Chelsea 5-2 Spurs (WSL) | Robert’s verdict | OneFootball

Robert Vilahamn felt we needed to be stronger in both boxes as Chelsea claimed a 5-2 victory in the Barclays Women’s Super on Sunday evening.

Similar to our performance against Manchester United last weekend, we started well and were on the front foot, but it was the hosts who broke the deadlock through Maika Hamano on 10 minutes. However, this time we fought back and found an equaliser midway through the second half as Amanda Nilden’s cross was dropped by Hannah Hampton and was adjudged to have bounced over the line.

But, once again, like last time out at United, we conceded on the stroke of half time, Amanda heading home into her own net, to find ourselves behind at the break. Then, two goals in a five-minute spell put the hosts in control in the second half and, despite Eveliina Summanen cutting the deficit with a free-kick from the edge of the box, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd netted her second of the game to seal the win for the Blues.

Speaking to SPURSPLAY after the game, Robert highlighted the importance of being sharper inside our own box to avoid the goals we conceded, but was pleased with parts of our performance against one of the top teams in the WSL.

“A 5-2 loss is not fun at all, especially when it’s your third defeat in a row, but then you need to calm down after the result and see what was good, we have just played Chelsea away and we played some good football in parts,” he said.

“The first half was quite good, but what’s killing us is the goals we’re conceding too easily, we need to fix that, find ways to be better and sharper in those situations… we need to fix that as it’s not good enough.

“On the other hand, you need to see where we are, a team that’s wanting to grow, build an identity and compete with the top teams, so we came to Chelsea and played our football and that’s a big step, but we need to make sure we take steps in other situations as it’s too easy to concede five goals.

“We scored two goals away at Chelsea, which is offensively good, and we created chances but, if you look at it the other way, you are like ‘how can we score even more goals’ and I absolutely think we could have scored three or four more. However, if we want to win the game 2-1, we need to look at how we defend, collectively and also individually, and some of the goals are brilliant stuff from the Chelsea players but we need to defend better.”

We now head into an international break before returning to action with a home clash against West Ham United on Sunday 3 November (2pm UK) and Robert was asked about coming back strong for another London derby.

“There’s still positives to take and, of course, we want to be a top team and we want to compete in these games, but we also need to accept that it will take a bit more time, Robert added. “So, in the upcoming weeks, with a small group, is to make sure we have good training sessions, reflect on this game and, then with the other players coming back, we need to make sure we have a good game plan for West Ham.”