Full-time: Tottenham 0-3 Manchester City
And that’s that – a job professionally carried out by City, who knew they had to win and did so with relatively little fuss. Spurs showed in the final half-hour that they are no mugs, but by that point the points had been made safe by a City side whose class shone through from the first whistle. With three games to play, they stay two points behind leaders Chelsea, with the two sides playing each other in the next round of fixtures in a fortnight. The countdown to 25 April begins now.
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90 mins: Ayana wins a corner for Spurs. She takes it herself, a mean delivery, but Roebuck leaps to collect it expertly at full stretch.
86 mins: Spurs have not given up scrapping and have had their best spell of the match in its latter stages – but City are dangerous on the break and Hemp is again fed down the left, squaring for Coombs who slices over … but the flag is up.
83 mins: Immediately Hemp is in the action, played in behind and sprinting clear down the left. Ignoring Coombs and Beckie square, she goes for goal from the angle but her low left-foot drive skitters a few inches wide.
80 mins: Spurs’ best chance of the half comes as Graham forces a mistake and finds herself with the ball at her feet in front of goal, but she dilly-dallies and in the end turns away from goal and lays off to Naz, whose shot is blocked. A waste. City make a sub: Hemp comes on for Kelly.
76 mins: Mannion takes a blow to the head and the game stops for a couple of minutes while she receives treatment. She looks OK. Spurs take off Dean for Naz.
73 mins: Lavelle, a livewire since coming on, scampers free on the left side of the box and rattles an early low shot towards the far post. Spencer does well to get down quickly and beat away.
68 mins: In a crowded midfield, Walsh receives the ball and flicks it around her marker with magnificent elan. City are showboating now.
65 mins: A triple substitution for Spurs sees Addison, Green and Ayane are all sent forth.
Goal! Tottenham 0-3 Manchester City (Weir 61)
And just as Spurs were coming back into the game, City kill it off. Beckie picks up the ball on the left, checking inside, then outside, and floating a cross to the back post to Kelly, who rather than going for goal coolly squares back into the middle, where onrushing City attackers are queueing up. White leaves it for Weir, who rolls into an unguarded net. With the points safe, City take off White and Mewis for Lavelle and Coombs.
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57 mins: Better from Spurs, who sustain a long spell of attacking pressure orchestrated by Kennedy. It ends in a free-kick won on the right, and Harrops fierce delivery just evades Dean at the back post. Spurs look a different side all of a sudden.
55 mins: Walsh picks the ball up in midfield, turns, and slips in Beckie – a lovely pass – but an alert Spencer rushes off her line and smothers at the striker’s feet.
53 mins: Spurs make inroads into the City box and Deans blasts in a cross from the left which no attacker can meet.
50 mins: Weir, who’s seen lots of the ball already this half, slides in Morgan down the left and the full-back wins another corner. Kelly drills it in low but Graham clears.
48 mins: Corner to City, and a big handball shout from City after a bit of pinball in the Spurs box. The ref gives another corner, which Kelly swings in and Spurs semi-desperately clear.
46 mins: And we’re back underway at the Hive. Spurs have sent on Harrop for Worm.
Two other half-time scores in the WSL: Brighton are 1-0 up against Manchester United and Bristol City trail 2-0 at home to Arsenal.
A spot of half-time reading:
Half-time: Tottenham 0-2 Manchester City
Businesslike stuff from the visitors so far, whose superiority is reflected in the scoreline. spurs need to rethink, and possibly reshuffle, to get anything out of this. They haven’t had a sniff.
43 mins: Kelly escapes down the right and crosses towards White but the ball is plucked from the air – and off the striker’s forehead – by Spencer.
41 mins: Spurs’ forwards are harrying City’s defence doggedly but getting very little joy. And the hosts’ midfield can’t get a touch – hard to see a way back into this for them.
Goal! Tottenham 0-2 Manchester City (Beckie 38)
A great finish from Beckie but an even better pass to find her, Mewis spinning in midfield and bisecting the Spurs defence with a perfectly weighted left-footed through-ball. The striker is released in the inside-left channel and she closes in, opens up her body, and tucks her shot past Spencer and into the far corner.
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36 mins: Morgan surges forward from left-back and hooks in a looping cross towards Kelly, whose powerful half-volley is battered away by Spencer. But the whistle had gone for a foul by Ellen White as the ball sailed over her head.
33 mins: Man City’s opener has been marked down as a Spencer own-goal.
