Tottenham Hotspur

A determined, resolute defensive display was punctured once at Kingsmeadow - and that was enough for Chelsea to take the Women's Super League points on Sunday.

The bare facts of Chelsea's 27 efforts at goal and 67 touches in our box don't really tell the story as Lize Kop was rarely seriously threatened. That was down to our defensive structure and willingness for players to throw themselves in front of the ball - of those 27 efforts, only four hit the target.

In the end, a moment of magic from midfielder Keira Walsh made the difference. In a yard of space 30 yards out, Walsh switched onto her right foot and drilled beyond Kop into the far corner, extending the WSL title holders unbeaten run to 26 matches.

Meanwhile, our impressive start under Martin Ho in the WSL now reads four wins in six matches.

Both teams made changes going into the derby. Martin Ho made two with Olga Ahtinen and Matilda Vinberg in for Drew Spence and Olivia Holdt. Molly Bartrip was on the bench for the first time this season after injury. Sonia Bompastore switched it up for Chelsea with seven changes - Hannah Hampton, Nathalie Bjorn, Keira Walsh, Erin Cuthbert, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, Wieke Kaptein and Niamh Charles all back in.

Chelsea dominated possession and territory in the first half - 45 touches in our box, 13 corners, a WSL high - but we held firm - and the interesting stat at the end of the first half was that we had two shots on target to Chelsea's one.

Those efforts came from Tinka Tandberg, her shot blocked after Vinberg's drive forward and Eveliina Summanen, a 20-yard free-kick straight at Hannah Hampton.

Chelsea had 15 efforts, yet failed to seriously trouble Lize Kop. Her best save was a brave dive at the feet of Aggy Beever-Jones on 23 minutes and a clean take from Millie Bright's free-kick on 38. Otherwise, the lively Alyssa Thompson curled wide, Bright's goalbound header from one of the 13 corners was blocked and Chelsea's best chance, Rytting Kaneryd missing a header in front of goal from Ellie Carpenter's cross in added time.

The second half followed a similar pattern with us defending doggedly as Chelsea piled on the pressure. Now, though, the home side started to create better chances - Bright nudged Erin Cuthbert's corner just over and Kop parried away Thompson's curler diving to her left. Thompson was denied by Ashleigh Neville's block and Kop clawed away Bright's header - but then Chelsea broke the deadlock...

After all the possession in and around the box, it took something special to beat Kop, provided by Walsh's fierce low drive into the corner beyond the goalkeeper from 30 yards.

We had a glimpse of goal 10 minutes later when Vinberg chased a ball over the top and blocked Hampton's clearance with the goalkeeper way out of her area. Bright bundled Vinberg over and was booked. Vinberg struck the free-kick into the wall.

Sam Kerr nodded Cuthbert's free-kick just wide with five minutes remaining and that was that for the chances.

We can confirm the starting line-ups and substitutes for our Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Chelsea on Sunday afternoon (12pm UK).

Martin Ho has made two changes to the team that won 1-0 against Brighton & Hove Albion last time out in the league.

In midfield, Olga Ahtinen comes in to partner alongside Eveliina Summanen for her third start of the season. She replaces Drew Spence.

Elsewhere, Matilda Vinberg returns to the starting XI for today’s London derby, replacing Olivia Holdt who is named amongst the substitutes.

Defender Molly Bartrip comes into the matchday squad for the first time this season after missing the opening five games with an injury. She is named on the substitute’s bench for this afternoon.

Here's how we line-up...

Starting XI: Kop, Nilden, Naz, England (c), Vinberg, Hunt, Tandberg, Ahtinen, Summanen, Neville, Koga.

Substitutes: Heeps, Grant, Bartrip, Oroz, Holdt, Rybrink, Graham, Thomas, Gunning-Williams.

Pedro Porro helped Spain to make it three wins out of three in their World Cup qualification campaign on Saturday night.

Continuing in the starting line-up for Spain, as he has done throughout their qualification campaign, Pedro played 75 minutes in his nation's 2-0 win over Georgia to continue their perfect run in qualifying.

Picking up his 13th international cap, it was an all-action display from the full-back but he will be disappointed not to have opened his goalscoring account on the international stage in Elche as he both drew a brilliant save out of Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili in the first half before cracking the left-hand post in the second.

The result gives Spain nine points from nine after three qualification games, scoring 11 with zero conceded. It is such a strong start that they could have even looked to secure their spot at the 2026 World Cup on Tuesday, had Turkey not thumped Bulgaria 6-1.

Elsewhere, Manor Solomon picked up his 47th international cap and played the full 90 minutes as Israel fell 5-0 to in-form Norway - a result which means they can only hope of securing a World Cup play-off place in Group I.

