Tottenham Hotspur Women have had a rough go of it in the league as of late after a hot start to open the WSL season. Spurs haven’t won a league match since late January and have been put through the wringer with two defeats to Manchester City and a hard-earned draw against Liverpool.
On Sunday they returned home to face an Aston Villa side without two of their most potent offensive stars in Rachel Daly, who is suspended, and the injured Ebony Salmon. It was a great opportunity to pick up some important points with a North London Derby looming, but Spurs had a disappointing match and fell to the Villains at home by a score of 2-1. Villa got goals from Adriana Leon and Jordan Nobbs. Amy James-Turner scored Spurs’ only goal off of a set piece near the end of the first half.
The only real surprise in the starting lineup was the inclusion of Kit Graham, who recently signed a contract extension with Tottenham, in a central midfield role ahead of Olga Ahtinen, who has struggled some in recent matches. Spurs persisted with an attacking three of Martha Thomas, Celine Bizet, and Bethany England up top. Charli Grant and Amanda Nildén started at fullback as Ashleigh Neville continues to recuperate from an ankle injury.
Tottenham started the match off brightly, implementing a Bob-Ball high press and keeping Villa pinned back into their own half in the early minutes. Villa seemed content to try and play counter-attacking football through Jordan Nobbs and forced a couple of routine early saves from Barbora Votikova in the opening ten minutes. But those opening minutes were the high point in what was an otherwise frustrating first half.
The visitors had the first very good chance of the match in the 20th minute when a run from Kirsty Hanson opened up Spurs’ back line; Hanson was able to find her strike partner Adriana Leon in Spurs’ box who flashed her shot just wide of the post.
And it was the Canadian international who scored first just two minutes later — Leon ran straight through Spurs’ back line and poked a shot past Votikova to put Villa ahead.
But Spurs didn’t stay behind for long. Tottenham equalized in the 38th minute off a set piece — Eveliina Summanen fired a gorgeous long free kick into the box and right at the head of Amy James-Turner, who headed past Daphne van Domselaar. It was just the second Spurs goal in her career.
Leon nearly put Villa ahead in first half injury time, but Votikova made a leaping one-handed stop at the near post to prevent the goal. The teams went into the break level at 1-1.
Spurs started the second half with an unchanged lineup but with some renewed energy, though issues in passing and controlling the ball continued in the early minutes. Beth England, who has yet to score a goal in the league this season, tried a long (and well wide) shot after catching van Domselaar off her line, and Thomas was finally played into the box only to have her attempt blocked by Villa’s keeper.
Spurs started to turn the screws a bit going forward and had a pretty good spell of possession around the 55th minute mark, generating several half chances but rarely testing the keeper.
Villa’s second goal came courtesy of another set piece — an unconvincing clearance resulted in the ball at Mayumi Pacheco’s feet. Pacheco played a simple pass to a wide open Jordan Nobbs who fired a ripper into the top corner to put Villa ahead 2-1.
Spurs responded by bringing on super-sub Jessica Naz for Celin Bizet in the 63rd minute, and Naz made an almost instant impact. Kit Graham slipped a ball into Naz in the box, and Naz put a low curling shot towards the back post that forced a very good save from van Domselaar. Graham herself had a subsequent shot from the top of the box that flew achingly wide.
Villa very nearly went 3-1 up in the 72nd minute after Nobbs put a ball off the frame of the goal, which would’ve been a harsh result after the referee declined to call a clear and obvious foul on Kit Graham in the buildup.
With a quarter of the match remaining, Robert Vilahamn rolled the dice and made a quadruple change: Wang Shuang for Summanen; Olga Ahtinen for Charli Grant; Matilda Vinberg for England; and Ramona Petzelberger for Thomas. This resulted in Naz playing centrally as a forward with Wang and Vinberg playing just behind. There was a frisson of new energy in the side — Graham flashed another shot just wide and both Naz and Petzelberger found some pockets of space going forward — but Spurs were still not able to find another equalizer with time slipping away.
Spurs eventually ran out of time entirely. The match ended with the final score of Spurs 1-2 Villa, a disappointing loss in a match that will feel like a missed opportunity.
Reactions:
- Barbora will probably want that first goal back, it looked like she got caught flat-footed in the attack and could’ve done better to get into the ball’s path.
- Spurs’ backline looked weirdly susceptible to direct runs, as though they were surprised that a team might go straight at them.
- Tottenham have a clear play style under Vilahamn that involves short, sharp passing and off-ball runs to create space. It’s neat when it works, but Spurs were frequently let down by their final pass such that England and Thomas rarely were in good positions to get shots away. In fact, both Spurs strikers barely saw the ball at all.
- That first half was probably among the worst I’ve seen Spurs play all season — they were generally out-played, out-pressed, and out-hustled by Villa and didn’t impose themselves or their style of play.
- I’m a big fan of Grace Clinton but she was unusually loose with her passing in this match.
- Kit Graham, by contrast, looked sharp in a deeper role than we’re used to seeing from her. She scored a banger against Charlton in the Cup and did not look hesitant to shoot from distance in this one. She came close a couple of times, too. One of Spurs’ best players in an overall turd of a match.
- In theory, playing Martha Thomas and Beth England in the same forward line should be amazing. In practice, it just hasn’t worked — they don’t seem to have the right chemistry together. One of them needs to make way, which feels counterfactual.
- I don’t necessarily have an issue with Vilahamn making the quadruple sub, sometimes it’s good to shake things up like that, but it’s a reflection that Bob got the initial tactics wrong. It was very much vibes-based subbing, though. Maybe that means we’ll see a shake-up in the lineup going forward? Seems like something’s got to change.
- Regardless, it’s very disappointing not to get a result against an Aston Villa side without Rachel Daly or Ebony Salmon. A disheartening performance and puts a fine point on how inconsistent Spurs have been this season.
- It doesn’t get any easier — in fact it gets a heck of a lot harder — for Spurs. Their next match is the away NLD against an Arsenal side that will be highly motivated after losing to Spurs in the reverse fixture for the first time ever. Spurs then host Manchester City — again — in the quarterfinals of the FA Women’s Cup.