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Tottenham edged North London rivals Arsenal 1-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday to give Chelsea the opportunity to move three points clear at the top of the Women’s Super League in their game on Sunday.
Martha Thomas scored what turned out to be the winner against the run of play as she finished off a brilliantly constructed team goal that saw the home side quickly turn defence into attack from deep inside their own half.
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Despite constantly peppering the Tottenham goal, Arsenal couldn’t find an equaliser.
Tottenham went into the game without a league win in five, and looked resolute early on against an Arsenal side high on confidence after they swept Chelsea aside 4-1 last weekend.
Arsenal had a host of chances in the first half, but failed to capitalise as Caitlin Foord hit the post, and Frida Maanum forced a strong save from Tottenham goalkeeper Barbora Votíková.
The theme of missed opportunities continued throughout the game as the visitors dominated the possession and shots stats.
It’s the first time Spurs have won the derby in the WSL.
“It’s a great win for us. It’s been a tough week but I think we really deserved that. We put on a performance that we can be really proud of,” Thomas said on Sky Sports.
“We made a lot of changes on Wednesday [in the Cup against Arsenal] and put in a good performance then and thought we could continue that today.
“The manager felt that the same team deserved to go out and play again today minus the one change. That’s what we did. “He told us to enjoy ourselves, play with freedom, like he always does.
“But we’ve come off the back of two bad results in the league so we know we can compete against these teams and we have shown that today.”
The result sees Chelsea hold the lead at the top of the table on goal difference, with the chance to move three points clear if they win their game against 11th-placed Bristol City on Sunday.
“Yes it is extremely frustrating” Arsenal defender Steph Catley said on Sky Sports.
“It is a tough league and you have to get as many points as you can. You can’t usually drop too many points. But it has happened now and we can’t change it, so we have to keep focusing on the next result, and make sure we get points in every game from here on out.”