Spurs Women 2 – 5 Arsenal: Defensive Errors Sink Spurs
· Yahoo Sports
Tottenham Hotspur Women suffered a heavy defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates in front of a crowd numbering over 40,000. Unlike years past, Spurs at least looked like a team that (mostly) knew how to play football, but it wasn’t enough to stop another blowout against a top side.
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Martin Ho had somewhat less of a selection headache on his hands with Tōko Koga and Maika Hamano ready to go after their victory in the Asian Cup. He still managed to make it controversial by benching Beth England and Eveliina Summanen.
It brings me no joy to have to describe five goals we conceded once again, so I’ll try to keep it brief. Alessia Russo’s first half hattrick started off with a header on a corner after Hanna Wijk was bullied away from the critical area she was defending. Russo then wandered off Molly Bartrip’s shoulder while she was busy trying to cover the spot Eveliina Summanen usually occupies in midfield, and Amanda Nildén’s questionable positioning kept Russo onside for goal number two. For the third, Lize Kop passed straight to Russo inside the box. There were several different kinds of defensive lapses on display here, and Arsenal (and Russo specifically) were ruthless taking advantage of them. There was a brief moment of hope between goals two and three where Tinka Tandberg showed we’re not totally outmuscled and outsized on set pieces by using Frida Maanum as a kind of battering ram to knock the ball into the net.
The second half was much the same. Spurs’ collective inability to defend the box made it easy for Foord to score Arsenal’s fourth. Beth England managed to get one back with a stunning shot into the side netting (which she also created through her excellent pressing and work in possession). But in the dying minutes of the game, Blakstenius added a fifth goal after we turned the ball over in midfield, and Lenna Gunning-Williams (not a fullback btw) and Molly Bartrip couldn’t race back in time to cover. Not great!!!
I’m not sure we learned anything new from this game. Throughout, Spurs had spells looking good in possession, even bordering on dangerous on the rare occasions we managed to progress the ball down the pitch far enough. But our attack looked totally toothless for most of the game. Many of our young attackers still struggle with final balls (whether that’s the assist or the shot), and in this game, they also struggled to even get shots. We only took three shots and failed to register any on target until Beth England entered the fray in the 70th minute. Not ideal if you’re going to be consistently leaking goals on the other end.
Our defense looks like a defense that has barely played together this season and has had different collections of players on the pitch in every game for the last month. Lenna Gunning-Williams appearing as a right back has me questioning the decision to sell Ash Neville in the winter. I’m also still questioning the decision not to buy another centerback or any natural wide players. And now, I’m starting to question not starting our very solid defensive midfielder Eveliina Summanen or our captain and striker Beth England in a game where we were going to need solidity and goals.
To be fair, I’m not too sure any of the starting players deserved to be dropped. I see the rationale for wanting Drew Spence and Signe Gaupset’s ball progression in order to really go for it against Arsenal, and I can’t fault Ho for trying. This is quite an unbalanced squad we’ve wandered into. I’m curious to see what Ho can come up with for the rest of this season, though to be honest, I’m really starting to look ahead to addressing these issues in the summer.
But I’ve gotta be honest, given the way things are going around the club these days, I have no idea what’s going to happen, or what’s even going to be possible. Hopefully Spurs Women have the financial and operational leeway to push on rather than pingponging back down to the bottom of the WSL.