Winless after January and finishing second from bottom in the Women’s Super League, it was unsurprising that the mood was gloomy around Tottenham last season. Bleak, you might say. That is why their current new-manager bounce and burst of positivity is such a breath of fresh air, not only for the club but for the WSL as a whole.

Under Martin Ho, Spurs have won four of their opening five WSL matches of this campaign, putting them third in the table, four points better off than neighbours Arsenal, and they could even go top on Sunday if they were to pull of a shock win at leaders and champions, Chelsea.

A team that conceded the joint-second highest number of goals last season has kept three clean sheets out of a possible five in the league, and that has come in tandem with much-improved performances from the Australia defender Clare Hunt, who has barely put a foot wrong alongside an early contender for the division’s young signing of the summer, the 19-year-old Japan centre-back Toko Koga.

Tottenham fought off Champions League clubs’ interest to sign Koga from Feyenoord and, with her maturity awareness and maturity of defensive positioning, you...