Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City: Women's Super League – live!

26 mins: Stanway ambles inside from the right and find Kelly on the opposite flank. She spins past her marker and hang a cross towards the back post, but just too deep for the lurking White.

22 mins: The final whistle has gone at Kingsmeadow, where Chelsea have breezed to a 6-0 win against Birmingham. Back at the Hive, City are bossing possession without carving out too many clearcut chances. You feel they have another gear or two if needed.

19 mins: Cho dawdles on the ball inside her own box and is promptly robbed by Mewis, who squares to White … but the striker puts her shot wide of the near post from the edge of the six-yard box.

15 mins: Another corner gives Kelly the chance to unsettle Spencer again but she overhits it and it sails harmlessly out. Spurs try to build from the goal-kick but City snap into a press on halfway and win the ball back.

12 mins: The bustling Williams is making a nuisance of herself up front for Spurs, denying City’s defenders time on the ball and fighting off multiple markers to holding it up well. But she’s seen nothing in the way of chances yet.

9 mins: We get a first glimpse of Kelly’s bewitching skills as she is dragged down by Worm on the right flank. Stanway whips the free-kick in and Dahlkemper can’t quite get a touch to turn the delivery home from point blank range.

7 mins: Beckie cuts in from the left and drags a shot wide of the near post. City are not content with just the one.

3 mins: City lead and it’s a messy goal. Spencer first does well to tip a long-range strike on to the crossbar but from the resulting corner – a wicked Chloe Kelly inswinger – she flaps, and the ball is bundled home. It looked like Stanway may have got the final touch. Game on!

1 min: And we’re under way. City kick off and waste little time in getting comfortable with the ball, knocking it about between defence and midfield. Mannion has come into the side for Greenwood, a late change.

The players are out at the Hive, game faces duly affixed. Meanwhile, Fran Kirby has made it 4-0 to Chelsea and Everton are 1-0 up against Aston Villa thanks to Lucy Graham.

The last meeting between these sides was a muscle-flexing 4-1 win for City featuring two goals from Chloe Kelly – the first an absolute peach. Kelly is a sensational winger, maybe the best player to watch in the WSL, but probably needs to add a few more goals to her game to hit the real elite level. With just one in her last 12 games, she could do with picking up where she left off against today’s opponents.

A win for City today would make it 12 league victories in a row, matching the record for the best run in a single season (set by Arsenal in 2018). They are without captain Steph Houghton due to injury.

No mucking about from Sam Kerr. In three minutes of first-half stoppage time, she scored another two goals to complete her hat-trick. That’s 10 in five for her, three points near-guaranteed for Chelsea, and three points badly needed for Manchester City this afternoon.

An important update from elsewhere: a first-half goal from Sam Kerr – her eighth in five games – has Chelsea leading 1-0 against Birmingham with half-time approaching. City need to match Chelsea’s result to have a chance of leapfrogging them when first and second meet in the next round of league fixtures.

Spurs: Spencer, Zadorsky (C), Dean, Williams, Cho, Worm, Graham, Kennedy, Quinn, McManus, E.Morgan. Subs: Mikalsen, Green, Harrop, Davison, Peplow, Addison, Naz, Ayane, Godfery

Man City: Roebuck, Stanway, Dahlkemper, Greenwood, Morgan, Walsh, Mewis, Weir, Kelly, Beckie, White (C). Subs: Taieb, Keating, Coombs, Mannion, Park, Davies, Hemp, Lavelle.

Going down fighting is all well and good, but gallant defeat is no substitute for cold, hard silverware. So, having been lauded as plucky losers in their midweek Champions League exit to Barcelona, Manchester City will be doubly determined to ensure their league campaign ends with them reclaiming the title so contentiously taken from them when last season was curtailed.

The good news is that it’s in their hands to do so. Gareth Taylor’s side woke up this morning two points behind champions Chelsea with four games to go – one of which, in a fortnight’s time, is at home to the west Londoners in a game that that promises to be an effective shootout for the title.

But that hinges on a win today, in a visit to Tottenham, a side winless in seven and fresh from a derby shellacking. The form book, and recent history (City stuck four goals past Spurs in the reverse fixture this term), screams away win. But City are not averse dropping the odd unexpected point – and it’s the games when all the pressure is on you not to screw it up that you’re most likely to, well, you know…

Strap in! Kick-off 2pm BST.