Tottenham Women vs. Crystal Palace preview: mystery box Spurs need a good start

Tottenham Hotspur Women kick off their new Women’s Super League schedule this Sunday afternoon at home against a favorable opponent — newly-promoted Crystal Palace. This is a good thing, though it might add a little extra pressure to the first match of the season; Tottenham have a fairly killer early schedule, with upcoming league matches at Aston Villa, home to Liverpool, at United, and at Chelsea in their first five matches.

That’s a rough schedule against four formidable opponents, which makes an opening fixture against a club widely expected to drop back down to the Championship next season all that more important. So a fast start for Robert Vilahamn’s women is desperately needed, or Spurs face the daunting prospect of an early season hole unless they play extremely well early on.

What to Watch For

In what has been an extreme rarity the past number of seasons, we actually have a pre-match injury report for Spurs Women! According to Jamie Spangher, Spurs will be without new defensive signing Ella Morris, central defender Amy James-Turner (who just signed a new extended two year contract with the club yesterday) and China international striker Wang Shuang for this match.

Tottenham blitzed through their preseason friendlies, winning every one including matches against Feyenoord, Manchester United, and Chelsea (!). Unfortunately, none of them were televised or streamed, and most of them weren’t even reported on so there’s very little we can glean about Vilahamn’s intentions, or the context in which the matches were played. That’s frustrating, and means we won’t really know how good (or bad) this Spurs team is until we see them in action.

The absence of James-Turner, who was a regular in Spurs’ defensive line last season, could mean a week 1 defensive partnership of vice-captain Molly Bartrip and new Australian defender Clare Hunt, who has reportedly impressed in preseason. Luana Bühler is the other option to pair with Bartrip in the back line. I’d expect to see, at least initially, Amanda Nildén and Ashleigh Neville at the fullback positions.

Elsewhere, it’s an open question as to how Vilahamn will set up his squad against Palace. New signings Haley Raso and Maite Oroz are exciting players, but it’s not clear yet whether they’ve had enough time at the club in the offseason to break into the starting lineup immediately. Jessica Naz proved to be a stalwart attacker, and you would probably expect club captain and record signing Beth England to get the nod at striker over Martha Thomas.

With Grace Clinton out of the side and back at Manchester United, along with the long term injury to Kit Graham, Spurs’ midfield is also a question. Anna Csiki was brought in from Vilahamn’s old club BF Hacken, but Oroz would be the natural fit to start at the 10 ahead of Eveliina Summanen and Drew Spence, if Maite is ready to go after a shortened preseason. Up top, it’s hard to bet against Vilahamn starting club captain Bethany England, but he could throw a curve and bring in Martha Thomas, who started last season on a hot streak.

But who knows! This is a mystery box team, and we won’t know where they are until we see them play. Here’s a predicted lineup that could be incredibly and hilariously wrong:

Opposition View

I’ll hold up my hands and admit that I am not a Women’s Championship watcher, so Palace are a bit of an enigma to me. However, Kim McCauley, writing for The Transfer Flow newsletter, notes that Palace lost their leading scorer and Championship Golden Boot winner Elise Hughes to a torn ACL this summer, and while Palace have reinforced their squad with fourteen new players (including former Spurs captain Josie Green) it’s a team of a bunch of assembled spare parts. Palace are widely tipped for relegation along with Leicester City and West Ham, so in theory this should be one of Tottenham’s easier fixtures. That said, it’s the first week of the season and nobody really knows how good Palace might be, and as the men’s team already knows it’s never good to underestimate a newly-promoted side in week 1.

How to Watch

Tottenham Hotspur Women vs. Crystal Palace
Sunday, September 22, 2024
9:00 a.m. ET / 2:00 p.m. BST
Brisbane Road, London, UK

TV: not televised (USA/UK)
Stream: YouTube (direct link)