Chloe Kelly made an emotional second debut for Arsenal following her deadline-day loan move from Manchester City, coming off the bench an hour into a 5-0 thriller against Tottenham.
In front of an Emirates Stadium crowd of 56,784, Arsenal asserted their north London derby dominance, securing their ninth win in 11 league games against their local rivals.
Renée Slegers had promised that they would make things “uncomfortable” for Tottenham at a packed-out Emirates and they kept true to that promise. In the first half the Gunners kept Spurs pinned in their half, dominating with more than 72% possession, 15 shots (to Tottenham’s two) and 31 touches in the opposition box (to Tottenham’s two).
Slegers had rested five players for the defeat of London City Lionesses in the FA Cup fifth round last weekend, with the goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar, the defenders Leah Williamson, Steph Catley and Emily Fox and the midfielder Lia Wälti all returning to the side.
The big news was on the bench though, with Kelly prepared to make her second debut for the Gunners after being cup-tied in the FA Cup and ineligible to play against her parent club Manchester City in the league and League Cup following her deadline-day move in January. There was a roar from the crowd as a grinning Kelly limbered up early in the first half, 2,815 days since her final game for Arsenal before she joined Everton on loan in search of first-team football.
The home team’s press was relentless, the Australian midfielder Kyra Cooney-Cross particularly energetic, forcing turnover after turnover and providing the assist for the opener. It took 15 minutes for Arsenal to make the breakthrough against a Tottenham side that seems to have lost its way this season – Cooney-Cross delivered from the right and a glancing header from Alessia Russo deflected off the thigh of Clare Hunt and in.
It was a deserved opener, and they should have been three or four up by the time Mariona Caldentey provided the second, her shot blocked by Hunt only for the Spain international to leap forward and rifle the loose ball past the goalkeeper, Lize Kop.
Robert Vilahamn had impressed on the importance of Tottenham being strong defensively prior to kick-off, and there could be a modicum of solace in the two-goal margin, with the home team arguably complacent in front of goal, Caitlin Foord denied at point-blank range by Kop in their closest effort aside from the goals.
By the hour mark, though, Arsenal had doubled their tally, first through a Frida Maanum effort that took a heavy deflection off a beleaguered Hunt, and then Russo fired low into the far corner.
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The stadium rose soon after as Kelly was introduced for her first minutes in red since 2017. That was the year Arsenal beat Tottenham 10-0 in the FA Cup with Kelly on the scoresheet. Since then, the chasm between the two sides has narrowed, a 1-0 defeat of Arsenal in December 2023 giving Spurs a first WSL win over the Gunners. However, at the Emirates the visiting team struggled to escape their own half, the first of two shots on target coming in the 65th minute when Drew Spence’s header from a corner was palmed away by Van Domselaar.
Emily Fox added Arsenal’s fifth in style, a rising long-range effort providing her first WSL goal for the Gunners. The win means Arsenal remain third in the table, desperately hunting down Manchester United in second and the rampant leaders, Chelsea. Tottenham stay sixth.
Source: theguardian.com
