Arsenal 1-2 Chelsea, Women's Super League: Post-match reaction

10/12/2024 10:43 AM

Winning in North London, at long last!

Chelsea Women have always found it difficult to play at the Emirates against Arsenal, especially in Women's Super League matches. If we were to have any chances of stopping a four-year streak of failing to win a single league match in their big stadium, we needed a strong start to make them tremble.

That's exactly what we got only four minutes into the match. Chelsea won the corner, and the ensuing scramble in the box was not very well defended by Arsenal. With the ball up in the air, Mayra Ramírez took the shot with her back against the goal and hit the mark.

The hosts had to respond, and they pushed as forward as they could in looking after a tying goal. However they were missing the quality in front of the goal that we have.

Matches like these can often be defined by moments of brilliance from your star players, and while Ramírez's light shone very bright early on, another attacker would take the spotlight right after. This time it was Lauren James who made it past a pack of defenders with little to no issue to infiltrate the box, and then put on a neat cross to Sandy Baltimore at the far post to add a second goal against the Gunners in the first half of the match.

It would've been great if the two goals came alongside a dominant performance from the Blues at the Emirates. The situation was the exact opposite however, with Arsenal multiple times getting very close to finding that one goal that would bring them back into the fold in definitive.

Our defence has been a big source of worry for a few years now, and they let us down again. Caitlin Foord found it very easy to take the ball to the box and shoot from a very tight angle to pull one back for the hosts just minutes before the end of the first half.

To come so close to winning the match, and then losing it all due to defensive frailties that we have failed to address for a few seasons at least, would be a disaster for Chelsea. We needed to either put ourselves forward and build our lead back up, or shore up at the back and do whatever needed to hold onto the one-goal lead.

In the beginning of the second half, Chelsea came very close to a third goal twice. First via Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, who had been quiet in the first half, forcing goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar to intervene. Then James got an assist from Kaneryd for a potential moment of glory from outside the box, but her shot went wide of the target.

After those two attempts, it was Arsenal back on forcing the draw. Chelsea's defence and Hannah Hampton, who wasn't involved in our midweek match against Real Madrid due to illness, would have to work a lot to keep the three points on lock.

Chelsea basically giving up the midfield to add more players to our defensive efforts didn't really help Hannah and our back line in their main task. Still we held strong and got the three points at the Emirates.

Carefree!

• Hannah Hampton back between the posts after missing last week's match due to illness. Erin Cuthbert and Catarina Macario are also back, but on the bench.
• Mayra Ramírez's goal was simply outrageous. One great way of building early confidence in such a tough matchup.
• Lauren James, just as outrageous with her moves and assist.
• Once again lenient refereeing against us leads to both Mayra and Lauren getting almost literally thrown over with ridiculous challenges, and little to no calls are made against Arsenal. Why do we keep enduring this?
• Lucy Bronze needs to do much better in defence, if she is to keep her place in the squad once Niamh Charles is back healthy.
• Nervy second half to a match that didn't need to be that much nerve-wracking, if we had a better defensive setup/system. We either address this, or we let someone like Bunny Shaw just roll over us.
• Next up: FC Twente away in the Women's Champions League.
• KTBFFH!