Alessia Russo scored the winner in Arsenal's 1-0 victory over rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the WSL at another sold-out Emirates Stadium.

The opening five minutes saw Arsenal relentlessly press Tottenham to gain possession back swiftly, with chances opening up for the Gunners.

Russo came closest, but failed to keep her shot down, and another great chance went begging for the home side a corner came in and Spurs cleared the ball away after a miscommunication between the centre backs. 

The visitors continued to soak up the Arsenal pressure but got forward beautifully down the right with Martha Thomas swiping past Lia Walti but shooting straight into the hands of Manuela Zinsberger. 

Despite Arsenal's press, the visitors saw a shot from Jessica Naz as the best chance in the opening 25 minutes as it forced Zinsberger to tip the shot onto the bar.

Tottenham began coming forward and retained possession and battled with the Gunners with Thomas and Naz flying down the flanks and Kit Graham driving forward with the ball well.

But still their couldn’t find a breakthrough past Arsenal's Lotte Wubben-Moy and Laia Codina. 

The visitors had the best chances but it was the home side who will feel they should have had a goal to show for their outstanding pressure and desire to win the ball back as it remained goalless at half time.

An electric start to the second half saw Kim Little play a beautiful ball to find Beth Mead open on the right, to dance past defender and set up Russo who swept home perfectly to fire the Gunners into the lead within four minutes of the restart.

Arsenal went hunting for a second goal and kept the pressure and intensity at a high level, but after a lovely one-two with Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord’s ball in failed to find Little's feet.

Stina Blackstenius came on for the Gunners and carried on with the press with the striker winning back possession in the Spurs box but keeper Becky Spencer did well to deny Arsenal a second goal.

The visitors started to build the pressure on Arsenal with five minutes to go in normal time with Katie McCabe going head-to-head with Matilda Vinberg who played in a delicious ball but Tottenham striker Bethany England couldn’t get her header on target. 

Things begin to get heated in a derby which saw five yellow cards dished out in the last 10 minutes of the game.

And during seven minutes of added-on time, Arsenal soaked up the pressure from Tottenham with no real cut chances for the visitors to cause Zinsberger any trouble. 

The Gunners maintained possession to see the game out, with the home side winning all their duels and battling for an important three points in the WSL title race in front of another 60,000-plus crowd.