Spurs boss Vilahamn ‘very impressed’ by Chelsea’s winning legacy | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Robert Vilahamn says that he is very impressed by the winning legacy that has been built by latest opponents Chelsea.

The Lilywhites play host to The Blues at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Chelsea arrive in North London having claimed their sixth consecutive Barclays Women’s Super League title in midweek. When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Spurs boss Vilahamn said that he has been impressed by The Blues’ successes.

“I’ve been very impressed with Chelsea over the last six seasons,” Vilahamn said. “The main thing this season is that they’ve got a new manager and new players.

“What they’re doing in the women’s game is massive. I think they are great role models for many clubs to follow. We are trying to keep our pace to get there too but I am very impressed with what they are doing, they’re very good.”

Spurs are currently in tenth position in the Barclays Women’s Super League table, six points off the top half. Vilahamn says that there’s a fine line that separates several teams in the rankings.

He said “We have created our position [in the table]. We should have won some of the games against the teams around us.

“If we had won two-and-a-half of those games, we would be in fifth place; that’s the small margin that we talk about when people say that we’ve had the worst season ever. It’s true that we aren’t overachieving, we are underachieving. It’s a few games that could have made the table look a little bit better.

“To be honest, I don’t care if we are fifth or tenth, it’s more about being consistent when we play. In some games against the top teams, we need to be much more competitive and find ways to compete and in other games, we need to deliver more goals and clean sheets.

“We are going to learn a lot from this season both on and off the pitch. I can promise you that we know that there’s a lot of stuff that we need to improve on. Perhaps, we didn’t know it when we went into the season but now we know.

“It’s not a good season, we are not happy with it but I’m very sure that I know what we need to do to be better next season.”

Spurs go into this weekend’s game winless in nine matches. Vilahamn has seen improvements in recent weeks but admits that the game management could be much better.

He said “From West Ham to this game, we have created chances but we have failed to defend our box in some crucial moments and opponents have scored. We have started to come back in games but we have not closed the games.

“Right now, we are performing decent and playing our way but we are not managing the games. All teams in this league have high-quality players and it’s connected to the bad run of games that we’ve had. We are still juggling with confidence; sometimes the confidence is lacking because you haven’t won for a while. Chelsea normally find ways to win because they have built great confidence and you need to find ways to do that.

“Right now, we deserve to compete and we actually play a certain style that I know will give our players a good platform for next season. We are trying everything we can to win but we are also doing it through the way we recruit players, the way we educate and develop players. We are working every day to find a way to win.”

Tottenham Hotspur’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Chelsea kicks-off at 2.15pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.