Tottenham Hotspur head coach Rehanne Skinner says that her side have no issue with being listed as underdogs when they travel to Arsenal for a North London Derby this afternoon.
More than 51,000 fans are expected to attend this afternoon’s fixture at the Emirates Stadium, the vast majority of them wearing the red and white of Arsenal. Spurs are yet to defeat The Gunners in a top flight fixture since their promotion to that level of the game in 2019.
When speaking ahead of the latest North London Derby, Spurs boss Skinner said that her team are more than happy to arrive at The Emirates Stadium as the underdogs again.
“We want to play competitively in every game,” Skinner said. “We want to keep working incredibly hard and we always expect the effort levels to be exceptionally high. When you add the derby to that, the competition for North London rights is always there. It has been something that we have been trying to bridge the gap with based on where we’ve been and how long Arsenal have been going at this game and in the WSL. We want to keep progressing towards making life as difficult for them as we possibly can.
“We will be seen as the underdogs in it and that’s absolutely fine by us, we’ve got no pressure on us and nothing to lose. We’ve got to make sure that we go and do our jobs really well and we keep bridging that gap, making life tough for them. That’s certainly what we will be setting out to achieve.”
Playing as an away side in a 60,000-capacity stadium which will be almost full is a new experience for Spurs. Skinner went on to say that her side won’t be putting any focus on trying to manage the noise of the home crowd in addition to the game.
She said “I don’t think we are in a position to control that (the noise from the crowd). You’ve got to control what you can control in the game and if me or the players are busy watching the crowd then we have definitely got our jobs wrong.
“Ultimately, if crowds are booing you then you are doing your job right and that’s definitely what happened at Leicester last weekend where Ash Neville was concerned. I take that as a compliment if that’s a situation in a game so if we are at that point, I’ll probably be standing there smiling.”
Tottenham Hotspur’s North London Derby fixture at Arsenal kicks-off at 1.30pm.
About The Author
