It’s going to be another exciting atmosphere at Emirates Stadium for Sunday’s north London derby in the Barclays Women’s Super League.
We’re expecting more than 55,000 supporters in attendance for the visit of Tottenham Hotspur at 12.30pm.
Three points could be enough to see us overtake Manchester United in the table, and close the gap on league leaders Chelsea.
LAST TIME WE MET
There was derby day delight for us at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium earlier this season, as we put three past our north London rivals without reply.
Alessia Russo scored in the second minute to get us off to a flying start and Frida Maanum doubled our lead 20 minutes later.
Stina Blackstenius added a third in the 66th minute of a confident display as we tasted north London derby success for the first time under Renee Slegers.
A TALE OF TWO HALVES
It’s been a season of mixed fortunes for Robert Vilahamn’s side, who find themselves sixth in the WSL ahead of the weekend.
After taking four points from their opening two games against Crystal Palace and Aston Villa, Spurs won just one of the following six matches, losing the other five.
However, since suffering a 3-0 defeat to us, Tottenham earned 10 points out of a possible 12 in the league prior to a 1-0 loss at home to Manchester United at the beginning of February.
Conceding goals has been Spurs’ biggest problem. They’ve shipped 26 in 13 games. Only bottom-of-the-table Crystal Palace have a worse record with 35 goals conceded.
Bethany England is the club’s top scorer this season with seven goals in 17 matches in all competitions.
renee's preview
Slegers: “On Sunday, playing at Emirates Stadium, we’ll know the pitch will be very nice and we look forward to it because it’s going to help our passing game and our technical game, so we definitely look forward to the game on Sunday because of the pitch, but mostly because it’s the north London derby and I think we have 55,000 tickets sold at the moment. We’re really looking forward to Sunday."
TEAM NEWS
There are no fresh injury concerns for us for this game, but Chloe Kelly could be set to make her second debut at the club. Victoria Pelova continues her recovery after she played for the under-21s this week.
For Spurs, Robert Vilahamn confirmed that Ella Morris and Drew Spence are in contention after coming back from injury. Eveliina Summanen, meanwhile, will miss the encounter, while Kit Graham is a long-term absentee.
FACTS AND STATS
We have won all four of our WSL home games against Tottenham, keeping a clean sheet in each of the last three.
We have won six of our last seven WSL games, scoring three or more goals in five of those victories; only Chelsea (six times) have done so more often than us (five times) overall in the top-flight this term.
In our recent win over Manchester City, we took our earliest two-goal lead in the WSL (07:25) since October 2020 vs Tottenham (06:27); we have scored more goals in the opening 10 minutes of matches than any other team in the WSL so far this season (five).
Only Chelsea (14) have had more different goalscorers than us (10) in the 2024/25 WSL, with Lotte Wubben-Moy taking us into double figures for scorers on match day 13.
Chloe Kelly could make her first appearance in the WSL for us since June 2017 when she scored against Bristol City; should she play this weekend, 2,815 days since that game, it would be the second longest gap between two appearances for the same club by an outfield player in the competition after Toni Duggan for Everton (2,897 days).
MATCH OFFICIALS
Stacey Fullicks has been appointed for Sunday’s derby. It will be the first time she’s involved in one of our games this season.
She did see over one of our matches in 2023/24 when we came from 2-0 down to beat Leicester City 6-2 at the King Power Stadium.
Referee: Stacey Fullicks
Assistants: Ceri Williams and Leoni Harland
Fourth official: Andy Davies
LIVE COVERAGE
For supporters in the UK who aren't in attendance, you can watch the 12.30pm kick-off live on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer or the BBC Sport Website.
For non-UK supporters, you can check out which broadcaster is covering the game in your region in the article below.
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