Write-off

Spurs Men have another outing to forget at Old Trafford | Previewing the weekend matches

As in, I wrote off this game shortly after halftime.

Manchester United 2 - 0 Tottenham

That's maybe a slight exaggeration, but I do remember looking at the clock at the 70th minute and thinking to myself "god, there's so much time left" rather than "oh good, there's still lots of time left." We never looked like getting back into the game.

The only player even keeping us in the game at all was Hugo Lloris. Our captain made an incredible eight saves, several of them very difficult saves. He showed up to play, but I'm not sure anyone else did—it didn't show, at least. The defense in particular really let Hugo down.

In fairness, the deflection off Ben Davies for Fred's opening goal in the 47th minute was quite unfortunate, and the ball fell very kindly to Bruno Fernandes for United's second and final goal in the 69th minute. But more frustrating than the flukey goals we conceded was the fact that we barely looked like scoring ourselves. We registered just two shots on target and only took nine shots total, versus United's whopping twenty-eight. I won't say the first half was as bad as the second because at least we were attempting some build-up play in the first 45, but the last 45 was an absolute slog to watch. There was no life left in the team, not even when the substitutes came on.

Which would lead me to believe that it's a mentality thing. I noted in my preview that United have become something of a bogey team for us, and that trend has sadly repeated for another fixture. That doesn't make the performance or the result acceptable, but it did give me the peace of mind to try to let go of the disappointment after the game and move on with my day, rather than dwelling on it like, ahem, a certain recent derby match that felt like a much more personal loss.

So yes, I'm not going to dwell on this one. I don't think the 3-5-2 formation is a failed experiment after one game (and not even a full game's worth—Conte switched to a 3-4-3 when Lucas subbed on in the 82nd minute). I don't think these players are irredeemable or unworthy of wearing the shirt. None of them besides Hugo had a good game by any means, but it was more of a collective failure than down to individual performances that we lost. And I don't think this one result dramatically changes the outlook for the season. Let's all take a deep breath and shift our focus to the next game.

Back to the fortress

We technically get a short reprieve since the Women's team plays first this weekend on Saturday, but I'll stick with the Men for a moment and preview the Sunday game first.

They'll be back at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for a matchup with Newcastle United. The Magpies are just five points below Spurs in the table on the same number of games after a relatively strong start to the season, albeit with lots of draws. Significantly, they've only lost one match so far, away at Liverpool, which is never an easy place to go. They've also not had as many midweek matches to contend with since they are not in European competition (though as the table stands, they'd be qualifying for Europa League next year).

Of course, the elephant in the room is that a lot of their present success can be attributed to the large influx of cash from their new Saudi ownership group. This is sportswashing in action. And many of the recent transfers funded by that fresh investment have made a noticeable impact on the team already, such as former Spur Kieran Trippier and Bruno Guimarães.

In the 2020/21 season, we drew both games to Newcastle (yes, for the record, I am still mad about the bogus handball call on Dier), but we won both fixtures against them last year, including a 2-3 away win that spoiled the party at the first game under the new owners at St. James' Park. The reverse fixture was a super-dominant 5-1 win.

Two of Newcastle's best attackers, Allan Saint-Maximin (a recurring Spurs transfer target rumor) and newcomer Alexander Isak are both out with lengthy injuries. Miguel Almirón has been having a much better season than in recent campaigns but is still far from being one of the most potent attacking threats in the league. This should be a good match for the Tottenham defense to bounce back from the listless display against Manchester United.

No matter who lines up for Newcastle, Spurs have to show a spirited response after the disappointing midweek result. I still think Conte will be inclined to start with the 3-5-2 again considering the injury situation hasn't changed, and surely Bissouma will have a better game—couldn't be much worse. Plus, Lucas didn't look very impactful when he came on against United and we switched to the 3-4-3, so I can't see Conte wanting to start him on Sunday.

I'm hoping to see at least one of Kane or Son on the scoresheet again this weekend. Sonny especially could use the boost.

The first real test

Spurs Women have their most challenging fixture so far coming up—that is,  as far as fixtures we can reasonably be expected to get a result in go (Arsenal was not such a game).

Don't get me wrong, Manchester City still have a lot of quality in their squad, but the new transfers are not yet integrated effectively and the departures have been keenly felt. Caroline Weir, Georgia Stanway, and (perhaps most importantly) Keira Walsh are all thriving at their new clubs, while their old club is probably realizing by now that they failed to properly replace them.

So unprepared were City for the start of the season that they suffered a shocking 4-3 away loss at Aston Villa on the (delayed) opening matchday. They followed that result up with another away loss to Chelsea 2-0, and finally got their first win of the season at home against Leicester in a dominant 4-0 display.

One thing you may have noticed is that they've still managed to score quite a few goals despite a couple of unfavorable results. We enter the weekend matchup three points ahead of City on the table, but if we were to lose they would leapfrog us on goal difference. City's attacking line stayed largely intact through the transfer window, and boasts such world-class talents as Lauren Hemp, Chloe Kelly, and Khadija "Bunny" Shaw. They also added the promising young Australian striker Mary Fowler to supplement their more tenured forwards, softening the blow of Ellen White's retirement after the Euros.

All that being said, City are not yet at the same level of prestige as Arsenal or Chelsea, and Spurs have done well in the past to not show them too much respect. We tend to take the game to them whether home or away, and I'm hoping that will be the case again on Sunday as we host them at Brisbane Road.

(To follow up on last issue's discussion of the new home ground, make sure you check out Rachel's blog post which takes a nuanced perspective on the experience of the first match at Brisbane Road.)

With the exception of the discouraging 3-0 loss to City in last season's League Cup semi-final, we were able to hold them to just two goals across both WSL fixtures. Becky Spencer started in goal both times, so I would prefer to see her between the sticks for this match, too. Otherwise, I wouldn't make too many tweaks to the starting XI from the win against Liverpool. I'm particularly eager to see Celin Bizet get another start and continue cooking (though I guess Jess Naz is technically the chef of the team—if you know, you know). Although Chioma Ubogagu will finally be back from her suspension, I would expect her to feature off the bench rather than starting straight off.

This is a game I wouldn't even try to predict considering where both teams are at, so let's just get up early (if you're on this side of the pond especially—kickoff is at a startling 5:30 a.m. Central Time for me) and enjoy the ride.

COYS

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