Guglielmo Vicario and Destiny Udogie's Italy, who currently occupy the play-off place in Group I, kept tabs on leaders Norway with 3-1 win over Estonia. Our Italian boys were unused substitutes.

Finally, Joao Palhinha was also an unused substitute for Portugal as they scored a dramatic late winner against the Republic of Ireland to continue their perfect start to qualifying.

Like Spain, they have won each of their first three games. If they now defeat Hungary on Tuesday night, they will secure their place at the World Cup.

Mikey Moore scored his first hat-trick for England Under-19s as they stormed to a 4-1 win over Belgium on Saturday afternoon.

Having previously scored a hat-trick for the Young Lions' Under-17 side back in November, 2023, the forward grabbed his maiden treble for the Under-19s as they started the October international break in style in Marbella.

Starting the clash with Belgium alongside Callum Olusesi, Mikey grabbed his first of the afternoon on the stroke of half-time, doubling his side's lead after Shumaira Mheuka's opener.

He then added his second and third on 58 and 65 minutes before both he and Callum were withdrawn with 23 minutes of the game remaining.

It’s our last Barclays Women’s Super League fixture before the October international break on Sunday as we travel to Chelsea in a huge London derby.

Here’s all you need to know ahead of our trip to Kingsmeadow…

What time does the match start?

The game begins at 12pm UK time.

How can I watch the game?

Supporters in the UK will be able to watch the action live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Ultra HDR.

If you’re following us from overseas, check out this link here to see if the game is live in your area.

Our Match Centre here on tottenhamhotspur.com and the Spurs Official app will bring you full live text and audio commentary throughout the match.

Video highlights will be available on club channels from four hours after the full-time whistle, with a full match replay on SPURSPLAY the following day.

What is the team news?

Defender Molly Bartrip is back in contention for this weekend’s London derby having been ruled out of the opening five games of the campaign with injury.

Ella Morris and Luana Buhler remain long-term absentees and will miss the clash with the Blues.

As for Chelsea, Sonia Bompastor confirmed that defenders Niamh Charles and Lucy Bronze will be in the squad for Sunday’s fixture at Kingsmeadow.

Meanwhile, Lauren James and Naomi Girma still need a few weeks, as revealed by the Chelsea boss, so they will not be available for selection.

Who is the referee?

Grace Lowe will be the referee for Sunday’s game.

She will be assisted by Isobel Chaplin and Anastasiya Voloshchuk, with Sam Lewis as the fourth official.

What colour kit will the teams be wearing?

Chelsea will be in their home strip, consisting of blue shirts, blue shorts and white socks.

We’ll also be wearing our 2025/26 home kit, featuring Lilywhite shirts, navy blue shorts and white socks.

What will the weather be like?

It’s expected to be mainly cloudy afternoon in west London but stay dry. Temperatures set to be 18 degrees.

Cristian Romero captained Argentina to a 1-0 friendly victory over Miami in the early hours of Saturday morning with one of our former players grabbing the winner.

Back in the starting XI after missing Argentina's final World Cup qualifier last month through suspension, our skipper was given the captain's armband with national team Lionel Messi not in the squad at the Hard Rock Stadium.

It was the second time Cuti has worn the armband for his nation having also done so in June in a World Cup qualifier with Chile - they also won that game 1-0.

Our number 17 played the full 90 minutes in Miami as our former player Giovani Lo Celso got the all important goal, forcing the ball through Jose Contreras on 31 minutes.

It was Cuti's 46th international cap of his career.

Next up for the defender and Argentina is a friendly with Puerto Rico at Inter Miami's Chase Stadium on Wednesday.

Chelsea vs Spurs (WSL) | Key stats | A strong run away from home

@SpursOfficial

Sat 11 October 2025, 09:40| Tottenham Hotspur

Our final Barclays Women’s Super League fixture before the October international break sees us make a short trip across the capital to face Chelsea in the lunchtime kick-off on Sunday (12pm UK).

Although it hasn’t been a happy hunting ground at Chelsea since our promotion to England’s top flight in 2019, we head to Kingsmeadow on a positive start to Martin Ho’s tenure as Head Coach.

Having accumulated 12 points out of 15, we’ve won four of our opening five games in the WSL for just the second time – achieving that in 2021/22 – while a victory over our London rivals could see us already equal the win tally we managed across the whole of last season in the league.

Unbeaten on the road so far this term (W2), with victories over Everton and Leicester City, we’ve never won our opening three away games in the WSL and, if we were to achieve that this weekend, we’ll need to secure our first-ever win over the Blues in the competition.

In fact, our strong record away from home stems towards the backend of last term, where we avoided defeat in our final away three games (3D) and haven’t suffered defeat on the road since March, 2023 – a 2-0 loss at West Ham United.

