Our Gunners hit five past Tottenham to cruise to a triumphant North London Derby on Saturday
Goals from Stina Blackstenius, Caitlin Foord, Kim Little and Frida Maanum secured our third straight win in the Women’s Super League. The impressive win set us up well ahead of Wednesday’s UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich at Emirates Stadium.
What happened
Eidevall made three changes to the team that ran Bayern close on Tuesday evening in the quarter-final first leg, with Victoria Pelova, Lotte Wubben-Moy and goalkeeper Sabrina D'Angelo entering the starting XI.
Stina Blackstenius opened the scoring with a superb hit, after a threaded ball from Leah Williamson found our Swedish striker's curling run into the final third.
Caitlin Foord, whose performance against Bayern earlier in the week more than deserved a goal, looked in fine form once again, battling through Tottenham's backline. On the half-hour mark, she popped up to double our advantage with a great solo effort, driving at the penalty area and striking the ball low and hard into the back of the net.
Victoria Pelova nearly made it three shortly less than a minute later, after the Dutch winger was perfectly positioned to receive at the top of the box, but her shot was deflected for a corner by Spurs keeper Korpela.
Completely against the run of play, Bethany England pulled one back for the hosts before the break. Our backline blocked England’s initial attempt which then fell to Ashleigh Neville. Her strike was deemed to have come off Katie McCabe’s arm and the referee pointed to the spot, with England converting for her fifth WSL goal in a Spurs shirt.
We came out for the second half with bags of intent, looking to restore our two-goal advantage. Our Gunners were patient with the build-up play, opting to work it around the wings and immediately pouncing on Spurs whenever we lost possession.
Frida Maanum, Foord and Blackstenius all went close early in the second half but it was captain Kim Little who converted yet another penalty for our Gunners after McCabe was brought down in the area.
This was swiftly followed by Foord's second of the afternoon, assisted again by Pelova. Our Dutch midfielder had a fine afternoon on the right wing and her hard work to retain possession at the byeline allowed her to then whip a cross into the box. Foord was waiting by the far post and she buried past Korpela with composure.
Not satisfied with a comfortable lead, our Gunners became steadily more unstoppable in the final third. Maanum’s audacious lob over the Spurs keeper made it five to round off a rampant victory over our local rivals.
What it means
With our third straight win in the WSL, we shot up to second place in the table - at least temporarily. Manchester United face West Ham in Saturday's later fixture, and Chelsea and Manchester City will meet at the Academy Stadium on Sunday.
Team news
Arsenal Starting XI: D'Angelo (GK), Maritz (Wienroither, 66), Williamson, Wubben-Moy, McCabe, Walti (Rafaelle, 66), Little (C), Maanum (Kuhl, 82), Pelova, Foord (Gio, 77), Blackstenius (Taylor, 82)
Subs not used: Zinsberger (GK), Marckese (GK), Beattie, Hurtig
Tottenham Hotspur Starting XI: Korpela (GK), Neville (C), Turner, Bartrip, Harrop, Summanen (Graham, 67), James, Bizet (Ubogagu, 79) Spence (Cho, 88), Ayane, England
Subs not used: Spencer (GK), Karczewska, Ale
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