🏏 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 14:00 BST
Crystal Palace W
vs
Tottenham Hotspur Women
Positions estimated (no formation data from the API)
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Sixth-placed Tottenham visit seventh-placed Crystal Palace with both sides level on four points from two matches. Each has won one and drawn one, and only goal difference separates them — plus two for Spurs, plus one for Palace. With Manchester City already up to nine points from three games, neither can afford to drop off the pace in a head-to-head like this.
- Palace, back in the top flight as WSL2 champions, have produced a strikingly lopsided set of numbers: one goal scored, none conceded in two matches. They beat Everton 1-0 at home on the opening weekend, then went to fourth-placed Arsenal and came away with a 0-0 draw. Keeping a clean sheet away at Arsenal as a promoted side is the foundation of their confidence here.
- Spurs offer the mirror image, with four goals scored and two conceded. They put three past West Ham in a 3-1 home win before drawing 1-1 away at Liverpool, who sit fifth on four points. Palace's unbreached defence against a Tottenham attack that has already scored multiple goals in a match is the simplest and most compelling frame for this fixture.
- There is a direct Japanese duel on the pitch. Palace field 21-year-old holding midfielder F. Tsunoda in front of their defence, while Tottenham start 20-year-old centre-back T. Koga. The zone Tsunoda patrols and the space Koga steps into when Spurs build out overlap vertically, so two of the youngest regulars in the division will keep running into each other.
- Koga became Tottenham's youngest-ever goalscorer at 19 and started all four of Japan's matches at the Paris 2024 Olympics. She arrived from Feyenoord in July 2025 and uses her 173cm frame to dominate aerially while also breaking lines with the ball, and she remains part of Japan's 26-player senior squad.
- Tsunoda won five domestic trophies at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Urawa Reds Ladies, including back-to-back WE League titles, and is valued for her reading of danger and her ability to win the ball high up the pitch. At 21 she anchors a Palace side yet to concede, and she faces a seasoned pairing in Netherlands international Viktoria Pelova, formerly of Arsenal and Ajax, and 33-year-old Jamaica midfielder Drew Spence, a long-serving Chelsea player.
- Tottenham's attacking unit has a heavy Norwegian accent. No. 8 Gaupset scored 15 goals with 12 assists for Brann in 2025, winning the league title and the player of the year award, then announced herself at EURO 2025 with two goals against Iceland. Left-footed Julie Blakstad, once the subject of the largest transfer fee ever paid for a Norwegian player when she joined Manchester City, arrived in January 2026, and 22-year-old Katinka Tandberg leads the line after moving from Hammarby.
- Palace pair experience with momentum up front. Beth England, 32, is a 166cm striker who won both the WSL Player of the Year and PFA Player of the Year awards during her Chelsea years and still lives on her instincts inside the box. Alongside her is Lexi Lloyd-Smith, 23, who topped the WSL2 scoring charts last season with 11 goals in 21 games before joining on a free transfer in July 2026, having come through the Arsenal and Chelsea academies.
- Palace's goal is guarded by 34-year-old France international Pauline Peyraud-Magnin, who joined on loan from NWSL side Denver Summit in August 2026. She collected five trophies across four and a half seasons at Juventus and has previously played for Arsenal and Olympique Lyonnais. In front of her stands Molly Bartrip, the 30-year-old centre-back who played every minute of every WSL match in 2024-25.
- The benches tell their own stories. Amanda Nildén, 28, a former Juventus player and EURO 2022 participant, starts at left-back for Spurs while her younger sister Matilda, 21, who scored 23 goals in 25 Elitettan games, waits among the substitutes. Finland's Eveliina Summanen, holder of Tottenham's club record for WSL assists, is also held back. Palace counter with Sierra Enge, the Stanford graduate who spent two seasons at Strasbourg, and Jamaica defender Allyson Swaby, a veteran of Paris Saint-Germain, Roma and AC Milan.