Goals from Katie McCabe, record-breaker Vivianne Miedema and Caitlin Foord maintained Arsenal’s perfect record at the top of the WSL as they are the only team in the league yet to drop points.
Coming into this North London derby, there was already an eleven-point gap between these two teams. Arsenal with four wins in four while Tottenham have not scored a point since an opening day draw to West Ham United.
Arsenal would explode out of the starting blocks as Katie McCabe would curl a glorious freekick from the wing towards the top left corner and after striking the post, the ball would nestle in the back of the net to open the scoring after just three minutes.
The Gunners’ hot start would not let up as Vivianne Miedema would strike a cool effort inside the far post from close range to become the WSL’s all-time leading goal scorer, passing Nikita Parris and moving onto fifty league goals.
The red side of North London would cap off a furious opening fifteen minutes by playing a ball in behind the Tottenham back line which would find Caitlin Foord.
Foord would slide her shot just out of reach of Becky Spencer to give Arsenal a 3-0 lead and leave Tottenham reeling.
Arsenal would continue to pressure and after the half hour mark, Miedema would find her second. A well-timed run from a free kick towards the near post caught out the Spurs defenders and Miedema would make no mistake finishing at the near post to pile on the misery for Tottenham fans.
Enough was clearly enough for Karen Hills in the Tottenham dugout as she elected to make a double substitution immediately after the goal to try to patch up the holes in the Spurs midfield and defence.
The Gunners would finish a ruthless first half as Foord was again played through one-on-one and unselfishly played the ball across to Miedema to gift her teammate her hat-trick, Miedema’s fifty-second goal in fifty WSL games.
In the fiftieth minute, Tottenham were given a golden opportunity to restore some pride as Lucia Leon would go down in the penalty area and would be given a penalty that on a replay probably shouldn’t have been given.
Manuela Zinsberger would deny Rianna Dean from the spot and Ashleigh Neville could only watch as her rebound flew over the crossbar.
Arsenal would find the net again just after the hour as Miedema would find the run of Beth Mead who played the ball across to Foord.
Foord’s effort was blocked by Ashleigh Neville but bobbled into the net anyway for Foord’s second and the Gunners’ sixth.
That would be Miedema’s last contribution to the game as she was soon replaced by Lotte Wubben-Moy, Arsenal looking to preserve their stars as they have been struck by injury in the past few weeks, only having three outfield players available on the bench.
Tottenham would get their goal fifteen minutes from time from a set piece as Zinsberger was crowded inside the six-yard box and couldn’t get over to the header of Leon to keep it out. That would be Tottenham’s first competitive goal against Arsenal.
The game would finish 6-1. Arsenal remain top of the WSL and are now the only team in the league to boast a perfect record after Everton’s 2-2 draw with Brighton earlier in the day. Tottenham on the other hand are now ninth in the league and are one of four teams still looking for their first win of the season.
Arsenal will hope for many of their absent players to recuperate before their next WSL game against Manchester United on the 8th of November while Tottenham will search for their first victory when they host Reading.
The Inbound Observer 