{"id":656127,"date":"2026-10-24T23:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T23:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/656127\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T23:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T23:22:12","slug":"relief-for-slegers-as-russo-rescues-arsenal-against-tottenham-in-wsl-womens-super-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/656127\/","title":{"rendered":"Relief for Slegers as Russo rescues Arsenal against Tottenham in WSL | Women’s Super League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alessia Russo\u2019s contentious second-half penalty delivered relief, a reprieve and a chance for a reset as Arsenal came from a goal down to earn their second win of the WSL season in the north London derby.<\/p>\n

At a rain-lashed Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Gunners were again their own worst enemy, forced to come from behind after Cathinka Tandberg\u2019s headed opener. Georgia Stanway levelled and Russo powered in the penalty that gave them the lead they protected defiantly.<\/p>\n

The Tottenham manager, Martin Ho, queried the penalty decision, with the ball hitting the raised arm of substitute Ella Morris from the clearance of one of her teammates. \u201cMy interpretation of the rule is if your teammate hits it and it hits your player, if you\u2019re one yard away, the time and distance is taken into account, so there\u2019s no penalty,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s my understanding of it, from when we were told to start the season. I want to understand what they\u2019re saying, because then I can accept the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want the game to be about that, but when it decides a game it\u2019s frustrating because it\u2019s not within the law of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arsenal\u2019s manager, Ren\u00e9e Slegers, said she was glad to give the fans a win. \u201cThey sing us and fight us through the game,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the end it\u2019s scrappy, it\u2019s game management and it\u2019s scenarios, and they\u2019re all with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the pressure building on her and her players after five games without a win, at times it felt like they were trying to disprove the phrase \u201cyou can\u2019t dig yourself out of a hole\u201d.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideBrighton cruise to victory against West HamShow<\/p>\n

Maisie Symonds\u2019 first-half stunner sent Brighton on their way to a 3-0 win against West Ham at the Amex Stadium. The midfielder Symonds\u2019 thunderbolt gave the Seagulls a half-time lead before Fran Kirby and Kiko Seike struck quickfire goals midway through the second period. It was a first clean sheet this season for Arturo Ruiz\u2019s side and lifts them up to eighth in the table, two points above West Ham, who slipped to 12th after their fifth league defeat of the campaign. Press Association<\/p>\n

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Arsenal had looked a little shaky in the opening few minutes but they settled, built possession and started to pose a threat. A failure to carve out clearcut chances and capitalise on any period of dominance has been the running theme of their season. They lacked fight and there was sloppiness too, with too many overhit passes putting the ball out of play or giving away possession.<\/p>\n

That the opener came from a Tottenham corner was unsurprising. Victoria Pelova swung the ball in and Tandberg rose above her two markers, Stanway and Emily Fox, who failed to even to jump and challenge, and headed home.<\/p>\n

Spurs\u2019 joy was short lived as Stanway made up for her marking error four minutes later by arriving to meet Russo\u2019s cut back and powered the ball in off the crossbar.<\/p>\n

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Georgia Stanway equalises for Arsenal in the 17th minute. Photograph: John Sibley\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n

After the break there was concern for Tottenham when Alice Sombath\u2019s leg seemed to twist awkwardly as she stretched for the ball. The club\u2019s record signing left on a stretcher to be replaced by Morris, who made her return from an anterior cruciate ligament injury towards the end of last season.<\/p>\n

After the lengthy stoppage, Russo forced a huge save from Lize Kop as she attempted to turn in Caitlin Foord\u2019s cross from close range, the forward putting her hands to her head and screaming in frustration at the missed opportunity.<\/p>\n

It did not take long for that frustration to transform into elation. The resulting corner from Kyra Cooney-Cross was headed on by Leah Williamson at the near post and Lisa Baum\u2019s effort came back off the post. Spurs\u2019 clearance bounced off the raised arm of Morris and the referee pointed to the spot. Russo sent Kop the wrong way and drove the ball low into the corner.<\/p>\n

Arsenal were clinging on as the final whistle loomed but they had \u201cfound their fight,\u201d said Slegers. \u201cWe had a run of games where results haven\u2019t been good enough. It was frustrating for everyone. I\u2019m so happy we got to win on this occasion, in the north London derby, away from home in the rain and we showed that character in the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will definitely energise us. We need to back this up in the next couple of games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alessia Russo\u2019s contentious second-half penalty delivered relief, a reprieve and a chance for a reset as Arsenal came…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-656127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}