“Last season, we were really, really shit,” says Olivia Holdt. The Denmark forward joined Tottenham in January as the team were in a long slump that saw them finish 11th in the Women’s Super League, their lowest position since they were promoted to the division in 2019.
Manager Robert Vilahamn was unsurprisingly sacked, with Martin Ho appointed in his place.
The contrast with this season has been night and day. Where Tottenham once looked ponderous and lethargic in and out of possession, they have become aggressive and direct. Fifth in the table, they have already achieved 75% of the points they managed last year and find themselves level with north London rivals Arsenal, who they face today.
They were criticised in the summer for bringing in only two players, but both 19-year-old centre-back Tōko Koga and striker Cathinka Tandberg have made impressive starts.
“I think we have surprised people a bit,” says Holdt. “It’s not like we’re sitting here saying we want to win the league. It’s more like we want to build an identity so that people fear us and that they have respect for us. Especially coming after last season, it’s about building this team up and proving ourselves again.”
The gap in quality between Tottenham and Arsenal has meant that the north London derby is yet to take on the same antagonism of that in Manchester in recent years. Tottenham have won the fixture only once, two years ago, and have suffered a number of heavy defeats.
“I’d be lying if I said that we weren’t underdogs,” says Holdt. “They won the Champions League, they’re a really great team. But I think this season we’ve proved ourselves. When the game starts it’s 0-0 and the ball is round so everything can happen.”
“It’s a new opportunity for me,” says manager Martin Ho, about the prospect of the derby. Ho, a former Everton academy player, was an assistant manager there and at Manchester United, before he took his first managerial role at SK Brann in Norway.
We know the games are always close. It’s a feisty affair with it being a derby, but we have to try and remove that emotion as much as possible and focus on what we can control, which is the performance.”
Ho has shown himself to be a manager who wants to responsibility, apologising on Instagram after Tottenham lost 4-2 to London City Lionesses last weekend.
“I’m the one that makes the final decisions,” he says. “I’m not asking for any kind of pat on the back, or plaudits. But when we lose games, the responsibility is mine. I have to make sure that the team selection, tactics and training throughout the week, all those things are in place. If we don’t then win the game, then I need to look at those things, so I take responsibility for the defeats.”
Ho’s intense out-of-possession approach, combined with individual freedom in attack, is a mirror of the identity that Tottenham want to see across all teams at the club. It combines the mental ability to be brave with a physical capacity to enact the game plan.
“I always say to the players: ‘Where would you rather win the ball? 70 yards up or 70 yards deeper, closer to your goal?’ That front-foot mentality, that mentality to defend forwards, not backwards, is a reflection of both myself and the club’s football.”
There has been some controversy that today’s game will be at Brisbane Road, where Tottenham play the majority of their home games, as opposed to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, due to that being in use for a boxing match between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn.
“We have a really good following at Brisbane Road,” says Ho. “It’s noisy when we’ve played there. We want to use that to our advantage. No matter where the game is played, it’s a good opportunity for us as a team.”
“Brisbane Road is our home,” says Holdt. “We enjoy playing there and our fans are always there to support us. But it would be nice to play more games at the big stadium.”
Tottenham can draw on a pre-season win over Arsenal for belief. The Champions League winners collapsed against Bayern Munich in mid-week, losing 3-2 having been 2-0 up within 25 minutes, which might further encourage them. But it is clear that whatever happens this weekend, the Tottenham project extends far beyond one-off derby results.
Ahead of the game, news broke in Norway that Tottenham would spend a club-record fee on the highly rated Signe Gaupset. That rumoured signing is a stronger signal of the direction Tottenham are heading in than any result against Arsenal could be.
Photograph by Maja Hitij/WSL via Getty Images