Alessia Russo’s first-half hat-trick kept Arsenal’s hopes of winning the Women’s Super League alive as they defeated Tottenham Hotspur 5-2 in the North London derby.
After Manchester City’s early victory in the Manchester derby, Lenny Sleggers’ side had to respond, but they did so thanks to Russo’s first three goals for the club as the Gunners remained 11 points clear at the top with two games in hand.
The England striker opened the scoring with a powerful header five minutes from a Katie McCabe corner kick, and a few minutes later he latched onto Olivia Smith’s pass and slotted the ball into the goal from an angle past the onrushing Riise Copp.
Alessia Russo scored her second goal of the game.
Spurs, who regained momentum in the match thanks to Frieda Mahnoum’s own goal (the visitors’ first goal at the Emirates), gifted their neighbors a third goal when Kop passed the ball straight to Russo, who gratefully accepted the gift of a hat-trick goal just before the half-hour mark.
Russo had eight shots in the first half, tied for the most of any player in a WSL match this season, but Caitlin Ford added a fourth with a powerful shot into the top corner just after the hour mark.
Caitlin Ford celebrates after scoring Arsenal’s fourth goal
Substitute Bethany England’s strike gave Spurs hopes of making their 200th appearance in the WSL, but Stina Blackstenias came off the bench in stoppage time to score the Gunners’ fifth goal, much to the satisfaction of most of the 46,123 fans in attendance.
Russo celebrates with Arsenal teammates
This overall result extended Arsenal’s winning streak in all competitions to 11 games, as well as their record of 17 consecutive home wins in the WSL, including matches against Man City and Chelsea, and almost kept them in the title race.
Russo enjoys triple crown of match wins
Arsenal hat-trick hero Alessia Russo speaks on Sky Sports:
“It feels really good. I love scoring whenever I can and to be able to do that here at the Emirates in the North London Derby is really great. It’s a good three points for the rest of the season.”
“The first one, a great ball from Katie. We always work on set-pieces and when we got a set-piece it was great.
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Russo goes wild with 22-minute hat-trick in North London derby between Arsenal and Spurs
“In training we always practice one-on-one finishing, so it’s important to make decisions and use the goalkeeper to make decisions. As soon as she came out, I knew I was going to have her on my side.”
“Then the third thing is, again, what we often do is be overbearing and make it important.”
Mr. Sledgers: Details about Russo’s development and promotion team.
Arsenal manager Rene Sleggers told Sky Sports:
“She (Russo) is also part of the captain’s group at Arsenal now. I think she’s always been herself and wants to bring the best version of herself. She’s very humble.”
“She’s lovely to work with and has a lot of respect for everyone she works with and passes by, but you can see her stepping up and you can see moments in training where she’s coaching more, communicating more and pushing the team more.
“Also, she’s becoming more vocal, which is really good. She’s definitely developing that and we love to see that, because she’s a great human being and has so much intelligence, not just as a soccer player.”
Food: We are gaining momentum
Arsenal’s Caitlin Ford speaks on Sky Sports:
“We created a lot of chances and put the ball in the back of the net a few times and Les (Alessia Russo) got a hat trick. We’re gaining momentum and the girls are doing well too. We wanted to continue that and we did that.”
“I was very happy to be able to go out there and get that last game out of the way and move on and put the ball in the back of the net again. I like to do my part for the team, so I’m always happy about that.”
“They’ve been great since I left (at the Asian Cup). They’ve scored a lot of goals and won a lot of games, so it was exciting to watch from the other side of the world.”
“Our next game is very important. Obviously we have advanced, but the games against Chelsea are always tough. We know we have to do our best to progress to the next stage.”
