Liverpool Women Start Season Strong with Draw Against Spurs

Liverpool Women started the 2026-27 campaign with a simple, sensible target: survive a tricky opening trio of fixtures against newly promoted Charlton, mid-table Tottenham, and reigning FAWSL champions Manchester City with four points on the board.

On paper, that looked ambitious. On the pitch, they’ve made it look entirely realistic.

A 4-0 dismantling of Charlton on opening day did more than just tick off the first three points. It jolted expectations. The performance had a swagger about it, the kind that makes a team wonder if “four points” might actually be selling themselves short.

Then came Tottenham.

A 1-1 draw in week two keeps Liverpool on schedule with that early benchmark, but the mood around the result is more frustration than relief. The sense from the touchline and the pitch is that this should have been six points from six.

“I’m really proud of the performance,” manager Gareth Taylor 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.”

That final action haunted them. Liverpool controlled long stretches, especially after the break, yet couldn’t turn dominance into a decisive second goal.

“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 noted. “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.”

The pressure told, just not enough. Spurs hung in, disrupted rhythm, and left with a point that felt like a steal compared to the flow of the game.

For Liverpool, context matters. Even if they do end this opening three-game stretch with the originally targeted four points, it will already mark a significant step up from last season’s struggles. That improvement is underpinned not just by results but by the way they are playing—sharp in pre-season, confident in their opener, and assertive again against Tottenham.

“There are a lot of elements of our game today that we’re really satisfied with,” Taylor said. “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. Liverpool still found ways to dictate. That, more than the single point, is what Taylor wants to carry into a rare Friday night showdown with Manchester City.

The champions will punish any wastefulness in the final third. Liverpool know it. The platform is there; the performances are close. The question now is whether this promising start becomes a genuine step back toward the FAWSL’s upper half, or just a brief spike before the real tests bite.