Tottenham Hotspur look to shake things up in historic North London Derby
Tottenham Hotspur Women hope to conquer their North London rivals, Arsenal in front of a sold-out crowd at their home of Brisbane Road.
Under new manager, Martin Ho, Spurs have already improved significantly since last season, with already five wins on board in the Barclays Women’s Super League.
However, one of their most noticeable wins so far include a preseason away win against fierce rivals Arsenal: the first away win for Spurs in this fixture’s history and only their second win against them all together.
Ho addressed the media ahead of this highly anticipated fixture, where he looks to lead Spurs to a historic victory.
On the occasion
On his first North London Derby, the head coach exclaimed his excitement for the new experience and the great energy within the team:
“It's a new experience for me. Not a new experience for most of the players, but maybe for a few of them. We’re really excited, and the players are ready to respond in the right way after a disappointing game last weekend. We're in a good place and the players have trained extremely well. The energy's good, so yeah, I'm excited.”
Regarding the history between the North London rivals, Ho is keen to not dwell on the past in terms of Arsenal’s historic dominance in the derby fixture. Instead, he plans to take control of the game and give a great performance to the fans on Sunday:
“Well, you can't control what's in the past. We have to control what we can and that's in front of us, that's our performance going into the weekend and our mentality going into that game. We have to play the game and not the occasion.
I know that's obviously a big thing for the supporters and we'll make sure we put in a good performance for them. But we have to take away the emotion from the game and focus on what we can control.”
Arsenal faced a shock defeat to Bayern Münich in the Champions League midweek, suffering a 3-2 loss in the second half. In response, Ho raised the quality of the Arsenal squad and reminded the press that his own team also faced a disappointing defeat last weekend. Therefore, he hopes this will make for a great game with both teams wanting to respond:
“With a team like that, they've got wonderful players. Renee’s a wonderful manager. They’re the champions of Europe. They were in a good position in the Champions League the other day and one defeat doesn’t make you a bad team.
Are they vulnerable? No. I wouldn't say they're vulnerable because they probably want to respond. Like I said with us from the game on the weekend (against London City Lionesses), we’ve had a disappointing performance, and you want to respond. So, hopefully, it's fire against fire - which makes for a good game.”
Home advantage
When asked about the pressure of the North London Derby, Ho spoke about the competitiveness of the WSL, with no game being an easy challenge. He also showed his respect for the fans coming to attend the fixture, following Spurs in their journey:
“I just take every game as it comes. There’s a lot for the fans to look at, those big games, they enjoy them like this one on the weekend. The players maybe have certain ones they look to, but I just look at the fixtures as they come. Every game I know in this league is competitive, it's tough, and the league now is at a totally different level to where it was before.
This fixture is obviously new to me - it's a new experience. I’ve got a good feeling for that now because you see how many tickets we've sold for the game, so the fans are coming out, which you respect, and we thank a lot for them coming in their numbers. But I don't look up to any fixture, I just take everyone as it comes.”
A sold-out Brisbane Road is a new prospect for Spurs. On whether this could be used as an advantage for the Lilywhites, the head coach praised the team’s great performances at their home so far this season, speaking about how he wants to make it their fortress and a difficult place for teams to come and leave with a result:
“I think we could. In our own surroundings, it can have a big positive effect. We know exactly what the feel is at Brisbane Road. We’ve had a really good start to the season at Brisbane Road, up to now, and we have to make sure we continue that. We have to make that place a fortress for people to come to and we have to make it difficult for people when they come there.
We've done that so far this season, we've had a good record there and we've performed well - and I want to make sure we continue that on the weekend.”
Aims and ambitions
This season, Ho aims for Spurs to challenge for a top spot in the WSL table, with big ambitions to secure the team a Champions League spot. From finishing eleventh in the WSL last season, the club look to develop and progress up the table, but the head coach remains grounded and believes in the quality of his squad:
“I haven’t come here just to take part. I want to make sure I can progress this team and help us achieve our ambitions. We know it’s obviously a big ask to go into that top three, it is a small group that go into the Champions League, but I believe if we get things right, we can.”
Individual and collective consistency is one of the most important factors in achieving that goal:
“But, over the course of the season, you need a really consistent level - individually and collectively - to be able to get into that. We’ve to make sure we show that more now, but we want to keep ourselves in around that top three and that’s the most important part now until we get to the Christmas break.”
Spurs face Arsenal at Brisbane Road this Sunday (14:30 KO BST), where they are looking to make history. Whoever wins today, will climb up to a Champions League spot, and leave the victorious club of North London.