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No doubt about it, last week’s defeat to Liverpool was catastrophic. It ended any aspirations Tottenham Hotspur Women had of qualifying for next season’s Champions League. This week, they travel to West Ham. It is crucial Martin Ho’s side prove that result was a blip, not the start of damaging downturn in form.

Everyone around Spurs that I have spoken to this week knows it was a disaster. In a pre-match pre-match press conference, Ho said that “if you’re looking at the course of the game and the standards we set ourselves, we were nowhere near where we needed to be in terms of with the ball and the attacking third. But defensively we were two or three yards off everything.”

I suspect it was not a very pleasant week in training for the group. 

Despite the defeat on Merseyside, with nine games to go, there are still things for Spurs to play for. Firstly, the club can regain the title of “best of the rest”. This would be significant progress after finishing second bottom last season. Secondly, they can still finish above someone in the “big four”. That would be a definitive sign of progress. Could they even beat Chelsea in the upcoming London derby? (Almost certainly not.)

The one thing Spurs have to do in order to achieve any of this is become more ruthless in attack. Just one shot on target against the side bottom of the league is unacceptable, especially given the quality of forward players in the team. Bethany England, Tinka Tandberg, Signe Gaupset, Olivia Holdt… goals really should not be a problem.

Analysing West Ham vs Spurs

Ho believes that new West Ham coach Rita Guarino has “given them definitely a lot more organisation and stability.” Analysis from Twelve Football’s Earpiece tool shows that West Ham have are, at best, average defensively. The trendline is not pretty, but they were solid against weaker sides Liverpool and Leicester.

Perhaps more encouragingly for Spurs, the Hammers really struggle at the other end of the pitch, they tend to rely on long balls and play with a slower tempo then others in the league.

It is also fair to say, their form is somewhat erratic. 

This should all give the visitors confidence heading in to the game. But we said that last week, didn’t we…

Just because Liverpool scored in the the 94th and 95th minutes, that does not Spurs were unlucky. They were not robbed of a hard-fought away point. This was an atrocious performance long before Mia Enderby scored. It was by far the worst, and most inexcusable, showing since Martin Ho took over and revitalised the team.

Tottenham could have been behind from as early as the second minute, as Auriéle Csillag hit the bar. She went on to have other chances, demanding saves from Lize Kop. It was Ceri Holland who was the real danger, though. Josefine Rybrink simply could not stop her, and there is a strong case that Ho should have replaced his fullback.

Spurs’ only good chance was spurned by Signe Gaupset, put clean through on goal. The only players who return to north London with any credit are Drew Spence and Bethany England. The former has been one of the team’s best performers this season and again worked gallantly to get things going from midfield. The latter tried to lead from the front, but found herself having to do far too much defensive work. She only really had one decent chance – a difficult header at goal that cause ultimately little trouble. 

Ho had a face like thunder at the end. It said everything. The away loss to London City Lionesses earlier in the season was frustrating. Sunday was unforgivable.

Failure to Hurt Opponents

Data generated using Twelve Football’s Earpiece tool underlines the issues with the Tottenham performance. Almost every facet of their game was worse than the average for the season. Interestingly, they had 54% possession and their overall attacking play was better than the season avearge. However, they struggled to make clear cut chances, ending with just one shot on target and an xG of 0.9.

At the other end of the pitch, Liverpool were able to get into the area and had 16 shots. Six of these were on target, leaving them with an xG of 3.26 and, more importantly, their first win of the season.

Spurs Must Bounce Back After Liverpool Disaster

We cannot dismiss the progress that has been made in a short period of time, nor how hard it is to bring a number of new players all at the same time. However, this was a game that really had to be won if Tottenham had any aspirations of being in the Champions League next season. That dream is done now, with both Man Utd and Arsenal pulling away.

The key question now is whether Ho and his players can learn from the mistakes and get back to winning ways against West Ham. They need to show that the defeat to Liverpool was a blip, not the start of a season derailing.

A flurry of incomings have been followed by some outgoings at Tottenham Hotspur Women. Kit Graham and Martha Thomas have both left on loan. They follow Ashleigh Neville, who left Hotspur Way permanently, joining Leicester.

Kit Graham has joined Ipswich Town on loan for the rest of the season. Graham came to Spurs from Charlton Athletic in 2019, becoming a member of the club’s first ever WSL squad. In total, she has made 91 appearances and scored 11 times. This includes appearing in all five games in 2024 FA Cup run that ended with her coming on as a second half sub at Wembley. Sadly, her time in North London has been scuppered by terrible injuries.

Martha Thomas, meanwhile, joined Liverpool on loan last week. She made a strong start after joining from Man Utd in 2023, scoring 10 goals in the opening season. Famously, she scored the goal that gave Spurs their first ever win in the North London Derby. She also headed in the goal that sent Spurs to that FA Cup final. However, she has been struggling for goals, scoring just 13 times in 66 appearances. Thomas scored on her debut for the Reds against London Bees.

Both this loan moves could, and should, help the players get their careers back on track. Elsewhere, Anna Csiki returned from her loan at West Ham today. She’s played 10 times for the Hammers, scoring in the team’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool last month.

Spurs have made huge progress under Martin Ho, but they still lack that statement win. A victory over one of the “Big Four”. Can they change that this weekend?

Spurs were not fantastic last time out against Aston Villa, but that 95th minute Olivia Holdt winner will give them a huge confidence boost going into the game. Ho described it as “huge”. He added that “when you’re not at your best and you can win games, I think it’s the signs of a good team in the making.”

The Dane finished after a wonderful reverse pass by Drew Spence, who this week signed a new contact with the club. Ho regards the Jamaican international as one key leaders in his squad. Spence and captain Bethany England will certainly have to stand up if their team is going to get anything at the Leigh Sports Village Stadium.

The manager is clearly going into the game with a positive attitude: “If we put in a big performance, and we perform to the levels I know we can, with and without the ball, I believe we can be a match for anyone, and we’ve shown that in large spells now.” 

Interestingly he said “that we go into this game with a totally different mentality in terms of how we’ve been in the previous game against Arsenal just recently.” This perhaps suggest a bit more attacking intent. However, Ho was clear that “I’m under no illusion that it’s big task in terms of when we play these teams”.

Spurs will have to get this win, and a lot of others, without Jessica Naz. The England winger has cruelly got the second ACL injury of her career and will not be back for some time. “She’s doing okay,” said Ho. He conceded that Naz “will be a big loss in terms of in and out of possession”. Molly Bartrip’s return to the heart of the Tottenham defence is timely though. However well they have been playing without her, it’s yet another senior player back in the mix.

Spurs proved recently against Arsenal that they can grind it out against the top teams. It’s been a remarkable turnaround since that early-season shambles against Man City. However, getting over the line  is going to require a real creative spark. Maybe a bit of magic from the bench. I cannot quite see where that is going to come from. But Spurs barely had a sight of Arsenal’s goal in that famous derby almost exactly two years ago and, in Holdt, they have a special player who provide those standout out moments.