Cathinka Tandberg has impressed in Lilywhite with three goals and one assist so far and, having scored in consecutive league games against Leicester City and Brighton, she could become just the third Spurs player to score in three or more outings in a row in the WSL, after Martha Thomas and Bethany England (twice).

Meanwhile, our captain Bethany has scored 18 goals in WSL London derbies, more than any other player in the competition’s history with her last strike against her former club coming in February, 2023.

Watch | Last time out against the Blues

Match stats

Chelsea are now unbeaten in each of their last 30 WSL games (W26 D4) and could equal the second longest unbeaten run in the competition’s history, set by Manchester City between May 2015 and May 2017 (W25 D6). The Blues themselves hold the outright record with 33 (February 2019 to January 2021).

We have won four of their opening five games for just the second time in the WSL (L1), also doing so in 2021-22. Indeed, victory in this match would see Spurs already equal the win tally that they managed across the whole of last season in the top-flight.

Chelsea have lost just one of their last 50 home games in the WSL (W47 D2), losing 1-0 against Manchester City in February 2024. The Blues have won all six of their home league matches against Tottenham – their joint-most meetings with an opponent on home soil with an 100%-win rate (also six vs Manchester United).

We are the only side in this season’s WSL to have seen the highest percentage of their high turnovers end in shots (28.2% - 11/39), though Chelsea are one of just four sides yet to concede a goal from a high turnover in the competition this term (alongside Arsenal, Brighton and Spurs).

Chelsea have completed the most throw ins into the penalty area in the WSL this season (6), with us ranking second in that regard (4); only Manchester United (7) have attempted more throws into their opponent’s box than the London duo this term (6 each).

Cathinka Tandberg has scored three goals in her first five WSL games for us, with only Martha Thomas (six) and Bethany England (four) netting more in their opening five matches. Tandberg can also become just the third Spurs player to score in three or more outings in a row in the competition, after both Thomas and England (twice).

No Chelsea player has been directly involved in more WSL goals than Wieke Kaptein this season (four, alongside Aggie Beever-Jones). Kaptein has scored in both of her last two matches (two goals), netting as many goals as across her first 19 appearances in the competition.

Bethany England has scored 18 goals in WSL London derbies, more than any other player in the competition’s history. However, England has netted just one goal in eight league appearances against Chelsea – a first half strike at home to the Blues in February 2023.

Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel helped fire France Under-21s to a statement 6-0 win over group leaders Faroe Islands to open their European Under-21 Championship qualification campaign in style on Friday evening.

The hosts had enjoyed a flawless start in their first three fixtures so this was no straightforward task for the young French pair's nation who took the lead through Wilson's powerful drive from just inside the box 13 minutes in.

Dayann Methalie doubled the lead midway through the first half and Faroe Islands' Aki Samuelsen missed a penalty to halve the deficit in the 31st minute before Mathys made no mistake from his spot-kick seven minutes later to head into the break three goals up.

Our number 28 then doubled his tally on the night six minutes into the second half. Doing superbly to receive Warren Zaire-Emery's cross-field diagonal on the move, the winger then dribbled down to the left byline and cut back onto his right to work a shooting opportunity which he sent in via a slight deflection to make it four.

Wilson was replaced on 63 minutes with his nation 5-0 up after Methalie had doubled his tally before Ayyoub Bouaddi completed the result four minutes later, with Mathys leading the line for the whole game.

Three Lions roar on

Young Lions Archie Gray and Ashley Phillips also enjoyed a dominant away victory as England Under-21s beat Moldova 4-0 to continue their winning start to EURO Under-21 qualifiers.

Archie was in from the start at Stadionul Zimbru and played the entirety of the contest as a first-half strike from Jamie Gittens was followed up by a Divin Mubama brace and Rico Lewis in the second period to make it two wins from two in Group D.

Defender Ash, current team-mate of Mubama at loan side Stoke City, replaced Josh Acheampong 12 minutes from time with England also securing consecutive clean sheets.

Up next, Lee Carsley's side host an unbeaten Republic of Ireland Under-21s side who came from behind to draw 2-2 with Slovakia in Cork on Friday. Young Irish goalkeeper Aaron Maguire remained an unused substitute in that one.

Meanwhile, Academy defender Harry Byrne made his debut for Republic of Ireland Under-19s as he came off the bench with 10 minutes remaining in their 2-1 loss in Albania.

Pape Matar Sarr's Senegal enjoyed a resounding 5-0 win in South Sudan to put them on the verge of securing a spot at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Friday afternoon.

After his crucial winner in the comeback 3-2 victory over DR Congo last time out on the international stage, the midfielder was rewarded with a starting place to earn his 34th cap and played the full contest in what was the penultimate qualifier for the current leaders in Group B.

