Cartilage Free Captain

Ange-Ball finally worked as intended on Saturday as Tottenham Hotspur rolled out to a solid 3-1 win over Brentford at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It was pretty great — despite going down 0-1 after just 23 seconds to a wild Bryan Mbuemo volleyed goal, Spurs roared back and dominated the match with goals from Dominic Solanke and Brennan Johnson. It had a few dicey moments when up 2-1 in the second half, but a late goal from James Maddison sealed the deal. Super fun match, 10/10, would recommend.

Nothing complicated about this theme today, and it’s one that was inspired by the comments. I can’t remember who it was who suggested it — I want to say BroadBrookSpurs but it might have been someone else — but no matter, it was a great idea and I’m stealing it. It originates from whoever the dude was who did play-by-play for the League Cup match against Coventry, because he consistently mispronounced Dejan Kulusevski’s surname. I think he had at least 2 or 3 different pronunciations but midway through the match he settled on “Kuluskevski” with an extra K (for folic acid, I suppose).

It was annoying and irritating, but also kinda funny. So for today’s ratings we’re going with How to Spell Kulusevski (Wrong Answers Only). FFS, just call him Deki.

James Maddison (Community — 4.5): Is this the best match Maddison has played in a Tottenham shirt? Maybe not. But it’s probably pretty close. He was a monster in the press, winning the ball back over and over. He had a hand in all of Tottenham’s goals (including scoring the third) as well as in many other opportunities that never quite came off. Magnificent performance.

Ange Postecoglou (Community — 4.0): Manager ratings are always mostly based on whether the team wins, and we won comfortably, so 5 stars from me. But what was great about this match is that the team fully committed to Ange-Ball tactics against a team that was explicitly set up to frustrate us, and instead they beat the brakes off them. I honestly think in time we’ll look back at this match as the point where things started to “click.”

Brennan Johnson (Community — 4.0): Eff the haters. For the second match in a row BJ put in a very solid performance and got a goal to quiet his critics. And this time he even dribbled a guy! It was great!

Son Heung-Min (Community — 4.0): Six chances created and two assists, that’s a five star performance, right? Should be. And yet! There was something just a little off about Son’s match where he looks like he’s just off in attack — he’s not pulling the trigger where he usually would and looks like he doesn’t fully trust himself, which is odd. He had five star stats and a 3.5 star eye test. Just weird.

Destiny Udogie (Community — 4.0): Really, really good. Looks like he’s starting to round into form and was consistently a threat on the left side, especially tucking inside. His best match yet this season.

Rodrigo Bentancur (Community — 4.0): A quietly solid performance, especially in the press, after what was a pretty disappointing outing in the League Cup midweek. Did a lot of good work that went mostly unrecognized in the aftermath of the match.

Dominic Solanke (Community — 4.0): Finally broke his Spurs duck with a solid goal. Again does a lot of his good work off the ball and in the press, but that work is super important and he’s getting in the right areas to finish off those chances in the box. Once he hits full fitness I think he’s going to be a real positive addition.

Pedro Porro (Community — 3.5): Worked hard as usual, only this time didn’t quite have the impact that he often does when given chances. Not a poor performance, but overshadowed by others in this one.

Cuti Romero (Community — 3.5): See people wanting to give Romero some blame for Mbuemo’s opening goal, but I wouldn’t blame any defender for a player converting a wild 0.05 xG chance that was a foot behind him, even if he had plenty of space. Otherwise, solid enough, didn’t make any real mistakes.

Micky van de Ven (Community — 4.0): Picked up a cheap yellow and was a little lax defensively on a couple of plays, but otherwise solid enough.

Dejan Kulusevski (Community — 4.0): Was primarily responsible (if that’s what you want to call it) for Brentford’s goal by coughing up the ball in a bad area, but was quite solid again in possession afterwards in that central midfield playmaker role.

Guglielmo Vicario (Community — 3.0): Man, I just do not know what to do with this guy. Had a couple of Gomes-worthy gaffes in possession (which, y’know, Ange-Ball will get a keeper in trouble from time to time, but handling the ball outside his box???) but also came through with a couple of world-class reflex saves to keep Brentford at bay. A frenetic and just frankly bizarre performance. 3 stars feels right, I guess?

Yves Bissouma (Community — 3.5): A second half substitute for a knackered Bentancur, and he was pretty decent, which is about all you can ask of him in his first minutes post-injury.

Pape Matar Sarr (Community — 3.0): He was fine.

Remarkably, nobody in this category! Neat!

No Tottenham players were as bad as just giving up and calling him That Swedish Guy (though honestly I wouldn’t hate it compared to the rest of this list)

One Direction Memorial Non-Rating

good morning !

