Tottenham Hotspur head coach Rehanne Skinner says that her side are taking a consistent approach to their preparation for their Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this afternoon.
The Lilywhites are likely to be contesting the match in front of a near-full house at The Bridge, a real challenge for any visiting team.
Spurs played in front of a Barclays Women’s Super League all-time record crowd of 47,367 when they faced Arsenal at The Emirates Stadium back in September. Skinner’s side were a shadow of themselves that day as they slipped to a heavy 4-0 loss.
Ahead of another big occasion against Chelsea, Skinner said that Spurs have learnt from the Arsenal match but their preparation remains the same as it is for any game.
“Getting the balance of the two (attack and defence) is what we are about,” Skinner said when speaking to FAWSL Full-Time. “I just don’t think that we gave a good account of ourselves on that day, in particular out of possession in the way that we set out the game plan, we just didn’t execute it. As a result, that was probably the most frustrating part of the game for me personally.
“In every game that we approach, it doesn’t matter who it is, we have to maintain our identity and how we want to play in exactly the same way week in, week out. That consistency allows everyone to know their jobs to be able to do that under pressure at certain times.
“The big thing for me going into this weekend is that we are able to prove that we can do that on a consistent basis and at somebody else’s ground with a lot of fans. We didn’t do that against Arsenal so we have to do that going into this game but I think we’ve evolved since that point. It was a great lesson for us, we had great conversations and reflections on it afterwards and there was a positive response. I hope that continues going into this weekend.”
Chelsea will have manager Emma Hayes back in the dugout for the first time after recovering from an emergency hysterectomy. Skinner hopes that The Blues boss is feeling better but doesn’t feel that her return will have any significant impact on her side’s performance.
She said “I hope that she is in a good place now, it was obviously a shock hearing everything that she has had to go through. I’m hoping that she is in a much better position.
“It doesn’t change anything but she’s integral to the way that the team play, that has not changed with her not being there or being there so that doesn’t affect our preparation.”
Tottenham Hotspur’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge kicks-off at 1pm.
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