford

This will be the last delayed issue before Spurs Across the Pond gets back to its regularly scheduled programming! Thanks for understanding.

I had a lot going on this weekend, and so did Tottenham Hotspur. The Men kicked things off on Saturday with a win over Everton, then the Women followed it up with a win against Liverpool on Sunday. This was the first weekend where both teams played at home in their respective grounds, and the first match ever for the Women at Brisbane Road. Let's take a look back at the Men's game first.

Tottenham 2 - 0 Everton

I had a less-than-ideal viewing experience of this match in real time (watching the first half very distracted by my niece and nephews, then listening to the second half in the car on the way to the airport), so I did something I rarely do:  rewatched the game in full.

It was hard to find too much fault with anything Spurs did. The first half was maybe a little less clinical than we'd like in a finishing sense, but it was far from the dull performance you'd expect to see if you'd only heard the pundits' verdict. On that note, can we please all come together and create a petition to have Lee Dixon banned from commentating on our matches? I'm not sure how much more of his miserable ex-Gooner schtick I can take.

My main impression from the first half was that James Tarkowski was keeping Everton in the game with some superb defending (a very smart transfer for a club that has been notoriously misguided with their transfers in recent seasons). Cristian Romero was performing equally well for our side, and it was good to see him back to his best after a somewhat underwhelming start to the season, at least regarding his offensive contributions—which can be just as pivotal as what he's doing on the defensive end.

I can't remember which of my Tottenham Depot co-hosts suggested that having Matt Doherty in the right wingback position releases Cuti to make his best passing and attacking runs, but I would tend to agree. Doherty seems to make the whole team play better, frankly, and that's not a slight to Emerson Royal, necessarily—it's just a recognition of the fact that Doherty was trained as a wingback while Royal is a right back by trade. Conte's wingback-centric system works better when the two wingbacks fully execute their roles to his high standards. And as I've pointed out many times, Doherty makes attacking runs into the box that Royal would never think to make. While Doherty's instinct is to go for goal (or at least facilitate it), Royal always has half a mind on defense.

The other prevailing opinion from the commentary class was that Everton had the two best opportunities of the first half, but in my opinion, Hugo Lloris had it covered for both chances. They were two examples of the importance of proper positioning from a goalkeeper forcing a poor shot. Spurs had plenty of quality buildup play on their own part, but again, Tarkowski was on it.

The second half started on a downer note when Richarlison was forced off in the 52nd minute with an injury. Although it seemed very dire at the time and he was reportedly in tears fearing his World Cup dream was over, Conte has since revealed that Richy should be back within a couple of weeks and not at risk of missing the World Cup, which is such a relief for Spurs and for Brazil.

Richarlison was replaced by Yves Bissouma and the team switched to a 3-5-2 formation, having started in Conte's (ostensibly) preferred 3-4-3. We promptly saw the shift pay dividends with an immediate double chance for Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, and the attack didn't let up at all for the rest of the half.

One of the next chances for Spurs reminded me that Sonny does have one glaring weakness in his game:  headers. It's not that he's never scored one (if I recall correctly, he just did for South Korea during the last international break), he's just not as ruthlessly efficient with headers as he is with regular shots. There's been many a time when I've rued a golden chance for a header falling to Son instead of Harry, who would certainly bury it. I suppose Son being good at headers would make him far too powerful.

The breakthrough came in the 59th minute courtesy of a Kane penalty. Doherty had a shot fumbled by Jordan Pickford and when Kane tried to collect the ball at Pickford's feet, Everton's keeper fouled him. So Kane got one over on his England teammate twice, drawing the penalty and scoring it. I'm beginning to think he takes some delight in scoring penalties on his England keeper teammates—so far only Dean Henderson has managed to avoid such embarrassment. Anyway, I'm glad Harry did convert the penalty, because imagine if he had missed two penalty attempts in a row (across competitions). The narrative that would spark in the media! No thank you.

Spurs kept pushing for a second goal, despite what the commentators would have you believe, which is that we were in total game management mode after the PK—I object! And speaking of never giving up, Spurs' resident Energizer bunny/fully-fledged Viking persisted his way into a goal in the 86th minute. It came from a brilliant linkup between Kane and Rodrigo Bentancur on the right flank, with the latter finding Pierre-Emile Højbjerg in plenty of space in the box. Alex Iwobi was too casual in shutting PEH down after arriving late behind him, and Højbjerg's shot actually took a deflection off the Everton midfielder to throw Pickford off the trajectory. For those keeping track at home, Højbjerg is now tied with Son for second-most PL goals for Spurs this season. He's mounting a strong campaign to win Spurs Across the Pond Men's Player of the Month again for October.