It’s time to revisit the best pictures from this weekend in Premier League football, and what a time to do it after some insane matches.

Let’s not waste any more space and get right into it:

Brennan Johnson hushes the critics

The defining moment from Saturday’s game if you ask me. Brennan Johnson has gotten a lot of stick since joining Spurs, and he answered the haters with a solid week punctuated by a goal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Nuno gets sent off vs Brighton

In a chaotic episode during Sunday’s Brighton-Forest game, one tackle resulted in three reds. First was the second yellow to Morgan Gibbs-White for a dangerous tackle on his opponent. Sure, he got the ball first but nearly broke the guy’s legs.

An enraged Nuno Espirutu Santo confronted the referee, who promptly gave him a red card. Also given a red was Brighton’s manager Fabian Hürzeler. For those of you checking, this will not affect Nuno’s return to Spurs (set for 19 April 2025).

Once bitten, then sent off

Okay so this isn’t the Premier League, I know (City-Arsenal pics haven’t come in the system yet). But this is a wild scene.

After Blackburn’s Owen Beck kicked out agaisnt Preston’s Milutin Osmajic, the Macedonian retaliated by allegedly biting the defender during the Lancashire Derby. Beck showed the bite mark to the referee (see above) and another official, but they weren’t interested.

Instead it was Beck who got sent off.

Fitzie’s track of the day: New Now Know How, by Charles Mingus

And now for your links:

Alasdair Gold’s talking points from Tottenham’s win vs Brentford

The Athletic ($$): James Maddison hopes his goal ‘shuts up a few people’

Cardiff City sack manager Erol Bulut

LET’S GO! Tottenham Hotspur Women open their WSL season today with a home match against Crystal Palace. Palace promoted from the Championship this past season, and despite reinforcing their team with 14 new players, they lost their leading scorer to an ACL injury and are still favorites to be relegated this season. But this is not a match that Spurs Women should look past — it’s the first of the season, and both teams are something of an enigma, especially since we have not had an opportunity to watch them in preseason.

Robert Vilahamn has strengthened his Spurs squad with two offensive players from Real Madrid — midfielder Maite Oroz and winger Haley Raso — plus Anna Csiki from his old club BF Hacken, and a couple of defenders in Clare Hunt and Ella Morris. We’ll have to see how many of the newcomers make it on the pitch today, and Spurs will be hoping to make a big offensive splash in this one. Spurs have a tough run of fixtures to start the season, so a win today is important because points may be hard to come by in the next few games.

The game is streamed on YouTube, and NOT the FA Player. This is your match thread. Let’s go!

Lineups

How to Watch

Tottenham Hotspur Women vs. Crystal Palace

Sunday, September 22, 2024

Brisbane Road, London, UK

We haven’t heard anything official from Tottenham Hotspur since Wilson Odobert was subbed off in the first half of Spurs’ 2-1 League Cup win over Coventry City on Wednesday. After that match, Ange Postecoglou had said that he thought the injury looked “fairly significant” but we never got an update on Wilson other than that he was injured.

So where Spurs refuse to step in, we turn to other sources. In this case, it’s French daily newspaper L’Equipe, which states Odobert is set to miss about a month of action, returning in late October.

Honestly — that’s not too bad and about what I expected for a strain, or perhaps a grade 1 hamstring injury. If we take L’Equipe at its word, and frankly it’s not like we have any other information to go on so why not, that would mean Wilson would miss at least four matches — the Europa League tie at home against Qarabag, at Manchester United, at Ferencvaros in the EL, and at Brighton. There would be a slight chance we could see him home to West Ham on October 19, or maybe the Europa League tie against AZ Alkmaaar on October 24. Just in time for Spooky Season.

It’s a shame that he got injured soon after joining the club, but I guess it could be a lot worse. Now that he’s broken the seal on Ange Injuries™ maybe he’ll stay healthy now until the end of the season? That’d be nice.

After a week of awful vibes including a North London Derby loss and a tepid performance in the League Cup against Coventry City, isn’t it nice to just beat the brakes off a team for a solid win? That’s what Spurs did on Saturday, going down inside one minute to an absurd Bryan Mbuemo goal, but then roaring back with three goals of their own to take a 3-1 win over Brentford at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Along the way there were some EXCELLENT performances, including from James Maddison, who was part of nearly every positive Spurs attack and had a goal of his own, and Son Heung-Min, who had two assists and created numerous chances.

It wasn’t without its nervy moments, but boy did we need a good win today... and we got one! It’s time to rate the players.

