Chelsea Women will play their first match since clinching the Women’s Super League title when they lock horns with London rivals Tottenham Hotspur Women on Sunday.
The Blues are just two games away from going the whole WSL campaign without defeat, while Spurs are searching for their first win since January.
Match preview
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Tenth-placed Tottenham will fall considerably short of last season’s top-half finish after winning five, drawing four and losing 11 of their 20 WSL matches this season.
Spurs recorded the most recent of those five victories back in January when Olivia Holdt netted a late winner to seal a 3-2 away win over basement side Crystal Palace.
They followed that result with five consecutive league defeats, before they ended their losing run with a 1-1 draw against Leicester City.
After going on to lose to Aston Villa, Spurs had to settle for a point in last Sunday’s away meeting with Liverpool, with a Rachel Laws own goal and a Clare Hunt effort only proving enough for a 2-2 draw at the St Helens Stadium.
As they turn their focus to Sunday’s fixture, Robert Vilahamn‘s side will be concerned by the fact they lost each of their last four home league games, while they have also fallen to defeat in all 10 of their previous WSL meetings with Chelsea, including a 5-2 loss in October’s reverse fixture.
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Chelsea ended last weekend in a downbeat mood after their Women’s Champions League campaign came to an end with a heavy 8-2 aggregate defeat against Barcelona.
The semi-final exit quashed Chelsea’s hopes of winning their first-ever European trophy as well as their aspirations of a quadruple.
However, they ultimately showed great character to bounce back with a crucial 1-0 win in Wednesday’s WSL away clash against Manchester United, with Lucy Bronze scoring the decisive goal to seal Chelsea’s sixth consecutive league title with two games left to play.
Having clinched the Women’s League Cup and the WSL crown in her first season as Chelsea boss, Sonia Bompastor will now have eyes firmly set on the Women’s FA Cup final against Manchester United later this month at Wembley, where the Blues will have the chance to win the competition for the first time since 2018.
While the focus will be on the treble, Chelsea will still be keen to finish the league campaign with a couple of positive results, especially as they could enjoy an invincible season in the WSL, having won 17 and drawn three of their 20 league games this season.
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Tottenham remain without the services of Luana Buhler, Kit Graham and Hayley Raso due to their respective injury issues.
Eveliina Summanen and Drew Spence could return to the starting lineup after missing the draw with Liverpool through suspension.
Forward Bethany England will be looking to add to her eight-goal league tally when she leads the line against her former club.
Chelsea’s absentee list features Kadiesha Buchanan, Sophie Ingle, Femke Liefting, Lauren James and Sam Kerr.
Mayra Ramirez will sit out Sunday’s fixture after she was forced off with a knee injury in the midweek win over Man United.
Having secured the title, Bompastor has admitted she will make changes for the away clash, which could result in starting berths for Ashley Lawrence, Oriane Jean-Francois, Sjoeke Nusken, Guro Reiten, Catarina Macario and Maika Hamano.
Tottenham Hotspur Women possible starting lineup:
Kop; Morris, Rybrink, Bartrip, Neville; Summanen, Oroz, Spence; Naz, Holdt, England
Chelsea Women possible starting lineup:
Hampton; Lawrence, Bright, Girma, Baltimore; Jean-Francois, Nusken; Hamano, Kaptein, Reiten; Macario
We say: Tottenham Hotspur Women 1-3 Chelsea Women
While Bompastor is set to name an unchanged side for Sunday’s fixture, we still believe the Chelsea squad possess enough depth in quality to claim a relatively comfortable victory against Tottenham, especially as the hosts will be low on confidence following a eight-game winless league run.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
