Arsenal 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur: Alessia Russo keeps Gunners in Women's Super League title race
- Published
- comments
WSL highlights: Arsenal beat Spurs to keep pace in title race
Alessia Russo scored the only goal of the game as Arsenal overcame local rivals Tottenham in front of a sellout crowd at Emirates Stadium.
The England striker smashed the ball home from close range early in the second half after Kim Little and Beth Mead combined to create the chance.
Victory keeps Arsenal firmly in the Women's Super League title race, three points behind leaders Manchester City.
Tottenham stay sixth as their winless run extends to four games.
The official attendance of 60,050 is the second-highest in WSL history, just short of the record 60,160 at the Emirates for Arsenal's win over Manchester United in February.
Jonas Eidevall's side dominated throughout but after Russo stabbed just wide from a corner early on, they struggled to create any chances of note in the first half.
Spurs defended deep, giving the hosts no space to play around the penalty area, and provided a threat on the break. It was Jessica Naz - who started ahead of club captain Beth England - who came closest to opening the scoring when her shot was tipped on to the crossbar by Arsenal goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger.
Arsenal started quickly again in the second half and this time they did find the breakthrough. Little lifted a lovely diagonal ball from the corner of the penalty area to Mead, whose control was superb before she fought through the challenge of Amanda Nilden to tee up Russo.
The former Manchester United forward duly thumped the ball into an unguarded net from six yards out for her sixth league goal of the season.
Arsenal continued to control the game but a second goal was not forthcoming and despite Spurs showing a little more as an attacking force late on, Russo's goal was enough to secure a seventh straight home win for the Gunners - the first time they have managed that in a single WSL season.
Arsenal made to work but title hopes remain
This was a long way from a vintage Arsenal performance but, ultimately, they got the job done.
Putting on a show for a bumper crowd in north London would have been nice but given such a quick turnaround for those players who had been away on international duty, that was always going to be a tough ask.
It was made even harder by a stubborn and well-drilled Tottenham side, who came to frustrate their hosts, doing so for much of the game, and showed enough on the break to keep Arsenal's defence on their toes.
Arsenal were guilty of trying to be too intricate at times in the first 45 minutes given how congested the penalty area was, often turning down the chance to shoot in favour of another pass to try to create a better opportunity that, time and again, did not arrive.
There were a change of tack almost immediately after the interval with Katie McCabe trying her luck from distance, giving Tottenham's defenders something else to think about.
Two minutes later, Arsenal were in front as they found space in the 18-yard box for the only time in the match thanks firstly to Little's pass then Mead's touch and determination to force the ball across goal for Russo as Nilden challenged her from behind.
Chances remained hard to come by after the goal but Arsenal had done enough.
They came for the three points, got them and with just seven games remaining, the WSL title is still there to be won.