The Barclays Women's Super League north London derby spoils went to Arsenal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday.
Leading inside two minutes through Alessia Russo, the Gunners doubled their lead through Frida Maanum midway through the first half and after Bethany England was denied by the goalkeeper shortly before half-time in our best chance, the visitors wrapped up a 3-0 win through substitute Stina Blackstenius in the second half.
In front of a huge crowd in N17, our supporters provided a fantastic atmosphere throughout the game, with the defeat against Gunners our first in six previous games at the Stadium.
Robert Vilahamn made two changes to his starting XI from our previous encounter against Manchester City in the league as Amanda Nilden returned from injury to make her first start since last month, while Hayley Raso came in for Matilda Vinberg.
We were dealt a massive blow inside 63 seconds at our world-class arena as a pass from Lia Walti deflected off Raso’s knee in to the path of Russo and she fired low into the bottom left corner. Unsurprisingly that gave a momentum to the visitors as Nilden was called into action on two occasions to deny Caitlin Foord inside the box, including an impressive block from the six-yard box following a low cross from Russo.
Arsenal doubled their lead on 22 minutes though, as Kim Little was allowed plenty of time on the edge of the box to pick out Maanum and she calmly placed the ball past Becky Spencer. We carved out our first opportunity of the game after the half hour mark as Daphne Van Domselaar produced an outstanding save, tipping Bethany England’s powerful shot from the edge of the box over the bar, while Katie McCabe’s low-driven free-kick was routine for Spencer on the stroke of half time.
The visitors picked up where they left off in the opening stages of the second, McCabe once again testing Spencer from a short free-kick but straight into the hands of our number 22, while Foord fired wide at the back post following good work from Mariona Caldentey and Russo, with the latter delivering a teasing ball across the face of the goal. Blackstenius was introduced on 64 minutes and the Sweden international made an instant impact as, after just two minutes on the pitch, she rounded off a slick move from Arsenal to calmly slot low past Spencer from inside the box.
Chances were few and far between in the final quarter of the game with only Spence’s looping effort that was routine for van Damselaar and Blackstenius' effort that well over the bar in injury-time the only notable opportunities, as we suffered our fifth defeat in the WSL this season.
