Furness: Fans have pushed us on!

History will be made in N17 on Sunday as Spurs Women take on Arsenal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but midfielder Rachel Furness admits her focus is solely on the task of collecting all three points.

The clash between the sides will mark the first ever north London derby at our world-class stadium, as well as being the inaugural meeting between the sides in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League (WSL).

Matches, perhaps, don’t get much tougher than this one, as we welcome the WSL’s reigning champions.

This season, the Gunners have started off their title defence strongly and, with five games gone, they sit second in the table. Yet, with victory on Sunday, we can go level on points with our rivals.

“We're doing really well this season and to be getting points on the board early on for a newly-promoted team is brilliant,” Rachel explained. “It's really relaxed the squad and allowed us to focus more on other areas we need to improve. 

“Getting a win on Sunday would see us go level on points with Arsenal in the league - I just think that shows the intent of the whole squad and Spurs as a whole this season. We aren't in this league to make up numbers; we want to be pushing up the table as high as possible.

“We can't get ahead of ourselves and need to take each game as it comes, we know this one on Sunday is massive, it's a derby and it's a big occasion in women's football, but we've just got to focus on what we need to do on the pitch to get a good result.

“We need to avoid letting the occasion get to us. We know Arsenal are strong and probably have one of the best squads in Europe. It's important for us as a team to keep organised and stick to our game plan and hopefully that will take care of the rest and bring us a positive result on the day.”

With a huge crowd expected for the game, the Northern Irish international admits having that support is so important for the team and she hopes games like Sunday's will help numbers in the stands continue to grow.

“The fans have been amazing and when we've played at men's stadiums before, we could hear them throughout and it really pushed us on,” she said.

“In the game against West Ham at the London Stadium, when we scored and ran over to the away section to celebrate with them, it was amazing and those moments are massive for us.

“The number of fans turning up to games this season is continuing to grow and playing in Premier League stadiums certainly helps. If we get a big crowd on Sunday, similar to the numbers we've seen at Stamford Bridge and the London Stadium, it will be fantastic, especially being the home team at an incredible stadium. Hopefully those fans continue to watch us at The Hive week in, week out.”