Cartilage Free Captain

Tottenham Hotspur Women have a win under their belt after a late Bethany England penalty led them to a 1-0 win over West Ham last weekend. Today, they face a tougher challenge — a trip to Goodison Park to play away to Everton. The Toffees have a shiny new stadium for their men’s team, and have given the venerable Goodison over to Everton Women, which honestly is pretty fantastic. That’s a stadium with a ton of history, and it will make traveling there to play even more difficult.

Everton are something of an enigma this season — they finished 8th in the table last year but were very active in the summer transfer window, bringing in eight new players including a trio of Japanese nationals in Rion Ishikawa, Hikaru Kitagawa, and Yuka Momiki. Last week they dismantled Liverpool 4-1 behind a hat trick from Ornella Vignola. They clearly have ambition, and will be facing Spurs at home. Tottenham weren’t exactly dynamic against West Ham, but they did play them more or less even and looked impressive defensively. They just need the attack to click and it could be a much better season compared to last.

West Ham vs. Tottenham is one of those unbalanced derbies. West Ham fans seem to care a lot more about it than Spurs fans do, although it’s never nice to lose to that lot. Thankfully, Spurs did NOT lose to that lot — they battered them. After a cagey first half that saw Spurs have a Cuti Romero goal inexplicably waved off for a foul in a corner kick scrum, Spurs went ahead thanks to a wide open Pape Sarr header at the back post in the second half. A Tomas Soucek red card gave Tottenham a numerical advantage and from then on it was all Spurs — Tottenham added goals from Lucas Bergvall and Micky van de Ven and then rolled to a 3-0 win.

It was Spurs’ first win over West Ham away since 2019, and their largest ever win over the Hammers in the London Stadium. Feels good, man.

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.

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Tottenham Hotspur played their first cup final since winning the Europa League this past spring, heading to the London Stadium to play West Ham, the first London Derby of the season. And while it took a little while for things to get going, Spurs eventually got the rub of the green. After a frustrating first half that saw the match officials wave off what looked like a legitimate headed goal by Cuti Romero and another penalty shout a few minutes later, Spurs opened the scoring thanks to a wide open back post header from Pape “Prime Minister” Sarr at the start of the second half.

West Ham’s Tomas Soucek was sent off with a straight red card after an extremely late and high challenge on Palhinha, and the match turned immediately afterwards. Tottenham ran riot from that point on, adding second half goals from Lucas Bergvall and Micky van de Ven en route to a comprehensive 3-0 mauling of their London rivals.

It’s a big win, but there’s also a lot to talk about, especially from the first half which was contentious and at time frustrating. Here are my match notes.

Match reactions:

Final xG: 0.6 - 1.36. Went up dramatically after Kudus’ two late chances.

Tottenham have a lot of matches coming up here the next few weeks, so I’m quite okay with a) seeing rotation and b) the rotation that Frank made here. London derby or not, this was a rotated but still strong side.

They’re not booing, they’re saying “KUUUUUUUUU-DUUUUUUUUUUUUUS”

There may not (still) be much passing in this Tottenham midfield, but Bergvall was using his motor to really get around the pitch. He was everywhere in the opening 15 minutes but I’m still not sure he’s perfectly suited to the 10 role.

That was an ATROCIOUS decision by the match official and VAR to disallow Romero’s first half goal. Not only was it not a foul, Van de Ven was shoved by the West Ham keeper and into Walker-Peters, who was trying to suplex Romero. If that’s a foul, then Arsenal should never score again from set pieces.

And then Romero got taken down in West Ham’s box, should’ve been an easy penalty decision, and the refs do… nothing? Y’all, I don’t know. I’ve got nothing. There is just no consistency in how these things are enforced.

Once again Tottenham’s starting midfield was pretty much a black hole. Palhinha offered absolutely nothing in progression, Sarr didn’t offer any build-up play, and Bergvall covered a lot of ground but any offense in that half was coming from Porro or Spence on the flanks. Simons and Kudus had to repeatedly drop very deep to receive the ball which killed many attacks early on.

Related, Palhinha is going to be the death of me. I know what he does well and what he does well he does quite well. He just offers nothing when Spurs have a lot of possession like in this match, and Spurs would’ve been better off with Benancur playing at the base of midfield. Frank got that decision wrong. Thankfully it didn’t matter in the end and Palhinha was quite good when Spurs were up big and against 10 men.

It’s early, but it did not look like Xavi and Spence combined well together on the left side. Very curious whether Udogie offers a better link to Simons.

