Liverpool Women Aim for Four Points After Spurs Stalemate

Liverpool Women entered the new 2026-27 campaign with a simple, pragmatic target. Look at the first three fixtures—newly promoted Charlton, mid-table Tottenham, and reigning FAWSL champions Manchester City—and four points felt like a sensible ambition for a side trying to drag itself back into mid-table respectability.

They might just get there. The route, though, has already shifted expectations.

A 4-0 dismantling of Charlton on opening day did more than tick a box. It jolted the conversation. Suddenly, four points from three didn’t sound like a ceiling; it sounded like a baseline. The performance had bite, fluency, and a ruthlessness that had been missing last season.

Then came Tottenham.

Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Spurs keeps Liverpool on course for that original four-point plan after two games, but the mood around the result is very different from the numbers on the table. This felt like a chance missed rather than a point gained.

Manager Gareth Taylor certainly saw it that way.

"I'm really proud of the performance," he said afterwards. "I felt we were the better team. We improved second half, but I still felt we were probably the team that were looking more likely in the first. I think where we've just come up short today is our final action."

The pattern of the match backs him up. Liverpool controlled long spells, especially after the break. Spurs were pinned in, forced deeper and deeper as the home side tightened their grip on possession and territory. The pressure built. The box filled with red shirts. The goal, when it came, carried the kind of quality Taylor wants to make standard.

Still, it wasn’t enough to kill the contest. That final ball, that last touch, the decision in the area—this is where Liverpool’s dominance frayed. Spurs survived, then struck back, and the scoreline never quite matched the control Liverpool exerted.

"For the amount of play that we had, it felt in the second half that Tottenham really couldn't get out of their half but only for a couple of moments," Taylor said. "I'm really proud of the team and where we've taken it to now. I thought the goal was quality and I thought we could have had a penalty."

That penalty shout lingers, because the margins matter for a side trying to haul itself up the table. Yet even stripped of controversy, the performance itself offers a clear sign of progress.

Last season, Liverpool spent too much time looking over their shoulder. Now, even if they end this opening three-game stretch with the originally targeted four points, the context has changed dramatically. The football is sharper. Pre-season hinted at it; the first two league outings have underlined it.

"There are a lot of elements of our game today that we're really satisfied with," Taylor added. "Tottenham are a good team. They're not going to give up the spaces easily and they wanted to be aggressive and change their press in the first half to try to stop us gaining so much ball."

Spurs did adjust, tried to disrupt Liverpool’s rhythm, and still found themselves hemmed in for long stretches. That is the foundation Taylor will carry into training this week.

Because the next test is brutal.

Manchester City, champions and standard-setters, await in a rare Friday night kickoff. Liverpool will walk into that game not as a side clinging to an early-season plan, but as a team starting to believe that four points from three might soon feel like an undersell.