Preview:Tottenham Hotspur Women vs Arsenal Women

Arsenal Women will travel to Brisbane Road for Sunday's north London derby against arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur Women on Sunday.

The Gunners head into the weekend in fourth spot in the Women's Super League table, while Spurs are just behind in fifth place due to their inferior goal difference.Â

Match preview

Tottenham endured a difficult 2024-25 campaign, finishing in 11th position after collecting just 20 points from their 22 league encounters.

However, they have enjoyed a significant upturn in fortunes following Martin Ho's arrival in the summer, having collected 15 points from their opening eight WSL games of the season.Â

While they will be pleased with their improvement this term, Spurs would have been disappointed to take nothing from last Sunday's away meeting with newly-promoted London City Lionesses.

A Cathinka Tandberg penalty and an Eveliina Summanen proved fruitless in a 4-2 loss, which condemned Tottenham to back-to-back away league defeats.

With that in mind, they will be looking forward to returning to home surroundings for Sunday's derby fixture, especially as they have won three of their four home WSL matches this term (L1).

The hosts are aiming to clinch their first win in the derby since claiming a narrow 1-0 victory in December 2023, knowing that all three points on Sunday would be enough to leapfrog their local rivals in the table.

Arsenal will be disappointed to be six points adrift of the summit and two points away from the top three after struggling to find consistency this season.

The Gunners have dropped points in half of their eight league games, including last Saturday's dramatic 1-1 draw against Chelsea, where they had two goals disallowed for handball and offside infringements.

Renee Slegers's side looked set to return to winning ways in Wednesday's clash with Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, where Emily Fox and Mariona Caldentey found the net inside the opening 25 minutes.

However, they were ultimately left with nothing to show for their efforts after they failed to deal with Bayern's second-half fightback, conceding three goals in a 20-minute span as they fell to a narrow 3-2 loss in Germany.

The Gunners may be reeling from their midweek defeat, but they at least managed to continue their fine goalscoring form on the road, having now scored two or more goals in four consecutive away games in all competitons.

They will hope that firepower can guide them to a fourth successive head-to-head victory against Spurs, like the 5-0 thrashing they dished out in the most recent competitive north London derby in February.Â

Tottenham Hotspur Women Women's Super League form:

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Tottenham Hotspur Women form (all competitions):

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Arsenal Women Women's Super League form:

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Arsenal Women form (all competitions):

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Team News

Tottenham will enter the north London derby without long-term absentees Maite Oroz, Ella Morris and Luana Buhler.

Goalkeeper Lize Kop has been passed fit after quickly shaking off a knock she sustained in a collision with Brighton’s Nikita Parris.Â

Bethany England could come into Ho’s thinking if the Tottenham boss opts to alter his side for Sunday’s home fixture.Â

As for the visitors, they are expected to be without goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger and the defensive duo of Katie Reid and Leah Williamson.

Club captain Kim Little will have to be assessed after missing the last two competitive matches through injury.

Alessia Russo and Stina Blackstenius could continue to feature in the same lineup, having scored four league goals apiece this season.

Tottenham Hotspur Women possible starting lineup:

Kop; Neville, Koga, Hunt, Nilden; Summanen, Spence; Naz, England, Vinberg; Tandberg

Arsenal Women possible starting lineup:

Van Domselaar; Fox, Wubben-Moy, Catley, McCabe; Mead, Caldentey, Pelova, Foord; Russo, Blackstenius

We say: Tottenham Hotspur Women 2-2 Arsenal Women

Arsenal have struggled for consistency this season, and with that in mind, we think they may experience a tricky outing in the first north London derby of the season.

From Tottenham's perspective, they have improved significantly under Ho's tutelage and may fancy their chances of taking a point off their rivals on Sunday, especially as they have only lost one home league game this season.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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