Well, there was no way they were going to call THAT goal back. Sarr was inexplicably left wide open at the back post, and he made short work of the chance. Fantastic corner from Simons, too. No less than what Spurs deserved.

It didn’t all come off for Xavi Simons, but I thought he looked pretty fantastic in his first appearance in a Spurs shirt. He might have been more effective if the team was adequately set up to support him. But his movement and dribbling were elite. Great delivery from corners, too. I am very excited by what we may see. from him in the future.

The refs were very bad today, but there’s no arguing that late challenge from Soucek on Palhinha. Just no question, straight red. No way you can say that wasn’t deserved, and it completely changed the game.

I… may have shrieked a little bit at Bergvall’s second half goal. Incredible timing to get free and onside, and body awareness to head that into the goal. And let’s not overlook Romero’s incredible deep ball and vision to even attempt that pass. The Slack channel agreed it was reminiscent of Toby Alderweireld to Dele. Stunning.

Bergvall was so good for Micky’s goal. OK maybe he lost the ball rather than intending to pass to Micky, but he drew the defense right to him which left VDV open to slot home. Also love the irony of the tallest guy out there scoring with his foot. It’s like watching Peter Crouch score a penalty kick.

Should also mention Mohammed Kudus, who had another dynamic and exciting match in what had to have been a cauldron of pressure, playing against his old team. He was booed with every touch and still put in a great performance. Nearly scored late on as well.

The red card really changed the tenor of the match, but for me there are still concerns about Tottenham’s midfield, their ball progression, and chance creation. Very pleased with a big win over a rival, but I think there is and should be adequate space to talk about where (and when) Spurs looked sub-par at times in this one, because most Premier League teams are going to gift Spurs a sending-off. It will be interesting to see how Frank sets up the team in the Champions League vs. Villarreal on Tuesday.

“Everyone is fine, everyone returned from international duties well so that’s always positive. Very happy about that. Everyone seems to be in a good place. Dom will not be available still, don’t expect it to be too long but he will not be available for this game.

“Yeah, both [Simons and Kolo Muani] are looking good. Both of them are definitely in contention to be ready for the squad. Xavi, for natural reasons, is further down the line. He just started the first game for Holland and played a few games for Leipzig. Definitely in terms of Randal, it’s been a while since he’s played. Last time was in the Club World Cup. Hasn’t trained really with PSG. So he is not as fit as Xavi, but he looks good.”

“I have some ideas. I think it’s still a team I’m learning. I get to know better and better. Of course, I have key ideas, but, you know, something is to look from the outside, another thing is to, as I say, feel them. You’re around them. You speak to them. You watch them live, training, games. You watch the game back with, like, a very specific view.

“And then I have some ideas how I want to do it, and then you get surprised. Okay, that could look good, and other times you need to change a bit. So I learn about the team and the players.

“Xavi, I see him mainly as a 10 or a left-sided player or left winger. Whereas Kolo, I see he can him playing as striker and he can play both wings, I would say.”

“Yeah, I think, first of all, that was an extremely difficult decision to make. I also think, in many ways, it was a bit unfair. I also think that the UEFA Champions League lists are not big enough. We know the load on the players is getting bigger and bigger. We have said it many times, we are hopefully playing 60-plus games. That’s without international games.

“So some of them can be involved in up to 70 games. So I think that we need probably a bigger squad. I can’t understand why we need to limit ourselves.

“I actually like the idea of the club-trained players. I think it’s a good thing, every team needs to develop their own players. So I think that’s good. Of course, that limits us a little bit as it stands. Hopefully, we get it after that, but because we had a less number, I had to make a decision now instead of making a decision before a team selection.

“Before I name, for example, I name 20 or 23 players tomorrow. For Champions League, you can name even more. So anyway, the squad you’re naming before every game, it’s, you know, performance, all that. Now I need to name it before I really know Mathys and I think he’s done well. I just had to take a tough decision.

“I think he’s been extremely mature. He’s 20-years-old. The way he handled it, the way he trains, everything about him, extremely impressive.”

Few summers will ever be as dramatic as 2025 for Tottenham Hotspur. The sacking of Ange Postecoglou (best wishes this weekend!), the incredible ups-and-downs of the transfer window, and the surprise removal of Daniel Levy have dominated the headlines, but attention can finally turn back to the actual football. The loss to Bournemouth was extremely disappointing, but there are plenty of opportunities to rebound.