Pape's namesake Ismaila Sarr scored the only goal in the opening 45 minutes at the Jaba Stadium and the visitors pressed home their advantage in the second period as Sadio Mane netted a minute after the restart and Sarr doubled his tally eight minutes later.

Nicolas Jackon converted his spot-kick on the hour mark and Cherif Ndiaye opened his international account to complete the scoreline in the 76th minute with Senegal now one win away from confirming their place at next summer's World Cup finals.

Pape's nation sit two points above group rivals DR Congo and host Mauritania in the concluding qualifier on 14 October (8pm UK).

Elsewhere, Richarlison came off the bench to earn his 53rd cap as Brazil matched that result with a 5-0 away victory over South Korea in an international friendly, with Spurs legend and former team-mate Heung-Min Son breaking his nation's appearance record in the process. More on that below.

Martin Ho spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Friday afternoon, ahead of our Barclays Women’s Super League clash with Chelsea at Kingsmeadow on Sunday (12pm UK).

Here are some key points on what he had to say…

Martin on the strong start to the season…

“[I’m] really pleased. We’ve had some good performances where we've shown bits of both sides. We probably want more consistency with those performances, throughout a longer 90 minutes. But I couldn't have asked for a better start.”

Martin on this weekend’s opponents…

“I think we know the quality they possess. They’re champions in terms of the squad they have, what they've done in Europe and also domestically in the league. They're renowned for winning so, yeah, we know it's going to be a tough game. More importantly, we have to focus on ourselves and impose in a better way to than we have when we've played against the top clubs. We have to go into the game with confidence and belief that we belong to be there. Away from that, we have to make sure that we show the best version of ourselves.”

Martin on recent away form…

It's crucial. For any kind of competitive game, you want to make sure that whether it's home or away, you're always in contention to win the game. But I think your away form plays a part in where you’ll finish. We have to make sure that when we go away, we might have to sometimes surrender the ball a little bit more than we think, but we can still impose ourselves with the ball and I think that'll be the difference when we go away especially games like this against Chelsea and so on. We have to make sure that we impose ourselves like we did against Everton, like we did against Leicester, where we're going to have to defend resiliently but I believe we can do that. Then when we have the ball, we have to be ruthless with the opportunities we get.”

Martin on announcing his technical and leadership team…

It's important. Having the right people around you and the right leadership group around you is important, it helps me to have more freedom in my job in terms of to manage the people around me and delegate a lot of work to them. By having these people around me, it enables the players to grow also. Not just me, it enables the staff to grow as a collective, but also enables us to be efficient and effective. I believe we can be pioneers in those departments, which we have strong work colleagues in so, more importantly, it's a really big step in the right direction. It's a really good support mechanism around me and the players, and It's a really good move by the Club to make sure we have the right support around the Women's team and we can take big steps forward.”

Martin on keeping everyone’s feet on the ground…

“I won't say people are getting carried away because I always remind them, as you'll probably know me as a coach, I try to remind them there’s still a lot of work to do. We're only five games in, we're very premature in this new era, and we want to make sure that we can we can continue be effective. We want to make sure that we can better performances because we know that, we haven't had many full completed performances from back to front, so we know that's something we need to work on. So I have no doubt, the players feet are very well grounded, and we always look for ways we can be better.”

Martin on World Mental Health Day and the Club’s values in this space…

“I think from a wider Club perspective, from staff and as players, I think it's important that we provide the right support for people when they need it. We outline where that support and can come from because I think that's important. We’ve had some obviously devastating times over the past few weeks, with the likes of Matt (Beard), and we want to make sure that we give people the space if they need it. If a player needs to speak up or a player needs any support, they know they can knock on the door. The same with any of the staff that we have here. There are really good support mechanisms around this group and I'll continue to push that.”

Martin on the mindset heading into games featuring top four teams…

“It's 11-v-11 and we have to make sure that what gets you through these games is a desire and a passion but also a willingness to want to be competitive. I have no doubt that no player goes on the pitch not to be competitive, sometimes you need a little bit of luck that goes with that at the same time to get you over the line. What you also need is those moments to drop to you, with the ball, to make sure that you can capitalise when you're on top and that's something we need to look at. I don't think there's anything on our back to take a psychological effect on us, or being negative, it's more how we go into these games with a confidence and belief. We go into this game with 12 out of a possible 15 (league points) - that should be enough confidence for the players to go into the game in the right mindset.”

Martin on Bethany England’s leadership…

“It's really important. She has a track record in these big game and she leads by example, she conducts herself professionally when she goes onto the pitch. But she also shows a willingness and desire and a passion to represent this club, and that's alongside the other players. We have a lot of different experiences within the group. I think her leadership will play a part as well as a number of experiences from the group.”