Tottenham begin their difficult month of WSL matches away to Manchester City in matchday 3. Tottenham came into the game in search of their first 3 points of the new 2020-21 season after a draw and a defeat in their first 2 WSL matches. Last season Tottenham and Manchester City faced off just once due to Covid 19 at the Hive in which Manchester City won by 4-1 after Tottenham started the game asleep and conceded 3 goals in the first 27 minutes.
Line ups.
Manchester City started with a 4-3-3 with Roebuck in goal, Morgan at right-back, Houghton and Bonner in the center of defence with Greenwood at left-back. The 3 city midfielders consisted of Mewis, Walsh and Weir whilst the attacking 3 was made up of Beckie, White, Kelly.
Tottenham went for the usual 4-2-3-1 with Spencer in goal, Percival at right-back, Zadorsky and Harrop in the center of defence with Worm at left-back. Filbey and green occupied the positions ahead of the defence. The attacking Tottenham 3 consisted of Kennedy, Graham, and Davison with Dean in the number 9 role.
Match report.
It was announced 24 hours before kick-off that Alex Morgan would not be in the Tottenham squad to face City as she continues her journey to get match fit. Many thought that city would come out and slaughter Tottenham from the start but Tottenham did well to hold out another big team but Tottenham’s problem is falling apart when they concede goals. It took City 5 minutes to threaten Spencer’s goal when a shot by Chloe Kelly from inside the box was at a comfortable height for Spencer to make the save. 15 minutes later it was Kelly again that came close for city who shot from inside the box again from the left but her shot flew wide past Spencer’s right-hand post. City was clearly frustrated by Tottenham and tried to bully Tottenham with hard challenges and unsportsmanlike behaviour such as kicking the ball away and provoking the Tottenham players.
On the 26th minute Steph Houghton split the Tottenham defence with a through ball which was latched onto by Ellen White and her shot from the edge of the box hit the crossbar and cleared to safety by the Tottenham defence. Controversy came in the 32nd minute when Chloe Kelly and Kit Graham clashed when going for a ball, Graham stayed down while Kelly hobbled away. Rather than putting the ball out City carried on, Caroline Weir passed to Chloe Kelly who knew Graham was still down and shot from the edge of the box to give City the lead with a thunderous shot into Spencer’s top left-hand corner.
In the 44th minute City again came close with the same play that had been causing Tottenham trouble all game Carline Weir shot from the edge of the box her effort went just wide of Spencer’s left-hand post. 2 minutes into injury time Sam Mewis came close to doubling City’s lead when she turned inside the Tottenham box but curled her shot too much for it to fly wide past Becky Spencer’s right-hand post.
Tottenham made a substitute at the break with Angela Addsion coming on for Kit Graham who obviously was still feeling the earlier clash with Chloe Kelly. 5 minutes after the restart City were awarded a soft penalty after Ria Percival and Gemma Bonner clashed inside the area. Percival seemed to give Bonner a small nudge but Bonner went down dramatically and the penalty was awarded to City which Kelly converted to double City’s lead. 2 minutes later Tottenham fell apart when Kelly again tried to do her usual play by getting the ball down the left cutting in to shoot from the edge of the box but her shot was blocked but deflected to the right where Mewis played a 1-2 with Beckie and shot into Spencer’s top right corner to make it 3 for city. 4 minutes later Sammy Mewis was searching for her 2nd of the game when she latched onto a Caroline Weir pass but Spencer stood strong and spread herself well to save Mewis’s effort.
As the game went on City showed their quality but Tottenham’s confidence definitely took a big hit with 2 poor refereeing decision’s which cost Tottenham 2 goals and the game. In the 67th minute Ellen White got her first goal of the season and City’s 4th of the match after a City corner was headed by Houghton and flicked on by White into Spencer’s top left-hand corner. Tottenham responded by making two changes with Lucy Quinn and Rosella Ayane coming on for Josie Green and Rianna Dean. In the 79th minute a misplaced City pass was intercepted by Addison who shot from distance and forced Roebuck into palming the ball over her bar for a Spurs corner.
Tottenham finally got their first goal of the season by a Tottenham player in the 80th minute when a wonderful Siri Worm corner was met by Anna Filbey’s head and headed into Roebucks bottom left-hand corner. That goal gave Tottenham confidence which started to grow after Filbey’s goal as City didn’t look as threatening and it was Tottenham pushing forward looking for another goal but unfortunately it was a little too late. In the 93rd minute, Tottenham could have had their 2nd of the game when Alanna Kennedy flicked on a cross to Percival but her header went wide of Roebucks goal to spare City.
Player of the match.
The player of the match for us has to go to Siri Worm who was outstanding the whole game. Worm was strong and didn’t get bullied by Janine Beckie no matter how much the city midfield and front line tried to bully Tottenham players. We also feel that Angela Addison was outstanding when coming on in the 2nd half and it was her quick thinking that forced Roebuck to give away the corner that led to Tottenham’s goal. So for us, both players played really well but because Siri played the whole game we feel she deserved to get the player of the match.
Post mach-analysis.
I feel the refereeing standard in the WSL this season has been very poor. Bad refereeing has cost Tottenham matches such as against Everton and I believe poor refereering again cost Tottenham today against Manchester City. Tottenham again did well to hold out a top team like City but the issue for Tottenham remains a lack of movement in the final third. Tottenham need goals and the midfielder’s need to work harder to get balls into the final third to provide service for the forwards because except for the opening game against West Ham the Tottenham forwards have had no service. Rianna Dean looked lost as she received no service and had just one chance in 70 minutes. What is happening with this midfield? Why can’t they get balls to the forwards? or are the coaches trying to keep everyone happy? We knew that Tottenham have a tough month of matches ahead of them and the problem is that the longer the team goes without scoring and not winning the lower the teams confidence will fall. Losing a fantastic player like Rachel Furness is something Tottenham still haven’t recovered from but we now have new experienced, world-class players so why can’t this team score goals. I do not want to put any blame on the coaches but its going to come to a point where they will need to be tougher and start benching players that do not perform such as Harrop, Green and Graham. Tottenham need to remember what happened to Liverpool last season and not become a victim. Tottenham are not being dominated by teams but its Tottenham themselves that are giving matches away to their opponents after they concede a goal. Tottenham’s next game is in the conti cup against London City, hopefully, if Tottenham can get a win in the cup it will give the team confidence ahead of their clash with Manchester United on Saturday.
Sulola’s first contact.
In other news Tottenham youth player Elisha Sulola signed her first profesional contract with Tottenham this week. More information can be found at https://bit.ly/30wUZ8d.
Next match.
Our Lilywhites next take on the London City Lionesses in the Continental Cup at 15:30 on Wednesday, October 7th at the Hive but unfortunately, the match won’t be broadcast anywhere. Three days later our Lilywhites are back in WSL action when taking on Manchester United at the Hive on Saturday, October 10th at 12:30 on BT Sports 3. COME ON YOU SPURS!
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