View: Tireless Celin Ildhusøy keeps Tottenham Women going as she stars in WSL defeat v Chelsea
It wasn’t an ideal start to the WSL season for Tottenham Women but a trip to Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea Women was always going to be a tough ask on Sunday.
The Lauren James-inspired Blues won 2-1 against Spurs thanks to goals by Mia Fishel and Lionness James either side of half-time while a 76th-minute goal by Martha Thomas proved to be no more than a consultation for Robert Vilahamn’s side.
While the match ended in defeat in West London, there were plenty of positives for Tottenham Women to take from the game and one of those was the performance of Celin Ildhusøy on the right wing.
In 71 minutes on the pitch, the 21-year-old forward proved to be the driving force in the Tottenham Women attack while also showcasing an amazing work ethic to help out defensively.
According to stats by FBRef, Ildhusøy completed four progressive passes and two progressive carries to help spur on Vilahamn’s offence
Although Ildhusøy didn’t have any shots at goal at Stamford Bridge, she remained a thorn in the Chelsea side by supplying an outlet when winning the ball defensively by receiving five progressive passes. Her ability to drive forward then causes issues in the home side’s defence.
The Norway international, who joined Spurs last year from Paris Saint-Germain, completed one key pass and her two passes into the penalty area was more than what any other of Vilahamn’s players managed. She was also one of just two players who completed a cross into the Chelsea box.
Ildhusøy’s pressing caused Chelsea issues too as she failed to take her foot off the gas in the WSL opener – which is likely the reason why she was substituted off in the second half.
In the 17th minute, while the game was still goalless, Ildhusøy saw the opportunity to pounce on a slack pass out of the back by Chelsea captain Millie Bright.
She instantly took that pass as a moment of weakness and closed down Jess Carter, who panicked and attempted to play a quickfire pass to Niamh Charles as the Norway forward got in her face.
Ildhusøy then managed to get the ball at her feet with Scottish striker Thomas ahead of her and well onside due to Bright’s poor reaction to her mistake, opening up loads of space for Tottenham. FBRef stats show that the ex-PSG ace actually blocked five passes in the game – two more than any other Spurs player managed.
Unfortunately, Ildhusøy perhaps made a mistake once she did win the ball because instead of instantly passing the ball to Thomas, she took on Carter and ran with the ball into the box.
While she did eventually pass to Thomas, the former West Ham and Manchester United striker had already lost out on the space she did have as Chelsea’s Maren Mjelde expertly won back possession.
Ildhusøy came to the rescue defensively not long later when Chelsea attacked down their left through Guro Reiten.
Tottenham’s defence ends up being too narrow, with right-back Angharad James moving inside to protect against what looks to be a potential overload down the middle or on the left-hand-side of Spurs’ defence.
Reiten lets the ball run to over-lapping left-back Charles but Ildhusøy is wise to that and is on hand to intervene.
She uses her pace and times an impeccable slide tackle inside the penalty area to force the ball out for a corner kick and allow Tottenham’s ragged defence to re-organise itself.
It was a strong all-round performance by Spurs’ young right-winger and she’ll no doubt be offered more freedom to shine next time out when Tottenham Women welcome newly-promoted Bristol City to Brisbane Road.
It should be a game where Ildhusøy doesn’t have to focus as hard on defending and can hopefully have more of an influence in the penalty box than she did at Stamford Bridge.
In other Tottenham Women news, Beth England’s injury blow was softened by the performance of Thomas at Chelsea.