There was a hilarious moment at the beginning of stoppage time when it looked like Ivan Perišić was surely going to score, only for Tarkowski to pull off a last-ditch tackle and look up at the heavens like "do I really have to do this all myself?" Tough break to leave Burnley only to carry Everton's defense on his back.

To wrap things up, I have to give some credit to Bissouma. This was the first game where I felt like he played well, not because he lit the world on fire, but because he did the simple things well and did everything that was being asked of him—namely, to shore things up defensively from the midfield and allow Bentancur and Højbjerg more freedom to get forward and create chances. This role is somewhat contrary to the impression I got during the transfer window about why Spurs signed him (for his creativity), but it's kind of a moot point as long as he's doing what Conte wants (or needs) him to do. Taking fewer risks for the good of the team is fine, and it's notable that he completed his shift without picking up a needless yellow card. Cheers, Yves.

In closing, here is a glimpse into what it's like being an American PL fan and being constantly bemused by the commentary for reasons related to British English:

Now, on to the Women's team!

Tottenham 1 - 0 Liverpool

As expected, Liverpool didn't pose much of an attacking threat beyond their set pieces, and their infamous long throw-in strategy didn't even come into play until the second half when Spurs were already leading by a goal to nil.

Before we get to Spurs' goal, it's important to note the change in the formation for this match. Rehanne Skinner opted to set her team up in a 4-3-3, with Asmita Ale covering left back duties so Ash Neville could move up into the forward line at left winger. Tinni Korpela got her first start of the season and ended up securing Spurs' first clean sheet of the WSL campaign, albeit with lots of help from a defensive line that is looking much more settled now after a shaky start to the season.

Celin Bizet was the standout performer of the match for me. She caused constant havoc on the right flank from the winger position and forced Liverpool to score an own goal with a dangerous cross in the 11th minute. I do think Nikola Karczewska would have gotten on the end of Bizet's cross if the Liverpool defender, Niamh Fahey, hadn't deflected it in, so it's hard to say who really got cheated out of getting on the scoresheet. Both players have yet to score a WSL goal, but at this rate, I don't think we'll have to wait much longer.

This was a game where every player across the starting XI put in a quality shift. The substitutes (Cho So-hyun, Ellie Brazil, and Jessica Naz) were not quite as impactful when they came in, but the latter two are still on restricted minutes so it's just good to see them playing. I was hoping we'd see a bit more from Cho after her strong performance against Reading in the Conti Cup, but it appears consistency might still be an issue for her.

I should also note that both Neville and Drew Spence were inches away from adding to their worldie goals tally this season, both hitting the woodwork with powerful shots. I thought Drew had her best overall performance so far and appreciated that she wasn't asked to do as much defensive duty this game, particularly on Liverpool's numerous second-half set piece opportunities—we know defending set pieces is not her strong suit.

Speaking of those set pieces, Liverpool finally brought on Megan Campbell in the 68th minute to take advantage of her long throw-in specialty, and Spurs had to weather an onslaught of such scenarios for the rest of the game. Rehanne and her staff had clearly prepared them well for this strategy from Liverpool, and the clean sheet felt well-earned, especially when you consider how much we struggled to defend set pieces in the first few matches.

I would have liked to see a little more attacking intent in the second half, since that's been a troubling trend this season, but at the same time, seeing out the narrow one-goal advantage is understandable in the context of the injury crisis Spurs are still weathering. The encouraging sign is that the defense finally seemed able to shoulder that responsibility. Amy Turner is looking much more integrated with the back line, and our central CBs, Shelina Zadorsky and Molly Bartrip, are back to their best. Hopefully the defensive solidity that was a trademark of Spurs Women last season is back for good.

I also want to give Ale a shoutout for not only defending well, but always being proactive about winning balls and converting possession into offense. She and Neville have a great partnership going when it comes to linking up on the attack, whether they're playing on the right or left flank. I would go so far as to say that Neville has successfully mentored Ale into replacing her in the defense, which benefits the whole team since Ash can then show off her attacking prowess playing higher up the pitch. Of course, Ash is still seen as a defender by the football world at large—kind of like Rachel Daly with Sarina Wiegman.

But hey, recognition is always a good thing. Speaking of, you can vote for Ash in the FSA awards.