Spurs will play two matches in each of the next three weeks, with the beginning of the Champions League arriving on Tuesday. Preceding that is a trip to the London Stadium, where a struggling West Ham United awaits, surely eager to make life difficult for its despised neighbors. The Hammers did enter the break with an impressive win over Forest, but Tottenham is undoubtedly the better side here.

Match Details

Date: Saturday, September 13

Time: 12:30 pm ET, 5:30 pm UK

Location: London Stadium, London

TV: NBC (US), Sky Sports Main Event (UK)

Table: West Ham (t-13th, 3 pts), Tottenham (t-3rd, 6 pts)

Amazingly, Tottenham has not won away at West Ham since 2019/20, having drawn four of the last five at the London Stadium. Last spring Wilson Odobert opened the scoring in a 1-1 affair, though that lead obviously did not last. The home fixture was much more positive, with Dejan Kulusevski, Yves Bissouma, and Heung-Min Son among the scorers in a 4-1 win, though the match is most remembered for Mohammed Kudus picking up a red for a scuffle with Micky van de Ven (after opening the scoring 70 minutes prior).

Three Big Questions

Will the new signings play (and perform)? Maybe the transfer window will be remembered for the misses more than the successes — or the questionable processes that led to both — but the fact remains that Spurs absolutely did strengthen the squad, specifically through the additions of Kudus, Joao Palhinha, Xavi Simons, and Randal Kolo Muani. With seven matches over the next 22 days, just about everyone is going to have at least some role to play.

Expecting both Simos and Kolo Muani to have significant minutes in their first match with the club is unlikely, especially coming right off of the break. However, Spurs are in dire need of something new in attack, and Simons in particular offers something that no one else on this squad (who is healthy, at least) can. Against a side like West Ham, creativity and passing is vital, and the new No. 10 might be needed right away.

Is West Ham actually not as bad as assumed? It was a terrible start for the Hammers, losing big to Sunderland and Chelsea then immediately crashing out of the League Cup against Wolves, making the 3-0 win at the City Ground all the more surprising. On the young season, West Ham is at -0.5 xGD (which is nearly level with Tottenham’s), perhaps indicating that relegation is not quite as likely as it initially seemed.

That win to end Nuno Espirito Santo’s Forest tenure was certainly deserved, though it should be said that West Ham did not score until the final 10 minutes. Still, Spurs know Jarrod Bowen, Callum Wilson, and Lucas Paqueta can cause some trouble, and they would relish the chances that were freely given to the Cherries. What is more worrying, though, was the strong defensive showing that saw Graham Potter’s side limit chances from players like Chris Wood and Morgan Gibbs-White. That surely will be their plan again on Saturday.

New season, same problems? Tottenham lost a ton of goodwill after the impressive pair of wins to start the year by getting completely outplayed heading into the break. Since then, two new attackers have arrived, but is that enough to offer some consistency up front for the first time in years? These are the matches that need to be won, especially with a tricky Villareal side visiting next week.

On the flip side, Spurs struggling to take all three points would be nothing new here. In fact, each of the previous three derbies at the London Stadium have ended exactly 1-1, and that scoreline feels all too realistic heading into this one. If Simons starts and unlocks that missing creativity, then the visitors could definitely bag multiple goals against this defense. Another effort like against Bournemouth, though, will lead to dropped points.

Lol, West Ham are rattled.

But can you blame them? After all, they lost their best player Mohammed Kudus to Spurs, sit 16th in the table and have a disaster of a managerial decision with Graham Potter.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’d want to prevent half-and-half scarves when Spurs come into East London this weekend.

West Ham advised fans to not wear scarves or things similar that show both clubs’ colours or badges as part of so-called increased security measures to prevent Spurs fans from gaining access to the home section.

I can certainly agree with putting in place added security measures to ensure Spurs fans don’t get mixed up with West Ham fans, but this seems kind of silly.

Also - I would NEVER want a half-and-half scarf of Spurs and Wet Ham. Hell, I wouldn’t want a half-and-half scarf regardless.

I also don’t understand why any so-called WHU fan would want a half-and-half Spurs scarf for similar reasons.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Outa Space, by Billy Preston

And now for your links:

Alasdair Gold: “Xavi Simons’ Tottenham role hint, teen involved, Kolo Muani wide - 5 things spotted in training”

The Telegraph: “Man Utd Women lose their boots – and then the match in Champions League humbling”

BBC: “Wissa ‘never gave up’ after acid attack”

““It wasn’t great, I knew it was coming so it wasn’t a surprise. I knew it was coming a fair way before the final. But we won it and had the parade and had a great three days and I didn’t want to tarnish that, but I knew it was done.

