It was Boxing Day 1920 when a crowd of this number last watched a women’s league match in England. The men of the Football Association were so shocked by the scene at Goodison Park – as Dick, Kerr Ladies defeated local rivals St Helens in front of over 50,000 – that they voted to ban women’s football, an order which lasted for 50 years. A further half-century later, as Arsenal thrashed Tottenham in another local derby, the difference is the change these players are fuelling is now irreversible.
In the end, the ease in which Arsenal calmly and surgically played through and then ruthlessly dispatched their rivals Tottenham was a contrast to the history of the occasion.