Rate the players from 1⁄2 to 5 stars. If the player doesn’t deserve a rating due to minutes played, DO NOT RANK. I will round the stars up/down to the nearest half-star for the player ratings later this week.

The match started off inauspiciously for Tottenham Hotspur, after Spurs gave the ball away in his own half and Bryan Mbuemo converted an incredible volley past Vicario after just 23 seconds of match play. But to Spurs’ credit, after that point it was all Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs instantly kicked their press into high gear, and harried a Brentford side into numerous turnovers. Spurs got first half goals from Dominic Solanke and Brennan Johnson, and added a late goal from James Maddison to roll to a comprehensive 3-1 win over the Bees at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Mbuemo’s goal could have been deflating, but Spurs proved to have more mettle than you might have expected after a tepid performance in the League Cup midweek. Spurs equalized in the 8th minute after Spurs’ press forced a turnover via James Maddison and fired a shot that was saved by Brentford keeper Flekken. Solanke was right there at the back post to tap in the rebound, his first for the club.

Tottenham continued the frantic press and forced numerous Brentford turnovers, who were on the back foot the entire half. Brennan Johnson put Spurs ahead inside a half hour thanks to another move started by Maddison. Son picked out Johnson in space, who dribbled Nathan Collins and fired a low ball past Flekken and into the bottom left corner of the goal to put Spurs 2-1.

Brentford did have a couple of late opportunities, none worse than after Guglielmo Vicario was caught in possession and coughed up the ball just in front of his own goal, but was able to recover and save the chance. Spurs went into the break up 2-1 and with the wind at their backs.

Big Ange opted not to make any changes at halftime, which makes sense considering how well the team played in the opening 45 minutes. The press was again in high gear at least in the first part of the match — Dejan Kulusevski was played into the box after another Brentford turnover, but despite some lovely 1-2 play in the box Deki had his shot saved by Flekken.

Spurs let off on the press midway through the half, probably due to exhaustion, and let Brentford get a foothold on the match. The visitors ended up with couple of decent looks at goal that forced excellent stops by Vicario, including one wild one-handed diving stop from a free header by Brentford’s Kevin Schade.

There was a nervous energy midway through the second half but Spurs cut that short after James Maddison chipped Flekken for Tottenham’s third goal in the 85th minute off of an exceptional team attack started by Yves Bissouma and facilitated by Son Heung-Min, who had two assists on the day.

The end result was a solid win by Spurs, one desperately needed after a string of early results that have sapped some of the resolve out of supporters early on this season. The win propels Spurs up to tenth with seven points from its first five matches.

Match Reactions

It hasn’t been a great start to the season for Tottenham Hotspur. I don’t think many would argue otherwise. But much would be forgiven if Spurs could go on a winning run, so Coventry aside, let’s get that kicked off (pun totally intended) against Brentford, shall we?

Brentford won’t be an easy opponent, having dispatched Crystal Palace and Southampton this season while losing (expectedly) to Liverpool and Manchester City. Unlike Spurs, they have no issue with their attack, with forwards Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa scoring three apiece in four matches thus far; Spurs’ somewhat inconsistent defense will have to be at their best to keep a clean sheet.

Spurs meanwhile will be bolstered by the return of Yves Bissouma from injury, while also lamenting further injuries in their forward line after Wilson Odobert suffered a hamstring injury against Coventry in midweek. Ange Postecoglou and the squad will be wanting to silence the doubters after a challenging few weeks, so here’s hoping the team comes out firing.

COYS!

Lineups

Live Blog

How to Watch

Tottenham Hotspur vs. Brentford

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, UK

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Time: 10:00 a.m. ET, 3:00 p.m. UK

TV: Not televised in the US or UK. Check international listings at livesoccertv.com

Streaming: Peacock

Match thread rules

The match thread rules are the same as always. To any visitors coming here for the first time, welcome! We’re glad you’re here! Wipe your feet, mind the gap, and be sure to check out the other pages at this outstanding site. While you’re here, though, we have a few rules and regulations:

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Along those lines, outright abuse of players or match officials is also not allowed. It’s fine to say “wow, that was a really bad call,” but it’s NOT okay to direct copious amounts of abuse in the direction of said official over a call you did not like.

Treat other people in the match thread the way you would want someone else to treat your grandmother. Be nice. This is a community of fans, not an un-moderated message board.

NO SPIDERS!

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Have fun, and COYS!

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

Brisbane Road, London, UK

There’s bad news and good news for Tottenham Hotspur on the injury front ahead of tomorrow’s Premier League home tie against Brentford. The bad news is that Ange Postecoglou, speaking in his pre-match press conference, has confirmed that Wilson Odobert’s injury is significant and we will be out for an undisclosed amount of time.