“From my perspective, I had the chance to process it. Whether I feel it was unjust, other people make those decisions, they make those determinations. That’s up to them, you have to ask them their own reasoning for it. What I do know is I had two years where it was very, very challenging but we were with some fantastic people in the football department.

“The supporters, we’ve put through some tough times, but there isn’t a Spurs supporter that I come across now that doesn’t want to hug me and take me home for dinner. So I must have done something right. I think ultimately that’s what we do it for.

“I’m very proud of what we achieved there. It will always take a special place in my heart. How it ended, I don’t really think about it a lot. To be fair, I’ve done it a couple of times myself. I left Celtic and I’m sure that they were disappointed when I left. You understand that’s part of the business we’re in. But that’s okay. It’s allowed me now to move into this (Forest) and maybe that’s happened for a reason.”

It’s a slow news day with the international break ending and Tottenham not playing until the late game on Saturday at West Ham, but there’s a bit of new news that might be of interest to some as Spurs prepare to open their Champions League campaign next week. UEFA has apparently tweaked its rules and will allow teams playing in its three European competitions — Champions League, Europa League, Europa Conference League — to replace one player for the league phase who is out with a long-term injury.

This is actually a pretty common sense thing to do, and it could benefit a team like Spurs that has struggled with injuries in recent seasons. For example, if a player — and I hesitate to speak this into existence — like Richarlison were to go down with an ACL or knee injury by week 6 of the campaign, Spurs would be able to replace him with someone like Mathys Tel, whom Spurs had to leave out of the squad due to homegrown/club-trained reasons. It makes a lot of sense for all clubs, but could be a real boon for clubs with shortened squads like Tottenham.

I’m not used to UEFA making rational, popular decisions about its competitions, so this is a bit weird for me, but hats off to them for making what should be a useful and popular tweak to its competition format. Hopefully Tottenham will never, ever have to use it, but it’s a nice thing to know about in case it does.

We’ve been talking about football kits a lot lately - and we’re not done.

But first: an interlude.

Watford have released a special kit this year commemorating nearly 50 years since Elton John was the club’s chairman (back in 1976).

Aside from Wolverhampton Wanderers’ connection with Robert Plant, this might be the coolest one in the English pyramid.

Elton John had this to say about the special kit, and the club: “My passion for this club has never died, and I’m so proud of this club. … What can I say? It’s in my heart and my soul. You can’t get rid of it.”

My biggest gripe with the Rocketman biopic that came out a few years ago is that it never took us on this Watford journey. What a mistake! I still don’t think it’s too late for the makers behind that to release a short series on Elton’s steering of the Hornets as chairman.

Watford said the kit - which featured input from Elton John - was heavily inspired by the artwork from his Diamonds album. It also features the “Happy Hornet” badge that existed back in Elton’s time as chairman.

More from the club:

“The collar and sleeve cuffs feature more stars - synonymous with Elton’s styling - and on the reverse is an embossed print of one of Elton’s most famous song lyrics, “Your Song”.

“Complementing the shirt are silver shorts, again made from bespoke polyester, with E* taping running down both sides.“

A handful of Watford players also got in on the fun for the kit’s release, posing in frame that mirrors some of Elton John’s albums including his self-titled record. Having said that, I have to point out two glaring omissions: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. Did no one at Watford really want to dress up like that? I find it hard to believe.

Captain Fantastic isn’t just my favourite Elton John record, it’s one of my all-time favourite records. I used to spin it at least a few times a week when I lived in the UK, when all I had for entertainment were my books, a nascent record collection and a portable Crosley turntable.

Fitzie’s track of the day: [Gotta Get A] Meal Ticket, by Elton John

And now for your links:

Alasdair Gold: “Tottenham changes Lewis family must make after Levy exit amid Frank and Venkatesham backing”

The Independent: “The Ange Postecoglou redemption arc that could justify Evangelos Marinakis’ volatility”

The Guardian: “World Cup qualifying: Armenia stun Republic of Ireland while Norway hit 11”

I hate international football.

But by all accounts, Spurs’ representatives have escaped any grievous bodily harm, and we’re only days away from having our beloved Spurs back again. Some of them even had a bit of a rest! So that’s nice at least. And though he’s not at Spurs anymore, nice to see Sonny in the goals too (sorry, not sorry American readers - at least you can share my pain as I sit here in the bottom corner of the world supporting New Zealand).

