Cathinka Tandberg knows exactly what it means to play in a north London derby.
Having suffered back-to-back defeats in the Women’s Super League for the first time this season, we’ll look to return to winning ways this weekend and there is no better fixture to do that in than against our local rivals Arsenal at Emirates Stadium on Saturday evening.
Although there’s no denying the Gunners’ strong run of form since the turn of the year, who have yet to be defeated or concede in 2026 in the league, we still remain on course to record one of our best-ever finishes in England’s top flight and head into the clash with plenty of confidence and belief.
Only three points off our record for most points achieved in a single season (32 in 20212/22), a victory would also see us close the gap to our north London neighbours to three points ahead of our final three games of the campaign.
Following Spurs as a youngster in Sweden, Tinka understands what this fixture means to our Lilywhite fanbase and is looking to build on our goalless draw with Arsenal at Brisbane Road earlier in the season.
“We know it means a lot for the Club, for the fans that support us, especially when I played in that game [in the reverse fixture earlier this season], we saw how many fans that came and how much it meant to people,” she told us, previewing the clash.
“We got a great result from that and I think we're going into this game with good confidence and just know that we're a good team, but also I know how it is as a fan that has supported Spurs and every time we played against Arsenal, it was like ‘we have to win’. So, I just know how much it means and I know how big the north London derby is, so it will be exciting and I loved playing these games.”
While it was a disappointing 5-2 defeat at Manchester City last weekend, the Norway international acknowledged the positive display in the second half, where we created a number of good opportunities against the league leaders, but outlined that her and her team-mates need to be ready from the first minute on Saturday.
“We know we have good qualities; we saw in the second half against the league leaders that we can actually create a lot and, when we are switched on, we can actually play good football against the best teams.
“But we also know that we have to be switched on from minute one and I think that was the problem against City, we were not on, but we're ready and I feel I'm ready. So, we're just going into that game with lots of confidence and belief in ourselves.”