2023 in review for Spurs Women

With 2023 coming to a close, we take a look back at some key highlights throughout the year, from the arrival of Bethany England in January to securing Women’s Super League survival, welcoming Robert Vilahamn ahead of the new 2023/24 campaign and that historic victory over Arsenal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Here are some key highlights from the past year:

The arrival of Bethany England

The New Year kicked off with the arrival of forward Bethany England from Chelsea in January, sighing a contract with us until June 2026. She made an instant impact, scoring on her debut in the defeat to Aston Villa before going on to score 12 goals in the Women’s Super League for the rest of the 2022/23 campaign, helping us secure survival in the league.

Bethany was then named captain ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, and although she missed the first opening months of the season due to a hip injury, she was certainly supporting her teammates from the sideline.

She made her long-awaited return to action earlier this month against Manchester United before playing a part in the victory over Arsenal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ahead of the festive break and will be keen to play a significant part in the second half of the season.

Women’s Super League survival

We suffered five consecutive defeats in the Women’s Super League at the beginning of 2023, with defeats to Aston Villa, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool, which proved to be Rehanne Skinner’s last game in charge.

Following the departure of Skinner, Vicky Jepson was appointed interim head coach for the final stages of the campaign and grabbed our first three points of 2023 in her first game, with a 1-0 win over Leicester City.

In the following seven games, we saw an upturn in form – with victory over Reading alongside draws with Aston Villa, Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United - and that was enough for us to secure survival in the top flight for another season, finishing ninth in the table.

Robert Vilahamn arrives!

In July, we announced the appointment of Robert Vilahamn as our new Head Coach for the 2023/24 campaign, joining from Swedish side BK Hacken, where he helped them secure Champions League qualification in his first season and also reached the Swedish Cup final in both 2022 and 2023.

The Swedish manager has already made an impressive start to life in N17, only losing once in the opening seven games, has racked up 15 points at the midway point of the season – just three points off last season’s points tally and currently sat sixth in the Women’s Super League table, three points behind Manchester United in fourth.

New faces in the summer

Ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, we welcomed six new faces to the squad, including Luana Bühler, Olga Ahtinen, Barbora Votíková, Martha Thomas, Grace Clinton and Zhang Linyan – with them all making an impact so far.

Olga was named vice-captain alongside defender Molly Bartrip at the start of the season, Luana and Grace have featured in nine out of 10 games in the Women’s Super League, while Martha has been in unstoppable form in front of goal, netting nine goals in 12 appearances so far this season and is joint-second leading goalscorer in the WSL.

Barbora produced a fantastic performance at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in our final fixture in 2023, where she was named Player of the Match in the historic victory over Arsenal, while Zhang netted on her debut in the comfortable victory over Reading in the Conti Cup earlier in the season.

2023/24 season so far

The campaign kicked off with a trip to Stamford Bridge to face last season’s Women’s Super League winners, Chelsea, and although we left no points, it was a spirited second half performance that pushed the reigning champions until the end.

We then went on a six-game unbeaten run in the league, three consecutive victories against Bristol City, Brighton & Hove Albion and Aston Villa followed by three consecutive 1-1 draws with Everton, Liverpool and Leicester City.

Two heavy defeats followed against Manchester City – our first defeat in the league since the opening game of the season – and then Manchester United, but 2023 was rounded off with a historic victory in front of around 20,000 supporters at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

That famous win over Arsenal

There was no better way of ending the year than creating more history as we secured our first-ever victory over the Gunners at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Martha Thomas opened the scoring 13 minutes into the second half, prodding home Celin Bizet’s pass, before we defended superbly for the remainder of the game, with goalkeeper Barbora making some superb saves and our defenders and other outfield players making key blocks and interceptions all afternoon.

While it was a memorable day on the pitch for the team, there was a personal achievement for Bethany as the victory over the Gunners was our captain's 150th appearance in the WSL.

The victory left us sixth in the WSL – three points behind Manchester United in fourth and seven behind Arsenal in third – ahead of our return in 2024.