“Wilson doesn’t look good. Still waiting for it to settle down. He’ll definitely be out for the next period. Bissouma trained today so he should be available for tomorrow. Timo is ok.

“[Richarlison] is a fair way off. You’re better off not asking about him until I give an update because he’s not with the first team.”

Well, that’s not great. I was hoping that Odobert walking off of Coventry’s pitch midweek under his own power meant that his injury wasn’t that bad, but this news plus Ange’s “fairly significant” comment about Wilson’s injury likely means it’ll be a while before we see him play, which sucks because he’s really our only dribbly wide guy. Richarlison, meanwhile, appears to be just plain broken.

But there’s good news! Yves Bissouma now appears fully recovered from the injury he picked up while on international duty with Mali, and whatever the hell happened to Timo on Wednesday doesn’t appear to be anything worrisome, which is good news whether you’re at Timo Believer™ or not.

And there’s also this news, provided yesterday from Alasdair Gold: BIG WILLY LANKS is back!

That’s exciting. Not that Lankshear is a panacea for whatever ills are befalling Tottenham’s offense, but just that he’s a viable second striker who can come and provide a change if Dominic Solanke needs a rest or if Ange decides he wants to shake things up.

Brentford’s a quality team with a good offense and an even better manager in Thomas Frank so don’t expect Saturday’s match to be a walk in the park, but a good performance on Saturday would do a lot to increase the vibes around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Remember good vibes? They were fun to have around. Let’s get those back. The match kicks off at 10 a.m. ET / 3 p.m. BST, and is streamed on Peacock in USA.

The start to the 2024/25 season for Tottenham Hotspur could be a future case study on analytics. Many of the numbers believe this squad is off to a solid start: dominating possession, controlling the pitch, but ultimately getting a bit unlucky in terms of actual goals and results. Of course, this meant that Wednesday’s terrible outing against Coventry had to end up in a victory.

Whether this was the result needed to finally get on track or just a lucky 10 minutes against a mid-table Championship side will be determined over the next couple weeks. Spurs return to league action against a beatable Brentford side, and a quality outing will start validating the frustrating opening month to the year. Anything other than three points, however, may make the midweek success look like a meaningless blip.

Tottenham Hotspur (t-13th, 4pts) vs. Brentford (t-9th, 6pts)

Date: Saturday, September 21

Time: 10:00 am ET, 3:00 pm UK

Location: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London

TV: Peacock (USA)

Brentford has alternated wins and losses to start the season, with the defeats coming against Liverpool and City. The Bees do have a pair of League Cup triumphs, including a win over Leyton Orient on Tuesday to advance with Spurs into the next round. After finishing just outside the relegation zone last year, Brentford is expected to end up down there again. The club already sits at 15th in xGD on the young season.

Tottenham earned a point at the Gtech to open up the 2023/24 campaign, with Cristian Romero and Emerson Royal getting on the scoresheet. The reverse fixture had plenty of intensity, with Destiny Udogie, Brennan Johnson, and Richarlison quieting the antics of Neal Maupay in an eventual 3-2 victory. Spurs are just 2-3-1 against Brentford since its promotion to the Premier League, however.

Avoid the sting

While the metrics debate has mostly focused on Spurs’ inability to convert possession into goals, there is also the lingering issue of too easily conceding when the ball is lost. Goals against Leicester and Newcastle were emblematic of this issue, and despite the quality across the Tottenham backline, opponents are more than happy to take their chances on the counter.

Spurs will get a little relief in this department with the injury to Yoane Wissa. The Brentford forward already has three goals and an assist in the league, and with Ivan Toney gone and Igor Thiago out as well, there is not an obvious place to look for scoring now. What this means is the home side has no excuse to not lock down in defense and keep a clean sheet. Letting these lapses continue to cause dropped points is inexcusable and damaging.

Unlocked combination

Spurs came into the season with dozens of options for the top half of the formation but after five matches — and some injury-forced decisions — it is starting to look more clear as to who Ange Postecoglou must select. Dejan Kulusevski seems like an awkward fit at basically every spot, but he simply offers something that no one else does. Brennan Johnson is a flawed product, but he looks closest to a Postecoglou winger and did well to finish the comeback against Coventry.

Brentford gave City all it could handle, and Thomas Frank’s press will try to make Tottenham uncomfortable on the ball. While there are many more matches ahead, including the start of the Europa League journey next week, it might be beneficial to roll with the best XI for a bit and find that groove against a side that is fifth-worst in xGA. How Spurs respond, especially the regulars who were subbed on midweek, will show if these team is truly capable of finally capitalizing on so much early possession.