Chelsea sock it to Arsenal and make major move in WSL title race
No Sam Kerr, no Mia Fishel, no Mayra Ramírez, no Millie Bright, no Natalie Björn, no problem. An utterly rampant Chelsea dismantled Arsenal, scoring three goals in the space of 17 first-half minutes to end the visitor’s title hopes and strengthen their own.
A packed Stamford Bridge, this time with 32,970 fans, once again bore witness to the Lauren James show, with the mercurial forward scoring the home team’s first before Sjoeke Nüsken turned in twice. The result helped take the sting off a bruising 24 hours for the manager, Emma Hayes, whose clumsy comments on player-player relationships had caused controversy.
Chelsea, rattled? By injury, controversy or delay. Never.
“Ready to work our socks off,” the Chelsea X account posted before kick-off, a cheeky nod to the sock clash fiasco that saw kick-off delayed by 30 minutes as Arsenal staff popped into the Chelsea megastore to pick up black away socks before taping over the Nike swooshes to avoid a brand clash with kit sponsors, Adidas.
The delay was frustrating, but the atmosphere in Stamford Bridge built to a crescendo, club classics blaring and fans partying. The energy was high, and the home team entered the fray like they were fuelled up for a dance-heavy all-nighter.
Hayes made six changes to the side that earned a 1-0 win over Everton to set up an FA Cup semi-final tie with Manchester United. Stamford Bridge starlet James was returned to the starting XI, alongside the goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, Guro Reiten, Melanie Leupolz, Niamh Charles and Kadeisha Buchanan.
It had been nine days since Arsenal beat Aston Villa 4-0 to set up a mouth-watering League Cup final tie with Chelsea, but they were overrun by Hayes’s heavily rotated charges. There had been fears that Chelsea’s depleted squad had lost one too many players to injury, but the beauty of Hayes’s group is its strength in depth coupled with a versatility epitomised by Sunday’s centre-back Nüsken further forward five days later, and a relentless will to win. They did not just dismiss those doubting they could maintain a challenge on four fronts given the injuries, they buried them with a merciless tearing apart of a much fuller strength Arsenal side.
Jonas Eidevall made three changes from the team that beat Aston Villa, with Kim Little, Caitlin Foord and Victoria Pelova all starting. He also welcomed back Gold Cup participants Sabrina D’Angelo, Emily Fox and Cloé Lacasse, who were all on the bench.
Perhaps there had been an overconfidence among the swaggering Gunners, but they were dealt an early warning by James, curling an effort narrowly wide from outside the box just three minutes in. There was no let up at all for the visiting side, blue shirts were first to every ball, pressed high, harried and outmuscled Arsenal all over the park.
The goal was coming and it was James that delivered, weaving to force an opening before forcing a save from Manuela Zinsberger that would loop behind her and in, for her eighth goal in four WSL games at Stamford Bridge.
Things went from bad to worse for Arsenal five minutes later, with Leah Williamson playing Nüsken onside as she flicked in Erin Cuthbert’s effort from just inside the box.
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The Arsenal players gathered in a huddle, desperate to regroup, but they looked shellshocked by the intensity of a home team ready to make a decisive statement and exorcise the demons of a 4-1 loss to their opponents at the Emirates Stadium in December.
Just past the half-hour mark and Chelsea had their third, a deflection off Nüsken turning Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s strike in this time.
Three changes for Arsenal at the start of the second half saw Alessia Russo, Emily Fox and Frida Maanum enter to try to help the visiting side get any kind of foothold on the game.
However it was Chelsea who had the best chance of the second half despite a marginally more competent looking Arsenal, with James through on goal just past the hour mark. Zinsberger made the save with her legs.
Arsenal clawed back a consolation with four minutes of normal time remaining, Little’s strike taking a deflection off Catarina Macário as it flew in, but it was far too little, too late.
As the team waited for the final whistle after five added minutes, Hayes geed up the crowd and they roared in reply, this was an empathic statement of Chelsea’s ambitions. They move three points ahead of Manchester City in the league, with Gareth Taylor’s side playing Brighton on Sunday, and another critical step closer to a historic quadruple. Can they give Hayes the send-off she desires, as she bids farewell to the west London side in the summer? On this showing, maybe.