Martin Ho has warned that Tottenham Women’s push towards the Women’s Super League’s leading places will not be a straight-line progression, with Chelsea and Arsenal awaiting Spurs after their 6-1 defeat by London City Lionesses.
Tottenham had opened the 2026/27 campaign with emphatic victories over Crystal Palace and Aston Villa, winning those matches by an aggregate score of 11-0. Their heavy loss to London City before the international break provided a reminder of the challenge facing Ho’s side as they target a place in the Champions League positions.
Spurs visit Chelsea on Sunday before hosting Arsenal in the north London derby on October 24. For Ho, the matches will offer a significant test of the progress made since he took charge.
“You’re always optimistic that it can go well, but I’m also realistic that you don’t just have this long-term success,” Ho said. “It’s not linear, there’s going to be ups and downs, but I know if you want long-term consistency, you’re going to have to have this.”
Tottenham have moved from relegation concerns to European aspirations in less than 18 months under the former Brann manager, but Ho insists the club must continue to develop rather than expect an immediate challenge for the title.
“We can’t just go from being a team that’s been fighting at the bottom of the table to go and challenge for the [WSL] trophy and make that successful and consistent over years to come,” he said. “There’s a process to that but the ambition is always to be at the top of that table.”
Ho believes the standards set at the club have helped create a platform for further improvement, while crediting his players for adapting quickly to his demands.
“Since coming in, I’ve tried to push standards, push the expectation with staff and players to give us a platform that can give us an opportunity to progress,” he said. “The players deserve a lot of credit for that because they take the information and run with it.
“They play with courage, bravery, with personality which is what I asked for and their commitment and willingness is first class.”
Tottenham Women’s recruitment adds experience
Tottenham strengthened their squad during the summer by signing Champions League winners Victoria Pelova and Alice Sombath from Arsenal and Lyon respectively. Caitlin Dijkstra also arrived from Wolfsburg as Ho sought to add experience from domestic, European and international football.
“We felt like we needed certain qualities in certain positions and those players that have come in have allowed us to do that,” Ho said.
He added that the new arrivals had brought experience of competing in different environments, while helping to create a balance between youth and experience within the squad.
Sombath, who won titles with Lyon and has international experience despite her age, was a player Tottenham had followed for some time. Pelova, meanwhile, joined after a long-term injury and a period in which Ho said she had been low on confidence.
“She’s been part of a winning culture and a winning environment and those environments are what we want to bring to the club, which she can share and we can lean on those experiences from her,” Ho said of Pelova.
He said the midfielder had made an immediate impact by rediscovering her enthusiasm for football and rebuilding her belief in what she could achieve. Pelova has scored five times in the WSL this season, putting her level with Manchester City’s Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw and Birmingham’s Oceane Hurtre as the joint-leading scorers.
Pelova will face her former Arsenal team-mates when Tottenham meet the Gunners later this month. Before then, Chelsea will provide another measure of whether Spurs can compete with the division’s strongest sides.
Ho expects both London derbies to be difficult but believes they are precisely the fixtures in which Tottenham’s character and development can be assessed.
“You have to show a willingness to compete in those games first,” he said. “You go in with the mindset and the objective is always to win the game, but we have to look at the process behind that first and the performance has to allow you to be in that position psychologically.”
He added: “Are they going to be tough games? 100 percent, but they’re the games you want to play and I want to play in as a coach, the players want to play in. The commercial interest is big in those because they’re London derbies so you have to embrace them as a player.”
Tottenham’s next two results may offer a clearer indication of how far they have progressed after the setback against London City, although Ho does not believe either match will define his team.
“One game doesn’t tell you if you’re a good team or a bad team,” he said. “It maybe gives you some answers in terms of where we need to go and the direction we need to go in, but it doesn’t define you.”
