While the ongoing international break long has brought a pause to the domestic men’s action, Tottenham Hotspur Women do not have the luxury of such a respite, facing a North London derby (NLD) away to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium this afternoon (1:30 PM KO BST). The match is also available to view on BBC1 and BBC iPlayer.
For most supporters of the men’s team, who may perhaps be unfamiliar with the WSL and our women’s team, this match has therefore come at a great time given that there is nothing to watch besides the general tosh on offer via the Nations League. This is perhaps reflected in the anticipated attendance figure of 51,000 for today’s game, which will resoundingly break the current WSL attendance record of 38,262 from the 2019 NLD.
Speaking to the club’s media team during her pre-match media duties yesterday, head coach Rehanne Skinner said:
“The players will relish the opportunity to play in front of a large volume of fans.
“The excitement on the pitch today in training was evident. It will pose challenges in terms of communication, making it difficult to hear, but that’s the route we want to go down and get used to. I can only see positives in it.
“We want to make life as difficult for Arsenal as we can. We’re seen as underdogs and that’s fine by us. There’s no pressure and nothing to lose. We just need to do our jobs well.”
Both sides have minimal injury worries going into this one, with the only expected injury absentee for the hosts being Teyah Goldie, who is ruled out for the foreseeable with ACL injury. For Spurs, the only pre-match doubt is Rosella Ayane, who was withdrawn early on in last week’s victory over Leicester.
Indeed, both teams enter the match on the back of opening-day victories, with Spurs beating Leicester 2-1 and Arsenal seeing off ten-man Brighton with a convincing 4-0 victory, meaning that whoever wins this one can enjoy being top of the table, at least for a few hours!
Arsenal themselves are no strangers to heading the standings; although they have not won the WSL title since 2018-19, they spent most of last season at the top before ultimately succumbing to champions Chelsea. They will be hoping to go one better this time, and an NLD at home in front of a record is sure to fire up a team that probably didn’t need much ‘firing up’ going into this game.
Indeed, the hosts can be buoyed further by this fixture’s head-to-head record, which makes for grim reading for visiting fans. In 5 WSL meetings between the two sides, Arsenal have won four and the teams have drawn once, with no victories coming at all for Spurs in 8 matches in all competitions between the two sides, which have brought 6 wins for Arsenal and 2 draws.
However, there is a first time for everything, and whichever way you look at it from a Spurs viewpoint, the game is a win-win situation: lose, and it’s a tough fixture ticked off the list; win, and it’s a bonus three points that no-one would have expected.
Despite the record crowd and the desire to close the gap on the top three, there is no real pressure on the ladies to deliver an upset going into this one. Nevertheless, COYS!
Really disappointing that so little interest is shown in our womens team right across Vital Spurs. Over 50k tickets sold for the game today at the Emptycrates despite it being shown live on BBC1.
Thanks for this thread, Omar. It’s a tough game for Spurs but we’ll get the chance to see how some of the new signings shape up. Arsenal have a few new faces too, as well as some of the current star players in women’s football already on their books. History is against us but Spurs, reasonably new to the WSL, are gradually on the rise so there is room for optimism. Arsenal v Spurs; it’s always a good game to win!
TQ …. I think the WSL following will grow rapidly now that the ‘secret’ is out.
Cheers Geoff, figured you and TQ primarily would enjoy threads on our WSL team, I’ve no issue with those that aren’t into it, as you say we’re a relatively new addition to the league and the WSL still isn’t quite the finished article in terms of attracting viewers, so it’ll take time to generate widespread interest. Like our team, however, it’s all moving in the right direction. No dishonour in losing yesterday either, much expected given the gap in quality between the teams and the timing of the goals.
Sorry to be off topic for the thread, but there’s a shortage of threads in the international break.
Richarlison scored two goals for the Seleção of Brazil vs. Ghana. Up the Spurs man.
Now a comment on topic for this thread: One reason for the lack of comments on the woman’s Spurs team is that they haven’t shown up on anything that can be watched either in NY or in Brazil. They’re off the radar, unlike the men’s team that has all of their matches shown on one (paid) network or another.
Further, we fell in love with our Spurs decades ago, but have no such tradition pulling our emotions for the women’s team. I’d watch them if they showed up on a screen where I am. I might even develop a feel for their newly minted tradition. But for now,they are like a ghost team for me. I simply do not know them.
Any team that plays exciting football is worth watching. I’m open to this team in spirit, but closed by a lack of opportunities to see them play.
Today I’m more excited by Richarlison’s two goals vs Ghana.
by the way, Neymar played the whole 90 minutes as an attacking midfielder with responsibility to feed the attackers up front from him. Wow. Can you imagine? Maybe Neymar is being groomed as the new Modric?
The result was no real surprise. The second give-away goal just before the break killed any chance of getting something from this game. Arsenal are a very good side and will no doubt be competing with Chelsa, United and City for the title.
I was disappointed by the lack of ambition shown by the club in the summer transfer window. We lost quite a few half decent players but seemed to replace them with similar instead of improving the overall quality of the squad.
I think the gap between Chelsea, City, Arsenal, and the rest, is too big to bridge at the moment. Arsenal are a cohesive team with very good players and a longer history so it’s probably a bit unfair to judge Spurs on this performance. Spurs just need to show they are better than the rest.
That’s what I was hoping for Geof, with a 5th place finish last season the only way to continue our progression is by going for the next level of player, I appreciate that we can’t do this in one window but our recruitment in the summer just replaced like for like quality wise. That said, I was quite impressed by the young lady Bizet, let’s hope she Carmens good very soon! :- )
I agree, TQ, Fourth place is up for grabs!