Vilahamn wants Spurs to take recent game positives into Crystal Palace | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Robert Vilahamn says that he wants his side to take the positives from the Leicester City and West Ham United games into this weekend’s fixture at Crystal Palace.

Spurs blew hot and cold as they defeated Leicester City 1-0 in the Barclays Women’s Super League last weekend before going down to a disappointing 2-1 defeat to West Ham United in the Subway Women’s League Cup in midweek.

When speaking to the media ahead of this weekend’s trip to Crystal Palace, Vilahamn said that his side need to take the good things from their recent games forward and leave the negatives behind.

“Obviously, we had a good run of games but it was a tough one against West Ham because we had them in the beginning, could have scored a second goal and then going into half-time, it was 1-2 and it could have been 1-3,” Vilahamn said. “It was a tough one trying to find energy and we didn’t succeed.

“The training has shown me that the players really want to show the energy from that to have a good performance against Crystal Palace. Obviously, we’ve had a good run in the league and we are trying to look upwards instead of downwards, so it’s an important game in that way. I want to make sure that we play better football, that we are a bit sharper technically.

“We created more chances against West Ham than Leicester but in one way, the Leicester game was more disappointing but we won that game. We were able to protect ourselves and keep a clean sheet. Against West Ham, we had some great chances and didn’t win that game.

“We need to use the good stuff from those games and reduce the bad stuff. We need a better performance so that we can beat Crystal Palace.”

Spurs defeated Crystal Palace 4-0 in the reverse fixture on the opening day of the season. The Eagles are currently bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League table but Vilahamn has complete respect for the South Londoners.

He said “They had a tough start to the season against us and then Chelsea but they have an excellent manager and organisation which shows that they want to stay in the league. They have invested and have a quality squad that they have now strengthened. I’m aware of their new signings; Clarissa [Larisey] I’ve had before and Ria Öling I’m aware of as well.

“They are competing to stay in this league and it’s not an easy away game. I saw the game against Arsenal last weekend and while they scored on a corner in the beginning, it was quite a competitive game until they scored those goals in the end.

“I have respect for Crystal Palace, I think they’re better than what people expect when they look at the table and it’ll be a really tough game. On the other hand, we want to have revenge [for the West Ham defeat] and show how good we can be. We have to go into this game with a good energy and make sure we have a better performance.”

Tottenham Hotspur’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Crystal Palace kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon.