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 minutes to end the visitors’ 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 scored twice, helping 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.
“We seem to do really well in adverse situations,” said Hayes. “It’s been a tough period, it’s been a tough day for us, but we’re good at this, we know how to do this … the team is 1,000% together in what we’re doing.”
“Ready to work our socks off,” the Chelsea X account posted before kick-off, a cheeky nod to the sock clash fiasco that saw the start 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.
“I need to be very clear that it was the same for both teams and I will not make any excuses, that would be ridiculous,” said the Arsenal manager, Jonas Eidevall, afterwards.
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 mouthwatering League Cup final 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 didn’t 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.
Eidevall made three changes from the team that beat Aston Villa, with Kim Little, Caitlin Foord and Victoria Pelova all starting.
Perhaps there had been an overconfidence among the previously swaggering Gunners, but 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.
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 at the Emirates Stadium in December.
Just past the half-hour mark and Chelsea had their third, a deflection off Nüsken sending Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s shot in this time.
Arsenal clawed back a consolation with four minutes of normal time remaining, Little’s strike taking a deflection off Catarina Macario as it flew in, but it was far too little, far too late.
“This game has been taking 100% of my focus before, during and now after. The league table has not been, that is not where my energy goes,” said Eidevall when asked whether Arsenal’s title chances were over.
With minutes remaining Hayes turned to her coaching staff, fist clenched and pumping, the goals may have dried up for the Blues of late, but 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.
