Chelsea v Tottenham: Women's Super League – live!

11 min: The free-kick is taken short but it’s almost too clever for any Chelsea team-mate to read and Spurs clear.

10 min: The Chelsea fans are loving this, making a fair din as Reiten whips in a corner from the left towards Bright. Spurs clear but Chelsea are straight back on the ball and forming another attack. Schillaci slides into Spence with a horrible-looking tackle to bring the attack to a grisly end on the edge of the box. The Spurs captain is rightly booked. Thankfully, Spence isn’t badly hurt and runs off the injury to her ankle.

6 min: The Spurs players need to keep their heads here. Chelsea are keeping possession with ease, pop, pop, popping the ball around their opponents in little triangles. Tottenham need to keep their shape and ride the next 10 minutes through without conceding.

That didn’t take long. And what a strike! Percival is robbed of possession in central midfield by England. The Chelsea midfielder drives forwards before curling a left-footed shot into the far top corner beautifully. She was a full 25 yards out, too. What a start for the home side at the Bridge!

2 min: Tottenham’s Furness smashes into a tackle on Ji that we’ll call a reducer. From the resulting free-kick, Spurs clear to the edge of the box, where the ball is flicked back into the danger zone for Eriksson to stab just wide from 10 yards out. It was a tricky chance that Chelsea’s captain had to take on the stretch.

1 min: We’re under way at a semi-full Stamford Bridge, where there’s a decent atmosphere. Chelsea, in blue of course, get the match started. They’re kicking from right to left on my TV. Spurs, wearing their famous white, are kicking the other way.

Here’s Spurs head coach Karen Hills on today’s match, her side’s first in the WSL:

It’s going to be a really proud moment for both myself and [fellow head coach] Juan [Amoros] – and obviously for the club and the players. It’s an absolutely amazing stage – to go into the WSL and play at Stamford Bridge in front of what will probably be a record crowd, I’m extremely proud. We’ve got a fantastic squad that we’ve built with new additions over the last 12 weeks. Every single one of the players is ready and excited to go out there, to perform and to play the best they possibly can.

Karen Carney’s retirement has led to Sweden’s Magda Eriksson being handed the Chelsea armband. She’s a brilliant player and person. In case you missed it, here’s Nick Ames’s summer interview with Eriksson and Denmark’s Pernille Harder, in which they talk about their kiss in Paris that went viral, what it was like coming out and joining Common Goal.

The Chelsea manager, Emma Hayes, believes the grand stage will suit her team more than Spurs:

The slight advantage we have is a bit more experience and we’re used to playing in front of bigger crowds. We’ve got a lot of international players that are used to be playing at major tournaments and competing for major trophies. So this is not anything that they are experiencing for the first time. I’m looking forward to a packed house and to welcome a lot of new fans who are coming to the game. Sing as loud as you can, I want to hear your voices and players will want to too.”

Some more pre-match reading for you as we wait for kick-off. Here’s Arsenal’s Daniëlle van de Donk on why she thinks the reigning WSL champions will be a grooved machine this season:

So the Norwegian forward Reiten is straight into the starting XI for Chelsea, while Davison, a summer signing from Reading, starts for Spurs. The Tottenham players got a warm welcome as they arrived at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea: Berger, Blundell, Bright, Ingle, England, Ji, Reiten, Eriksson (c), Engman, Mjelde, Spence. Subs: Telford, Thorisdottir, Asante, Andersson, Cooper, Cuthbert, Fleming.

Spurs: Spencer, Neville, Schillaci (c), Godfrey, Worm, Percival, Furness, Haines, Davison, Quinn, Graham. Subs: Morgan, Peplow, Leon, Filbey, McLean, Ayane, Addison.

Hello. Welcome to coverage of today’s WSL derby match between Chelsea and Tottenham. It’s an intriguing opener for both sides, given that Spurs are new to the league and have brought in nine new players, seven of whom have WSL experience. The most noteworthy is Gemma Davison, who has bags of experience and can play in midfield or at full-back. Her influence will be key as head coaches Karen Hills and Juan Amoros try to mould a cohesive side with so many new recruits. Davison won the Double twice with Chelsea, too, so if you’re looking for narrative in today’s game, she provides plenty of it. You can read more about her here: