Ahead of Remembrance Day, wreaths have been laid in the centre circle at the Emirates and The Last Post is being performed.
And of Sonia Bompastor
It’s a huge occasion, one of the best games in women’s football in the world. We can’t wait to be on the pitch with a great atmosphere. This is one of the best weeks we’ve had since I became manager of Chelsea. If we can do on the pitch what we did in training this week, it’ll be a good thing.
The pre-match thoughts of Renee Slegers
Every game has its story, every game demands a certain preparation. We try to keep as many things the same as possible. The players have been working really hard – I’m happy it’s matchday now.
The WSL table at the start of play
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chelsea Women | 7 | 11 | 19 |
| 2 | Man City Women | 7 | 10 | 18 |
| 3 | Man Utd Women | 7 | 14 | 17 |
| 4 | Tottenham Hotspur Women | 7 | 1 | 15 |
| 5 | Arsenal Women | 7 | 10 | 14 |
| 6 | London City Lionesses | 7 | -9 | 9 |
| 7 | Brighton & Hove Albion Women | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 8 | Aston Villa Women | 6 | 0 | 7 |
| 9 | Everton Women | 7 | -4 | 5 |
| 10 | Leicester Women | 7 | -8 | 5 |
| 11 | Liverpool FC Women | 6 | -9 | 0 |
| 12 | West Ham Women | 7 | -16 | 0 |
Arsenal’s Taylor Hinds chats to Suzanne Wrack
This is the type of team that I want to be in. I have the utmost respect for Liverpool for everything they’ve done for me over the five years. There’s a little part of me that’s always going to love Liverpool. So many of my friends are still up there, scousers are just one of a kind too, and I definitely miss that side of it, the people, but I’m also loving it here and I’m really thriving and happy.
The difference is just the standard, the intensity and the quality. Everything’s so fast-paced and training every day is like playing in a game every day. That’s what you want: you want to train how you play and here I get to do that with world-class players and learn from them.
Plenty of changes for both teams from last week’s victories over Leicester and London City Lionesses respectively. Arsenal bring in Emily Fox, Lotte Wubben-Moy and Victoria Pelova for Taylor Hinds, Laia Codina and the injured Kim Little.
Chelsea bring in Niamn Charles, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, Wieke Kaptein, Catarina Macario and Alyssa Thompson. Out go Ellie Carpenter, Sjoeke Nusken, Sandy Baltimore, Aggie Beever-Jones and Guro Reiten.
Arsenal (4-4-2) Van Domselaar; Fox, Wubben-Moy, Catley, McCabe; Mead, Caldentey, Pelova, Foord; Russo, Blackstenius.
Substitutes: Borbe, Codina, Maanum, Smith, Kelly, Nighswonger, Hinds, Cooney-Cross, Harwood.
Chelsea (possible 4-2-3-1) Hampton; Bronze, Bright, Bjorn, Charles; Walsh, Cuthbert; Rytting Kaneryd, Kaptein, Thompson; Macario.
Substitutes: Peng, Carpenter, Buurman, Nusken, Girma, Baltimore, Kerr, Hamano, Jean-Francois
Manchester United v Aston Villa also kicks off at midday. We’ll have goalflashes from that game; just don’t expect chapter on verse on whether United are playing 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3.
Hello, hello and welcome to live coverage of one of the games of any WSL season. Arsenal v Chelsea is a biggie at the best of times, never mind when it’s the champions of Europe vs the champions of England – and both teams unashamedly cover their neighbour’s titles.
It’s a bigger game for Arsenal, whose hopes of winning the WSL title will be imperilled should they lose today. They’re already five points behind Chelsea after seven games; and while that is largely down to a tough run of fixtures, they can’t afford the gap to widen to eight points.
Chelsea, chasing a seventh league title in a row, keep rolling on; their only dropped points so far came at Manchester United. But they know the threat that Arsenal pose – two seasons ago Chelsea were stuffed 4-1 at the Emirates. And, as they know too well, Arsenal are the current European champions.
Kick-off 12pm GMT.