As I mentioned earlier, this was Spurs Women's first match at the new home ground, Brisbane Road. Attendance for the match (2,105) was higher than our average attendance last season at the Hive (h/t my N17 Women co-host, Rachel), but... perhaps slightly disappointing nevertheless? I can't help but feel like the club hasn't capitalized enough on the rise in enthusiasm for Women's football post-Euros. We're going to get into it on the podcast this week, so keep an ear out for that full discussion, but I think a few of the contributing factors were:

• having the first game at Brisbane Road relatively far into the season (matchday 3, but would have been matchday 4 if not for the postponed United game, which was scheduled to be at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium)

• issues with season tickets

• confusion about ticketing in general

• lack of local awareness in Leyton (h/t my other co-host, Sian)

It was cool to see this photographic evidence that at least some marketing of the team was happening in the Leyton area. Personally, I think they should have featured our defenders more prominently on the barriers for comedic effect, but of course, Ash and Jess are two of our best-known players. Joking aside, I hope some of the local Leyton Orient fans will get excited to support Spurs Women, too. Leyton Orient do have a women's team, but in a much lower league than the WSL (tier 7 to be precise), so fans who want to see top-level football might enjoy supporting both.

One thing I continue to be disappointed by is the lack of crossover between fans of the Men's team and the Women's team when really, it should be a #OneClub mentality. I realize this isn't going to change overnight, but more could be done to promote the Women's team to a captive audience—the Men's fanbase. It can be as simple as encouraging fans to head down to Brisbane Road on weekends when the Men's team is playing away, or trying out some doubleheader ticket deals when both teams are playing at home on different days of the weekend, as they did this past weekend.

Sorry to be mentioning all of my podcast co-hosts this issue, but in talking with Scott this weekend he got me thinking about how a lot of times it's as simple as fans needing to be invited in, as well as needing some patience shown towards them as they learn about a new team and get acclimated as supporters. There shouldn't be any gatekeeping involved, and all Spurs fans should feel welcome at the Women's games, regardless of whether they've been fans from day one, since the WSL journey began, or are just checking them out for the first time this season. If you've read this far I am probably preaching to the choir, but I still think it's worth talking about and being cognizant of.

Attendance aside, the result was a good one for Spurs, who moved up a couple of places in the table to 7th. The negative goal difference is a lingering consequence of the NLD loss, but picking up points is the most important thing this early in the season. Up next we have Manchester City on the weekend; I'll save that preview for the next issue because there's a lot to get into.

Finding a chink in the United armor

On a more pressing note, the Men's team has a midweek match to contend with. They travel to Manchester to take on United at Old Trafford, which has been the scene of some very contrasting fixtures between our teams in the last few seasons. A hard-fought draw, a Spurs blowout win, and the unfortunate R*naldo hat trick last spring. We've seen it all.

So while this is not a derby, it somehow ends up feeling like one since form seems to go out the window when we play them. I'm not sure United could really be said to be in any kind of form right now. In the month of October, they suffered a 6-3 defeat to City in the Manchester derby, eked out two narrow wins over Omonia Nicosia in the Europa League, had a comeback win over Everton after going a goal down early, and most recently played out a scoreless draw with Newcastle.

There are vulnerabilities to be found in this United team, the trouble is predicting exactly which team will line up for any given match. New manager Erik ten Hag has tinkered with his starting XI so often that we've seen several different iterations of United already this season, each version with its pros and cons. He's received a lot of criticism for starting (or not starting) experienced players like R*naldo and Casemiro as well as recently beleaguered players like Harry Maguire and Jadon Sancho. In the transfer window, he brought in a couple of players he'd managed at Ajax, Lisandro Martínez and Antony, presumably for some reliability in terms of the standards he can expect.

Former Spur Christian Eriksen missed the Newcastle game with an illness but could be back for our fixture. It would certainly be interesting to face the exact player many fans have namechecked as the kind of player we're missing in our current squad. Elsewhere on United's injury list, Maguire, Anthony Martial, Donny van de Beek, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are all out.

Royal is still suspended for Spurs, so we can expect to see Doherty starting again. With Richarlison out and Kulusevski doubtful, I can only assume Conte will give the 3-5-2 formation a go again, but who knows—maybe it's Bryan Gil's time to shine in the front-three! (I am obviously being sarcastic; I don't actually think Conte would start him against Manchester United). Conte might have his mind on rotation with another PL game on the weekend, but since United and our next opponent (Newcastle) are neck-and-neck in the table, it's hard to say which match to prioritize as the more difficult fixture.

Regardless of who actually ends up starting for both teams, this feels like an opportune time to be facing them. The Worst Man in Football has looked increasingly average this season, and United's defensive issues have been well-documented. With Son and Kane apparently back to playing with their near-telekinetic connection of previous seasons, they should have a lot of joy against United's backline. I'm not saying I expect a repeat of the 1-6 scoreline from 2020, but a comfortable win margin seems very doable. That being said, we sometimes show them too much respect—though I would hope some of the mystique has worn off by now.

It should be an entertaining match at the very least.

COYS

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