Leeds 0-4 Tottenham: Player ratings to the theme of Wordle starting words

You’ve probably seen these squares on Twitter lately, or referenced in I don’t know how many other contexts. Wordle has swept the globe to the extent that the creator of the fun five letter word game has taken something that he created for his girlfriend and sold it to the New York Times for more than a $1m. Good for him!

If you’ve been under a rock for a while now, Wordle is an online word guessing game where you have six guesses to identify a five letter English language word. With each word you guess you’re presented with colors — yellow indicates the letter is in the word but not in the right spot. Green indicates the letter is in the word and in the right spot. Black means the letter is not in the word at all.

There are multiple ways to go across solving Wordle — you get a new word every day. Most people just pick the first word that comes into their head. However, lots of smart Internet People have determined what they consider the statistically best words to start with, i.e. the word that gives you the best chance of identifying a lot of letters on the first guess. (Yes, you CAN guess the right word on the first try, it’s just incredibly unlikely.)

So for today’s player ratings theme, a 4-0 Tottenham Hotspur away win over Leeds, let’s take a look at Wordle. Here are your player ratings to the theme of Wordle starting words.

5 stars: SPURS

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This is a Tottenham Hotspur blog.

Harry Kane (Community — 4.5): Another incredible match. Scored a beauty and was a big part of much of the good stuff Spurs did going forward.

4 stars: AROSE

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This is considered the best word to start with as it contains a combination of three vowels and two consonants that are the most commonly used letters in the English language. The game might not consider it a great word though because it’s trying to be clever and use a not-very-common word. Anyway, once you’ve arisen and had your morning coffee, try “arose.”

Matt Doherty (Community — 4.0): Well, look at that. Matt Doherty had a good match for Tottenham Hotspur. This is the guy we thought we were getting when we bought him from Wolves — dynamic going forward, progressive, and with an ability to crash the box. Good goal, too.

Ryan Sessegnon (Community — 4.0): It was Redemption Day at Tottenham Hotspur and Sess was one of the ones celebrating. Partnered well with Doherty for Spurs’ first goal and was getting into good positions. Not the best athlete, doesn’t seem as fast as he used to be, but that match had to feel good.

Dejan Kulusevski (Community — 4.0): I continue to think that he might be one of the best January pickups in the Premier League. Scored again and had two other chances blocked.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (Community — 4.0): A good day for the midfield, as Leeds let both Hobby and Winky pretty much do whatever they wanted.

Son Heung-Min (Community — 4.0): Got a late goal courtesy of Kane that set a Premier League record, and had a couple of other chances earlier. Kick the ball a little harder on some of those earlier opportunities and he’s up there with Kane at five stars.

Antonio Conte (Community —4.0): Conte said the system and the work is starting to pay off after this win. I’ll say, but I’ll be more inclined to believe it when it works against a team that sits deep in addition to a team that tries to play with us. Still, that’s a good win and I’m happy.

3.5 stars: LATER

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IDK, the internet tells me it’s solid.

Ben Davies (Community — 3.5): The defense wasn’t stellar overall vs. Leeds, but Ben did save Spurs’ clean sheet by clearing out a big chance after Hugo was beaten. He gets an extra half star for that.

Harry Winks (Community — 3.5): A solid match. Had the hockey assist for the first goal, was given plenty of space in midfield, and looked comfortable (despite a couple of “traffic cone” moments in defense).

3 stars: Literally any five letter word you can think of

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Cutric Diemero (Community — 4.0/4.0): Kept a clean sheet but Leeds also couldn’t hit the side of a barn. Also — this ain’t no Janby Alderwiertonghen, so help me workshop a better name in the comments.

2.5 stars: JUMBO

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According to Reddit, “jumbo” is a really bad word to start with despite having two vowels. I’m a little skeptical, but not enough to actually try it in a game. (I got a streak to maintain.)

Hugo Lloris (Community — 3.0): Look, it’s another big mistake in what’s beginning to become a pattern. Thankfully it didn’t cost Spurs this time, but he was inches away from being sent off and suspended for the Everton match. Knock it off, Hugo.

1 star: XYLYL

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Science has determined the worst possible Wordle starting word and it is defined by the dictionary as “any of several isomeric monovalent radicals C8H9 derived from the three xylenes by removal of a hydrogen atom.” Now I expect the NYT to actually use it because they’re bastards like that.

No Tottenham Hotspur players were as bad as using “xylyl” with your first guess in Wordle.

Tom Carroll Memorial Non-Rating

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Emerson Royal, Steven Bergwijn, Dane Scarlett