As cynical as I am in regards to international football, however, you can’t help but feel at least a morsel of joy and pride in seeing Djed Spence making his debut for England. After not seeing the pitch against Andorra, England’s first Muslim international played 21 minutes off the bench as the Three Lions demolished Serbia 5-0. It was a similar success story for Spurs’ other international fullback, Pedro Porro, as well: Spain tore Turkey to shreds 6-0 while Porro went the distance.

Spurs’ other defensive internationals in Europe had a bit more of a mixed time. Kevin Danso again came off the bench, albeit in a 2-1 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Ben Davies and Micky van de Ven had differing destinies, as Wales fell to Canada but Netherlands squeaked by Lithuania. Their respective attacking compatriots, Brennan Johnson and Xavi Simons, were relegated to bench duty. Guglielmo Vicario also remained in a bench role for Italy, in a stonker of a match against Israel, while Spurs’ two European midfielders in the form of Joao Palhinha and Lucas Bergvall saw limited gametime: Lucas, none whatsoever as Sweden lost to Kosovo, while Palhinha came on late to see out Portugal’s win over Hungary.

Spurs winger Mohammed Kudus played 80 minutes in Ghana’s win over Mali, but it was one of Spurs’ midfielders who was on the scoresheet instead as the African nations competed. Pape Matar Sarr’s goalscoring form showed no sign of slowing down as he added another to his growing international haul, coming on late to score the winner for Senegal against Democratic Republic of the Congo in a five-goal thriller.

Lastly, it was over to South America, from whence Cristian Romero returned early as his yellow card in the first fixture of the break meant he was suspended from Argentina’s loss to Ecuador. Richarlison, conversely, returned to the starting XI for Brazil for the first time in some time. Unfortunately, he was unable to inspire the Selecao to a win, Brazil losing to Bolivia, while Rodrigo Bentancur had slightly better luck: 90 minutes in a nil-all draw.

And with that, we’re only days away from what is sure to be a very annoying match against a motivated West Ham side. It’s the sort of thing you live for, isn’t it?

I still hate international football.

Spurs International Appearances:

Djed Spence (unused sub; 21 mins, sub, clean sheet): England 2-0 Andorra; Serbia 0-5 England - UEFA World Cup Qualification

Pedro Porro (62 mins, clean sheet; 90 mins, clean sheet): Bulgaria 0-3 Spain; Turkey 0-6 Spain - UEFA World Cup Qualification

Kevin Danso (20 mins, sub, clean sheet; 12 mins, sub): Austria 1-0 Cyprus; Bosnia & Herzegovina 1-2 Austria - UEFA World Cup Qualification

Ben Davies (90 mins, clean sheet; 90 mins) & Brennan Johnson (65 mins, unused sub): Kazakhstan 0-1 Wales; Wales 0-1 Canada - UEFA World Cup Qualification / International Friendly

Micky van de Ven (90 mins; 28 mins, sub) & Xavi Simons (79 mins; unused sub): Netherlands 1-1 Poland; Lithuania 2-3 Netherlands - UEFA World Cup Qualification

Guglielmo Vicario (unused sub x2): Italy 5-0 Estonia; Israel 4-5 Italy - UEFA World Cup Qualification

Lucas Bergvall (unused sub x2): Slovenia 2-2 Sweden; Kosovo 2-0 Sweden - UEFA World Cup Qualification

Joao Palhinha (11 mins, sub; 11 mins, yellow card, sub): Armenia 0-5 Portugal; Hungary 2-3 Portugal - UEFA World Cup Qualification

Mohammed Kudus (86 mins, assist; 80 mins): Chad 1-1 Ghana; Ghana 1-0 Mali - CAF World Cup Qualification

Pape Matar Sarr (73 mins, goal; 13 mins, goal, sub): Senegal 2-0 Sudan; DR Congo 2-3 Senegal - CAF World Cup Qualification

Cristian Romero (90 mins, clean sheet, yellow card): Argentina 3-0 Venezuela - CONMEBOL World Cup Qualification

Rodrigo Bentancur (90 mins, yellow card; 90 mins): Uruguay 3-0 Peru; Chile 0-0 Uruguay - CONMEBOL World Cup Qualification

Richarlison (11 mins, sub; 61 mins): Brazil 3-0 Chile; Bolivia 1-0 Brazil - CONMEBOL World Cup Qualification