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.
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