Chelsea 6-2 Tottenham Women: ruthless Blues send Spurs to another big loss
· Yahoo Sports
It was another big match for Tottenham Hotspur Women as they visited Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea in WSL action. Spurs were coming off of a major 1-6 shellacking at home last weekend against London City and were hoping to do something they have never done in their history — beat Chelsea. But despite playing the Blues evenly in a large stadium for much of the match, Chelsea’s Lauren James was too much to handle. James scored two fantastic individual goals and Chelsea added more from Ellie Carpenter, Sjoeke Nusken, Maika Hamano, and Kiera Walsh as Chelsea defeated Tottenham 6-2. Matilda Vinberg and Signe Gaupset scored for Tottenham who suffered their second straight heavy defeat to a WSL title contender.
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Tottenham drastically improved their defense and they needed it early in the match with Chelsea relentlessly pressing forward whenever they had the ball. Spurs did well to keep Chelsea at bay, with Victoria Pelova in particular putting in a number of good tackles and blocks in and around Spurs’ area.
Chelsea’s breakthrough came from a moment of individual brilliance after Lauren James scored an admittedly brilliant individual goal in the 25th minute, bypassing Toko Koga on the endline before firing past Kop at the near post. Spurs tried to find an instant response and very nearly did so after Pelova stung the palms of Chelsea keeper Hannah Hampton.
Spurs were not on the back foot entirely, and had a number of chances and half chances in Chelsea’s area in the first half, but the Blues did just enough to keep Spurs at bay until just before halftime. Julie Blakstad fired in a lovely cross from the left side of the box to the back post, and Matilda Vinberg leveled the score with a powerful header past Hampton.
Spurs played Chelsea more or less even until midway through the second half. James glided through midfield before finding Alyssa Thompson. the USWNT star cut the ball back in the box to a wide open Ellie Carpenter who easily fired past Kop to put the hosts up.
Chelsea then doubled their lead with another superb individual goal from James, who picked up the ball at midfield, glided past Koga, and slotted home to put Chelsea up 3-1. Minutes later, Chelsea’s German substitute Sjoke Nusken fired past Kop again to make it 4-1, and making the result more or less a foregone conclusion. Chelsea added a fifth goal just before full time from Maiko Hamano to make the score 5-1, only to see Signe Gaupset dispossess a Chelsea defender and fire past Hampton to pull one back for Spurs.
The match ended with the final score of 5-2.
Match notes
- Chelsea turned out quite a nice crowd at the Bridge for this match. The upper levels were all empty, but the majority of the lower bowl looked pretty full to my eyes. It’s also nice that Chelsea considered Tottenham a worthy and big enough opponent to play the match at the Bridge.
- It’s not often that a WSL attacker gets the better of Toko Koga, but Lauren James did, skating past her on the end line and firing home from an acute angle to put Chelsea ahead.
- Tottenham’s equalizer was a fantastic bit of team play. Spurs had been knocking at the door at times, but Blakstad’s cross to the back post to meet Vinberg’s late run was lovely football. A great header from Vinberg too.
- Spurs were hardly bystanders in this one — in fact, they held their own against a scary Chelsea attack and played the Blues pretty much even at their home ground for the whole of the first half and the first few minutes of the second. Then the wheels fell off.
- Victoria Pelova is just a hell of a player. There, I said something very nice about a former Arsenal player. Wondering if Arsenal, currently 8th in the table, are regretting that sale this past summer.
- Chelsea’s go-ahead goal was extremely well-worked, unfortunately. Thompson got past Ella Morris at the edge of the box and the cutback found a wide-open Carpenter. Sometimes that just happens.
- Toko Koga is one of the best defenders in the WSL but Lauren James gave her absolute fits in possession today. James beat Koga twice to score goals in this match, which you don’t see very often. Either a bad match-up or Koga just had an off game.
- Once Chelsea went up 3-1, you could see Spurs falling apart. As we’ve seen so often with Tottenham in past years, once their heads drop an even match can quickly turn into a rout.
- Chelsea scored six goals from eight shots on target. That’s clinical finishing.
- It’s not that Spurs were even that bad in this match. In fact, you could make an argument that until the second goal Spurs were, barely, the better side. But Chelsea just had a little extra energy, a little bit better passing, a little more ruthlessness, and their shooting boots fully laced up. That was the difference today.
- I did like the grit from Gaupset to dispossess Chelsea and pull a gritty goal back, even if it was mostly symbolic.
- No time for Spurs to rest as they play the North London Derby next weekend at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. That said, if you were going to play Arsenal, this feels like a pretty good time to do it as they struggle in the early part of this league season. Might Spurs even be… favored?