Tottenham Hotspur Women will welcome Aston Villa Women to Brisbane Road for Sunday's Women's Super League contest.
The hosts are sitting in ninth place in the WSL standings, while the visitors are six points worse off in 11th position.
Match preview
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Tottenham are in need of an upturn in fortunes after taking just one point from their last six league games since recording their most recent WSL victory over Crystal Palace in January.
In fact, they lost five consecutive top-flight matches, before they played out a 1-1 away draw with Leicester City in their final game before the international window.
Fortunately for Spurs, they are in no danger of being drawn into a relegation battle, given the fact that they boast a nine-point buffer to basement side Crystal Palace, with four games left to play against Aston Villa, Liverpool, Chelsea and Everton.
Robert Vilahamn's side have already played Villa on a couple of occasions this season, recording a 2-2 draw in September's league game, before clinching a 1-0 victory in November's meeting in the Women's League Cup group stage.
While that League Cup win took place on home turf, Spurs have not claimed a WSL home win over Villa since they picked up a 3-1 victory in December 2020.
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Aston Villa boss Natalia Arroyo experienced a difficult start to life as a WSL manager, overseeing defeats in each of his first five top-flight matches.
With that in mind, Arroyo would have been relieved to clinch her maiden WSL victory in Villa's away meeting with Liverpool before the international break.
Kirsty Hanson cancelled out Marie Hobinger's penalty, before a late Jenna Clark own goal handed the Villans a precious 2-1 victory, boosting their hopes of extending their five-season stay in the top flight.
Villa currently boast a four-point gap to the relegation spot, with four games left to play against Tottenham, Arsenal, West Ham United and Brighton & Hove Albion.
The Villans head into the weekend with hopes of recording back-to-back WSL victories for the first time since December 2023/January 2024, and those aspirations may be boosted by the fact that they have won two of their previous three away league games against Tottenham (D1).
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Team News
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Vilahman has revealed that Tottenham attacker Hayley Raso will miss the final four games of the season with a quad issue.
Luana Buhler and Charlotte Grant are also out of Sunday's match after picking up injuries on international duty with Switzerland and Australia respectively.
In positive news, Tottenham captain Bethany England could return to the matchday squad following a three-game injury absence.
Meanwhile, Aston Villa defender Sarah Mayling remains sidelined with an ankle injury that she sustained in last month's FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Man City.
Villa skipper Rachel Corsie has returned to training following a lengthy spell in the treatment room, but it is unclear whether she will be able to feature in Sunday's squad.
Hanson could be rewarded with a starting spot after she came off the bench to score the equaliser in the 2-1 win over Liverpool before the international break.
Tottenham Hotspur Women possible starting lineup:
Kop; Morris, Rybrink, Bartrip, Nilden; Summanen, Oroz; Holdt, Spence, Naz; Thomas
Aston Villa Women possible starting lineup:
D'Angelo; Maritz, Patten, Parker, Pacheco; Taylor, Staniforth; Grant, Salmon, Hanson; Daly
We say: Tottenham Hotspur Women 1-2 Aston Villa Women
Aston Villa would have taken immense confidence from their much-needed win over Liverpool, and we think that they will build upon that result by claiming a narrow win in Sunday's away fixture, especially as they are facing a Tottenham side that have lost each of their last four competitive home matches.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
