Tottenham Hotspur Women head coach Rehanne Skinner felt her side gave Arsenal too much respect in their humbling 4-0 defeat at the Emirates. Spurs fell behind early to Beth Mead’s excellent finish and Vivianne Miedema doubled the lead shortly before the end of a one-sided first half.
Miedema’s second followed Rafaelle Souza’s header to seal the deal after the break, with Spurs limited to just three shots on goal and one on target in a North London derby they will be keen to forget.
Skinner said: "At half time, we spoke about the fact that I felt like we gave them too much respect actually in the first half and that was probably the main problem. In the second half, we tried to hold ourselves a bit better but I think it still took us too long to pick up and play in the way that we are more familiar with playing.
READ MORE: Vivianne Miedema shines as Arsenal claim first North London Derby bragging rights vs Tottenham
"I don't think we did that to the best of our ability until the last 15 minutes, when we started to take the game by the scruff of the neck a little bit more. But the game was done at that point."
Spurs were on the back foot from the start and the in-form Mead did not have to wait long to strike, her superb fifth-minute shot curling past Rebecca Spencer and into the corner to give the hosts the lead.
Celin Bizet gave Manuela Zinsberger a momentary job to do in goal before the break, but Arsenal were straight back on the attack as a calm and collected Miedema easily steered past Spencer in the 43rd minute to double the lead.
Skinner said: "I don't think we played our game as well as we could have. We didn't do the things we're known for.
"It just felt like we were a little bit tentative in terms of our pressing, in particular, and that created a few challenges when we were on the ball as well. I don't think we did ourselves justice, so that's definitely a disappointing thing for everybody involved but it's something we need to take lessons from and improve on for the game next weekend."
With Souza adding a third and Miedema wrapping it up in the 68th minute, Skinner's team were left to play for pride. But playing in front of a record crowd brought some consolation to Tottenham, who played their part on a momentous day for the women’s game.
"We're all here to do the job in terms of football and winning games but we're also looking to improve the fanbase and get more people in to watch,” she added. “I'm glad the record's been broken, it's probably stood for too long to be honest and we obviously want to keep building on that in the future."
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