Tottenham Hotspur Women put four unanswered goals past newly promoted Crystal Palace in the first game of the season. Spurs summer signings showed their quality and combined well with the rest of the squad, hopefully setting the tone for a season full of attacking variety and bold play.
Last season, Robert Vilahamn seemed to favor reliable, tenured Spurs players in the opening stages of the season. This season, not so. Vilahamn handed full Spurs debuts to Clare Hunt, Maite Oroz and Hayley Raso. Anna Csiki and youth talent Lenna Gunning-Williams appeared off the bench. Notably, club captain Beth England also started the game on the bench.
Spurs opened strong with an early, offside chance off the crossbar. The team looked to be pressing well and creating turnovers–though Becky Spencer was called into early action to scoop up a through ball after a few missed challenges–and combining in attack even better. Drew Spence also had a shot saved by the excellent Shae Yanez after Jess Naz laid off Hayley Raso’s cross.
The breakthrough came in the 19th minute after Spurs’ organized pressure created a turnover in the middle third. Eveliina switched play over to Hayley Raso, who beat two defenders and calmly passed the ball into the bottom corner. I truly could not tell whether she meant that to be a shot or a cross, and I don’t really care–it was a great goal, and immediately wiped away any lingering regret I had over Celin Bizet’s departure to Manchester United.
Play slowed a bit throughout the remainder of the first half. Hayley Raso and Martha Thomas both had particularly good chances to score, but things ended 1-0. Both sides came out unchanged for the second half. Spurs still looked to be the stronger side, and after just seven minutes of play, Jess Naz doubled the lead. She pressed to create a turnover after a Crystal Palace throw, then sprinted into space to receive Drew Spence’s excellent through ball. Yanez did manage to save Jess’ initial shot, but she made no mistake putting away the rebound.
Martha Thomas had two more excellent chances to score before she was replaced by Beth England in the 64th minute, and she was unlucky not to come away from this game with more. At this point in the game, Anna Csiki also replaced Jess Naz and swapped sides with Hayley Raso. Although Anna Csiki and Ash Neville didn’t seem to have quite as good an understanding of each other, this didn’t seem to disrupt the attack much at all, and Raso seemed equally capable of creating trouble on the left as she did on the right.
Spurs added another goal in the 76th minute. After some lovely interplay between Amanda Nilden, Maite Oroz, and Hayley Raso, Nilden found Beth England, who played a one touch ball to Drew Spence, who calmly fired a rocket of a shot past Yanez at the near post. Shortly after Vilahamn brought on Olga Ahtinen for Eveliina Summanen. He made two final changes in 87th minute, swapping Amanda Nildén for Charli Grant and Hayley Raso for Lenna Gunning-Williams. Throughout all the changes, Spurs kept on attacking. The final goal came from Ahtinen, who, after a few attempts, let off a stunning strike that Yanez couldn’t touch.
New faces and old ones
Look, everyone looked great. Many of last season’s high performers picked right up where they left off or getting back to their best. But holy shit, were the new signings good or what??
Raso caused Crystal Palace all sorts of problems, and is therefore getting a bunch of very deserved love for her debut performance in a Spurs shirt. She was super press resistant, excellent technically, and just generally contributed a huge amount in attack. It looks like she’s already developed a good working relationship with Ash Neville, and I can’t wait to see how that combination progresses throughout the season.
Oroz immediately stood out to me as well–she was all over the pitch, running and running and using her acceleration and quick changes of direction to make herself available to receive the ball. I’m not even really sure I saw her tire physically or mentally as the game went on, which was made apparent when she teed up Olga Ahtinen’s goal with one simple touch.
Clare Hunt was solid and calm at the back, not that she had very much to do. Anna Csiki looked to be capable and sharp as a winger, and I’m excited to see what she has to offer there and elsewhere on the field. Our academy product, Lenna Gunning-Williams, definitely looked like a league-ready player on her debut–pressing so well she robbed Palace’s defense of the ball to set up chances twice in the ten or so minutes she was on the pitch.
Looking ahead
Folks, Vilahamn-ball is officially up and running. Spurs registered 17 shots on target (on target!!) against an admittedly pretty bad Palace side. Everyone looked strong, smart, and tuned into the plan from the first whistle to the last.
Of course I’d love to tell you that all our problems from last year have been fixed–no over-reliance on Grace Clinton, better service to our excellent attackers, stronger aerial presence at the back. I can’t really tell you all that though because Palace were really pretty bad. There were moments when I started to see their ideas taking shape, but it didn’t really matter–Spurs just had more individual and tactical quality all over the pitch.