Tottenham Hotspur Women have until now enjoyed their first foray in the FA Women’s Super League. Since their promotion from the Championship at the end of last season, they have made themselves at home in the top flight, with wins vs Brighton, Liverpool, West Ham and Bristol City. The highlight of the season so far came in November when Spurs hosted Arsenal in front of nearly 40,000 fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Despite losing 2-0, the party-like atmosphere was a sign of things to come for Spurs if they remain on their current trajectory.

Tottenham have taken 13 points from ten games and their safety in the WSL is all but assured. On the other hand, the prospect of Champions League qualification, or even catching up to the WSL’s leading pack, seems beyond their grasp. So what does the team have left to fight for this season? With no clear objective, Spurs could end up coasting along for the rest of the campaign. Head coaches Karen Hills and Juan Amoros will be keen to guard against complacency, where bad habits can begin to creep in.

Hills and Amoros must continue to develop the squad and work on its shortcomings between now and the end of the season, so when they next play at home in front of tens of thousands of fans, they are not just there to make up the numbers. Below are three key objectives for Spurs to focus on for the remainder of the 2019/20 season to ensure their rapid rise continues in the new year and beyond.

Finish seventh in the WSL (at least)

Spurs are sitting seventh in the league and as the saying goes: the table doesn’t lie. They have found their level in the WSL for the 2019/20 season. Spurs are certainly not on a par with the league’s three front runners: Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City. Nor are they as good as the chasing pack of three: Everton, Man Utd and Reading. Spurs have lost five from five against teams above them in the league. Equally, there is daylight between Tottenham and the teams below them in the WSL, against whom they have four wins and one draw from five.

Spurs should seek to consolidate seventh place for the remainder of this season and use it as a building block for the future. Anything less would represent a failure following their performances during the first half of this season. And anything more is too optimistic for this current crop of players, given the relative strength of the teams above them in the WSL. However, with West Ham three points behind in eighth, and with a game in hand, seventh is by no means a formality.

Get a positive result (win or draw) against a team above Spurs in the league

As already mentioned, Spurs have failed to earn a single point from a team above them in the WSL this season. It is important for Tottenham to overcome this barrier sooner rather than later. Not only because the prospect of Spurs beating Arsenal or Chelsea is why fans give up their weekends to watch football, but because one hard earned win or draw can open the floodgates. If they can do it once, why not twice, or three times? There is understandably a lack of belief going into big games for this Spurs side. Some of the opposition in the WSL is on a par with the best teams in Europe, and Spurs, after all, are fairly new to it all. However, if Tottenham want to finish higher than seventh in the league in the future, they will need to start taking points from teams who already do. And what better place to start than at The Hive against the formidable Man City on January 5?

Be more clinical in front of goal

Spurs have scored nine goals in ten league games this season, with top scorer, Kit Graham, notching three. While Tottenham’s defence is the sixth best in the WSL, conceding 14 goals in ten games, their attack is in eighth place. Earlier this season Kit Graham missed two golden chances to put Spurs ahead against Arsenal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Arsenal, courtesy of goals from Kim Little, and the league’s top scorer, Vivianne Miedema, duly made them pay, going on to win 2-0. This has been a recurring theme for Spurs this season, especially against high quality opposition. It is encouraging that Spurs are able to create chances so freely, but the lack of killer instinct remains a concern. Hills and Amoros must find a way to give their forward players more confidence in front of goal, so they don’t have to rely on their defence to get them out of trouble.

