Chelsea FC Women face Tottenham Hotspur at Kingsmeadow this afternoon and Blues keeper Ann-Katrin Berger expects another tough battle with our London rivals.
The Blues go into today’s encounter having won our last five league games, but Chelsea will be coming up against a resurgent Spurs side.Since the appointment of new head coach Rehanne Skinner, Tottenham have picked up victories in their last three outings but Berger says the Blues will focus on our own performance to ensure we come away with all three points.
She said: ‘Spurs have always been a really hard team to beat. I remember the game at Stamford Bridge that we won 1-0, it’s always hard to beat them.‘I guess because of the new manager there is a lot of players that want to prove themselves so it’s always dangerous to play against a team with a new manager.‘We just have to keep doing what we can do and what we can effect, and we will trust in ourselves that we will do the right things.‘We know it’ a derby so it’s always something special but we are focused on the fact that every opponent is hard to beat and we have to perform.‘That’s why I think right now we have a good balance between the aggression, what you need in a derby, but also the calmness and what we actually bring on the pitch, which is very important.’
Chelsea have been in fine scoring form, and Berger has played a huge role in the six clean sheets we have secured in the league so far this season.The 30-year-old says the collective work of the whole Blues squad has been the reasoning behind those shutouts.She added: I think it’s about the front press, and we get that right most of the time. If the front person is not working, we are in a lot of trouble at the back.‘It actually starts from the top with the strikers, so I think that has been working out good.‘It is really important to have most of the time the same players in the back line, because they know each other. They know their strengths and their weaknesses so they can help each other.‘We also know our standards now and the players that come in, they want to keep those standards high because we have so much competition in every single position.’Today’s clash with Spurs kicks-off at 12.30pm and you can watch the game live on the BBC Red Button.