‘We know we can compete’ – Vilahamn full of belief ahead of Spurs’ trip to Chelsea | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Robert Vilahamn says that he strongly believes that his side are capable of beating Chelsea this weekend.

The Lilywhites travel to Kingsmeadow to take on the Barclays Women’s Super League champions on Sunday evening.

Chelsea will be the huge favourites going into the game but Spurs boss Vilahamn has faith in his side’s ability if they deliver the perfect performance

“I feel that we have a more clear identity now, everybody knows how to play,” Vilahamn said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “We have some quality players but I know that we are playing one of the best teams in the world away, so we need to have a perfect game to win. I know that we can do it, we have the characters in this squad to do it but we also have to nail the whole game.

“We know how good Chelsea are but we know we can compete against them and we know what we need to do to win. We have a good chance and I strongly believe that we can do it.”

Going on to discuss Chelsea, Vilahamn knows that The Blues are not yet at their most fluid but they have found ways to keep winning game-on-game.

He said “Sonia [Bompastor] has a very impressive CV. I went up against her in the Champions League with Häcken and they had a strong team and a good identity.

“You can see that she has adapted to the English league in a very good way, she’s got really good players and you can tell that they know how to win games because they’re not looking brilliant in every game but they are finding ways to win. You can see that they have tactical stuff where they do rotations as well. She’s a great coach, it’s a great team and it’ll be a tough game.

“On the other hand, we had some good games against Chelsea last season and I feel like we are performing quite well. We just need to make sure we have a really good defensive mindset and some really good finishing then we will have a chance.”

Spurs go into the game off the back of tough defeats to Liverpool and Manchester United. The North Londoners lost the first game through a soft penalty before conceding poor goals against Manchester United last weekend. Vilahamn has been pleased with the players’ response in midweek.

He said “When you get two hits in consecutive games, you can go down and feel sorry for yourselves or take action. It was fun in the week to see that the players wanted to replace yoga with boxing to make sure they get a really good attitude and energy. I think that was a really good call because they showed that they wanted to take the fight and keep going. We’ve had a great training week, we’ve given constructive feedback from the games and the team took it well.

“We have a tough schedule. In six games, we play all of the top five from last season. You also need to understand that every game is a tough game; you need a really good game plan and performance to get the result. If you don’t get that, you have to realise that the table only matters after 22 games.

“We are making sure we train hard and develop every week because sooner or later, the way that we play and create chances is going to be very effective for us.”

Tottenham Hotspur’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Chelsea kicks-off at 6.45pm on Sunday evening.