Tottenham Women continue to move in the right direction despite defeat to Manchester City Women as Molly Bartrip shines
Although Tottenham Women were handed their first defeat since early December, there were definitely signs that Robert Vilahamn’s side are continuing to move in the right direction.
Following four straight wins, Spurs were beaten for the first time in 2024 as they lost 2-0 at home against Manchester City Women in the FA Women’s Super League on Sunday 28 January.
While this will of course come as a disappointment to Vilahamn and his players, they can take a lot more away from this defeat than the last time they played City.
On 26 November they were beaten 7-0 by the same opponents, albeit away from home, and their most recent result against Gareth Taylor’s side demonstrates that they are continuing to move in the right direction.
At this moment in time, Tottenham will need to accept that City are just a level above them as they sit second in the WSL, 10 points ahead of their North London rivals.
Nonetheless, the difference in scoreline and performance will have pleased Vilahamn as his players proved to him that they have taken a lot of confidence from their fantastic form over the past month.
Molly Bartrip’s display in particular highlighted this improvement and increased confidence within the team.
When City beat Spurs 7-0 last time out, Bartrip had an afternoon to forget. As per Sofascore, the defender won three of her seven ground duels, one of her three aerial duels and made two errors leading to a shot, while also being dribbled past twice.
This time around, the performance was night and day. In the 2-0 defeat on Sunday, Bartrip won 100 per cent of her duels both in the air and on the ground, while she was dribbled past zero times, made two tackles, one interception, blocked one shot and made one clearance.
Following their historic first-ever victory over Arsenal Women in the North London derby on Saturday 16 December when they beat the Gunners 1-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Spurs will now be looking to continue their progress by claiming three points against one of the WSL’s other heavyweights.
For the time being they will be looking to get back to winning ways when they play Liverpool Women away from home on Sunday 4 February, where victory will take them above the Reds and into the top six.
In other Tottenham news, a Spurs expert has speculated that three more players could leave Hotspur Way before Thursday.
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