Key events
41 min Arsenal have had 10 attempts at goal, four on target. Spurs, despite some pleasant and purposeful passing, have had none.
40 min An imaginative through pass from Gauspet towards Hamano is crucially cut out on the edge of the area. Gauspet looks a fine player.
38 min Boos from the referees in the crowd when Olivia Smith is booked for a foul on Holdt. Seconds later, Nilden is also booked for a foul on Smith.
34 min Russo runs onto a deft header from Maanum and thumps a shot that is deflected over by the stretching Toga. Good defending.
32 min Spurs are suffering the first-half blues for the second Saturday in a row. They were 5-1 down at half-time against Manchester City before eventually losing 5-2.
29 min “Sometimes watching football can be pure pleasure,” writes Charles Antaki. “Alessio Russo is responsible for many of those sometimes.”
Ridiculous player, and at 27 she has scope to get even better.
Bartrip played the ball back to Kop, who tried to slide a first-time pass to Koga on the edge of the D. Instead she screwed it straight to Russo, who accepted the gift with the minimum of fuss.
GOAL! Arsenal 3-1 Tottenham (Russo 27; Russo hat-trick)
Alessia Russo scores a derby hat-trick inside the first half-hour after a howler from Lize Kop.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham (Maanum og 20)
Spurs are back in it now. Hakano’s corner from the left is flicked on dangerously by Nilden and headed into her own net by Maanum. She was off balance and under pressure from Tandberg, and before she knew it the ball had flown into her own net.
19 min Spurs almost strike back when Gauspet, on the left, curls a beautiful ball that flashes right across the face of goal.
16 min Russo gets behind the defence again, but this time her touch is slightly off and Koga is able to make an important tackle.
No matter: she has a chance for the hat-trick seconds later when Maanum picks her out, eight yards from goal, and Russo drives a low shot that is saved to her right by the sprawling Kop.
13 min Bartrip fouls Russo 30 yards from goal and is a bit fortunate to escape a yellow card. Russo has been unplayable so far.
11 min Spurs have actually passed the ball quite nicely at the start of this game. The problem is when they lose it; Arsenal are full of menace in transtion.
Alessia Russo is rampant! Smith slipped a nice pass down the side to put her on goal in the inside-right channel; she still had a bit to do but she walked calmly past Kop and reversed a finish that wrongfooted the covering Spurs defenders and rolled into the far corner. That’s such a smooth, classy finish.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-0 Spurs (Russo 7)
Do not adjust your set.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Spurs (Russo 5)
Alessia Russo gives Arsenal the lead! Such a simple goal: McCabe curled an inswinging corner to the far post, where Russo lost her marker far too easily and stooped to head past Kop. A good finish but the defending was, a-hem, sub-optimal.
4 min Another shot from Russo hits Bartrip; this time it spins behind for the first corner. From which…
2 min Russo wins the ball high up the field and hits a stinging shot from 22 yards that is blocked by Bartrip.
1 min Peep peep! Spurs kick off from right to left as we watch.
The players walk onto the field on a crisp evening in north London. Looks like a really good crowd. The Arsenal captain Kim Little, who signed a new one-year deal with the club yesterday, looks particularly emotional as she lines up before the match.
Team news
Renee Slegers has made five changes to the Arsenal side that beat Chelsea in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final, presumably with Wednesday’s return leg in mind. Daphne van Domselaar, Smilla Holmberg, Steph Catley, Frida Maanum and Olivia Smith come in for Anneke Borbe, Emily Fox, Laia Codina, Stina Blackstenius and Beth Mead.
Two changes for Spurs, whose last game was a 5-2 WSL defeat at Manchester City a week ago. Toko Koga and Maika Hamano, back from a triumphant Asian Cup campaign with Japan, replace Julie Blakstad and the club captain Bethany England.
Arsenal (4-2-3-1) Van Domselaar; Holmberg, Wubben-Moy, Catley, McCabe; Little, Mariona; Smith, Maanum, Kelly; Russo.
Subs: Borbe, Votikova, Fox, Codina, Hinds, Pelova, Mead, Foord, Blackstenius.
Tottenham Hotspur (4-4-1-1) Kop; Koga, Wijk, Bartrip, A Nilden; Spence, Holdt, Gauspet, Vinberg; Hamano Tandberg.
Subs: Heeps, England, Rybrink, M Nilden, Gunning-Williams, Ahtinen, Summanen, Dennis, Blakstad.
Arsenal come into this game in spectacular form: they’ve won their last eight games in all competitions, including two victories over Chelsea and another against Manchester City.
Spurs’ form has been more topsy-turvy. They won 7-3 at Villa in mid-February, beat London City Lionesses in an epic FA Cup penalty shootout but then lost to Everton and City.
Tom Garry
Derby weekend has arrived in the Women’s Super League and WSL2. Not one, not two, but six local rivalries will be reignited as the divisions try to capitalise on the men’s international break.
Is it clever to schedule so many of these clashes on the same weekend though, and especially staging three top-flight ones on the same afternoon? Everton host Liverpool, Manchester United welcome Manchester City and Arsenal entertain Tottenham on Saturday, all within the space of six hours. The answer will probably lie in the attendances.
Manchester City need five points to clinch the title after hammering Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford.
Preamble
Arsenal and Spurs are separated by only one place in the WSL, but they remain worlds apart. Arsenal are European champions; Spurs, as their impressive young manager Martin Ho said yesterday, are a “bit of a sleeping giant in women’s football”.
At least they are starting to stir: they have made great strides under Ho and, after finishing 11th last season, have become the best team below the glass ceiling. At the moment they are in a league of their own – six points behind fourth-placed Arsenal, having played two games more, nine ahead of sixth-placed Everton.
Arsenal start the game in fourth, outside the Champions League places, but they are well placed to qualify for next year’s competition, either by finishing in the top three of the WSL or retaining the Champions League. They will take a 3-1 lead to Stamford Bridge for the quarter-final second leg on Wednesday.
The WSL leaders Manchester City are over the horizon, but if Arsenal win today they will move into second, above Manchester United and Chelsea, and they have games in hand on both.
Kick off 5.30pm.
