When Arsenal loanee Gio Queiroz rifled the ball home to rubber stamp Everton's Women's Super League victory over Tottenham in December, it felt like Spurs had reached a new low.
Rehanne Skinner's side have spent much of the campaign vying with the Toffees to be the 'best of the rest' outside of the league's conventional top four and yet, on that bleak Wednesday evening at Brisbane Road, Everton were able to exploit all of their host's deficiencies as they romped to a 3-0 win. The fact that the win was sealed by one of Arsenal's most exciting young assets only further compounded the misery.
The result marked Tottennham's fourth consecutive league defeat, with the Lilywhites having failed to register a single goal while conceding nine during that period. In fact, Spurs went into the winter break boasting the joint-third worst goalscoring return in the league, having found the net just 11 times so far this term (with eight of those goals coming in one game).
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"It’s very difficult to have a perfect season," Rehanne Skinner said after the Everton defeat, "we’ve got to find ways to use our resilience and bring ourselves out the other side in January."
There is, perhaps, no better way to spark a January revival than the recruitment of one of the WSL's most prolific attacking talents. The signing of Beth England from Chelsea -for a British transfer record of £250,000 - is almost certain to help remedy Spurs' shortcomings in front of goal and help fill the void left by injured forwards Kiyah Simon and Ellie Brazil.
England departs Chelsea after seven years at the club, during which she scored 74 goals and won nine major trophies. The 28-year-old also boasts an impressive international CV, having registered 11 goals in 21 games for the Lionesses.
"I don’t care if it’s a game of cards or a game of bingo, I want to win," England said after penning a three year deal with the Lilywhites, "hopefully I can help to make sure we’re a bit more ruthless in front of goal and get the team where it needs to be.”
England will hope to get off the mark for her new club when Spurs return to WSL action on Saturday with a trip to Aston Villa. Carla Ward's side currently sit seventh in the table - one place and three points ahead of their visitors - and have made some exciting new additions of their own, with Arsenal's Jordan Nobbs and Manchester United's Lucy Staniforth already having joined their ranks this month.
Tottenham will follow up their trip to the West Midlands with a clash with bottom-of-the-table Leicester before taking on Chelsea in the quarter-finals of the Continental League Cup. Rehanne Skinner's side will then close out January with an FA Cup fourth round tie with the London City Lionesses.
The cup double-header precedes an ominous run of fixtures for Spurs, who will face all of the current top four in their subsequent five games. The last of those games is the North London derby on March 26, where Tottenham will hope to get revenge for the 4-0 drubbing Arsenal dished out in the reverse fixture.
While Spurs' inconsistency in the first half of the season and the stellar form of the likes of Manchester United and Manchester City almost certainly rules them out of the race for European football, the battle to finish in fifth place will likely be shaped by the final two months of the season, where they will take on the likes of Everton, Aston Villa and West Ham.
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