30 mins: A couple of corners in quick succession for City, the second going short to Mewis who floats in a nice ball that’s headed away at the back stick. City build again, with Kelly looking to spring the offside trap but making her move a split-second too soon.
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26 mins: Stanway ambles inside from the right and find Kelly on the opposite flank. She spins past her marker and hang a cross towards the back post, but just too deep for the lurking White.
22 mins: The final whistle has gone at Kingsmeadow, where Chelsea have breezed to a 6-0 win against Birmingham. Back at the Hive, City are bossing possession without carving out too many clearcut chances. You feel they have another gear or two if needed.
19 mins: Cho dawdles on the ball inside her own box and is promptly robbed by Mewis, who squares to White … but the striker puts her shot wide of the near post from the edge of the six-yard box.
15 mins: Another corner gives Kelly the chance to unsettle Spencer again but she overhits it and it sails harmlessly out. Spurs try to build from the goal-kick but City snap into a press on halfway and win the ball back.
12 mins: The bustling Williams is making a nuisance of herself up front for Spurs, denying City’s defenders time on the ball and fighting off multiple markers to holding it up well. But she’s seen nothing in the way of chances yet.
9 mins: We get a first glimpse of Kelly’s bewitching skills as she is dragged down by Worm on the right flank. Stanway whips the free-kick in and Dahlkemper can’t quite get a touch to turn the delivery home from point blank range.
7 mins: Beckie cuts in from the left and drags a shot wide of the near post. City are not content with just the one.
Goal! Spurs 0-1 Manchester City (Stanway 4)
3 mins: City lead and it’s a messy goal. Spencer first does well to tip a long-range strike on to the crossbar but from the resulting corner – a wicked Chloe Kelly inswinger – she flaps, and the ball is bundled home. It looked like Stanway may have got the final touch. Game on!
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1 min: And we’re under way. City kick off and waste little time in getting comfortable with the ball, knocking it about between defence and midfield. Mannion has come into the side for Greenwood, a late change.
The players are out at the Hive, game faces duly affixed. Meanwhile, Fran Kirby has made it 4-0 to Chelsea and Everton are 1-0 up against Aston Villa thanks to Lucy Graham.
The last meeting between these sides was a muscle-flexing 4-1 win for City featuring two goals from Chloe Kelly – the first an absolute peach. Kelly is a sensational winger, maybe the best player to watch in the WSL, but probably needs to add a few more goals to her game to hit the real elite level. With just one in her last 12 games, she could do with picking up where she left off against today’s opponents.
A win for City today would make it 12 league victories in a row, matching the record for the best run in a single season (set by Arsenal in 2018). They are without captain Steph Houghton due to injury.
No mucking about from Sam Kerr. In three minutes of first-half stoppage time, she scored another two goals to complete her hat-trick. That’s 10 in five for her, three points near-guaranteed for Chelsea, and three points badly needed for Manchester City this afternoon.
An important update from elsewhere: a first-half goal from Sam Kerr – her eighth in five games – has Chelsea leading 1-0 against Birmingham with half-time approaching. City need to match Chelsea’s result to have a chance of leapfrogging them when first and second meet in the next round of league fixtures.
Team news!
Spurs: Spencer, Zadorsky (C), Dean, Williams, Cho, Worm, Graham, Kennedy, Quinn, McManus, E.Morgan. Subs: Mikalsen, Green, Harrop, Davison, Peplow, Addison, Naz, Ayane, Godfery
Man City: Roebuck, Stanway, Dahlkemper, Greenwood, Morgan, Walsh, Mewis, Weir, Kelly, Beckie, White (C). Subs: Taieb, Keating, Coombs, Mannion, Park, Davies, Hemp, Lavelle.
Preamble
Going down fighting is all well and good, but gallant defeat is no substitute for cold, hard silverware. So, having been lauded as plucky losers in their midweek Champions League exit to Barcelona, Manchester City will be doubly determined to ensure their league campaign ends with them reclaiming the title so contentiously taken from them when last season was curtailed.
The good news is that it’s in their hands to do so. Gareth Taylor’s side woke up this morning two points behind champions Chelsea with four games to go – one of which, in a fortnight’s time, is at home to the west Londoners in a game that that promises to be an effective shootout for the title.
But that hinges on a win today, in a visit to Tottenham, a side winless in seven and fresh from a derby shellacking. The form book, and recent history (City stuck four goals past Spurs in the reverse fixture this term), screams away win. But City are not averse dropping the odd unexpected point – and it’s the games when all the pressure is on you not to screw it up that you’re most likely to, well, you know…
Strap in! Kick-off 2pm BST.
