Key events
8 min: Foord’s flick almost finds Russo, who turns and Hunt does well to stop anhy shot coming in.
7 min: Williamson is robbed by an alert England. Raso speeds away and Cooney-Cross is forced to foul. The free-kick, sadly, is a total waste from Oroz.
5 min: Arsenal’s build-up play is rather slower than Tottenham’s. Patience a virtue? Foord eventually unleashes a shot that’s blocked. Tottenham will have to do plenty of blocking, by the looks of things.
3 min: Tottenham, with Beth England to the fore, out on the flank, have begun with intent.
2 min: Leah Williamson, playing her 250th appearance, plays the ball out from the back.
Away we go…
1 min: So, over 55,000 here, we are told. The knee is taken and the North London derby is live. Tottenham push up, and Oroz, from distance has a go. It flies well over.
The players are coming out, with Leah Williamson at the centre of the festivities. Now here comes North London Forever. Whatever the wevver.
Arsenal manager Renee Slegers spoke to BBC Sport about Kelly’s return: “She has been a really good addition to the squad. She’s got fire inside her and she has been showing that in the training. Hopefully, you will see some of that on the pitch today.
“She has integrated easily and smoothly with the rest of the group. She already knew a lot of girls because of her spell with Arsenal before and also from the England squad. We have seen the quality that she can bring in the final third during training. I am also very impressed with her willingness to work hard in training.”
Tottenham manager Robert Vilahamn spoke to the BBC: “We need to have a really strong defence today. We need to make sure we are very disciplined. We will get a few chances but we need to be sure that we are very clinical with that. We need to do it together today.”
Bad news for Arsenal is that Manchester United already have a 1-0 lead over Crystal Palace.
Yes, Chloe Kelly is on Arsenal’s bench with Kim Little. Goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar and defenders Leah Williamson, Steph Catley and Emily Fox, all return. Lia Walti also comes back with January signing Jenna Nighswonger deserving a quiet night on the bench.
For Spurs, Martha Thomas and Josefine Rybrink drop to the bench, while Anna Csiki and Matilda Vinberg come in.
Confirmed – here are the teams
Arsenal: van Domselaar, Fox, Williamson, Catley, McCabe, Walti, Cooney-Cross, Russo, Maanum, Caldentey, Foord. Subs: Zinsberger, Codina, Ilestedt, Reid, Nighswonger, Little, Mead, Kelly, Blackstenius.
Tottenham Hotspur: Kop, Neville, Hunt, Bartrip, Nilden, Vinberg, Oroz, Raso, Csiki, Naz, England. Subs: Spencer, Grant, Morris, Buhler, Ahtinen, Rybrink, Spence, Holdt, Thomas.
We believe Chloe Kelly starts on the bench today.
Here’s the WSL table. The usual four are well clear. Chelsea are doing their usual – if better.
Jonathan Liew investigates why Tottenham’s women’s team are not competing as they might.
Preamble
If Chelsea stay beyond reach, still plenty to play for at Arsenal. Tottenham, less so, and we’ll get to that in a moment. Three points could be enough to see Arsenal overtake Manchester United in the table, and close the gap on league leaders Chelsea, though perhaps more realistically keep in the Champions League hunt. A crowd of 55,000 is expected at the Emirates, it’s a big day in north London.
Kick-off is at 12.30pm. Join me.
