Arsenal 1-2 Chelsea: Blues continue fine form
Arsenal 1-2 Chelsea: Blues continue fine form. Arsenal were subjected to a 2-1 defeat at home to Chelsea in the WSL on Saturday afternoon, piling up more pressure on the increasingly precarious position of Gunners boss Jonas Eidevall.
Three days after getting thumped 5-2 by Bayern Munich in the UWCL midweek, Arsenal shipped two goals in the opening 20 minutes to a physically dominant Chelsea side. Caitlin Foord however reduced the deficit before the break, but an improved second-half performance couldn’t help the Gunners avoid falling to a second consecutive defeat for the first time in almost eight months.
Chelsea, by contrast, extended their perfect start to life under new manager, Sonia Bompastor.
How the game unfolded;
Bompastor told her players before the match that “it is about enjoying this moment“. Mayra Ramirez wholeheartedly embraced the occasion, silencing the swollen Emirates Stadium crowd of more than 45,000 in attendance within the opening four minutes with an audacious flicked effort. Facing away from goal, Chelsea’s towering number seven managed to hook the ball over her head and everyone else’s in Arsenal’s crowded penalty area.
Eidevall’s out-of-form side were bullied all over the pitch in a one-sided first half. Chelsea huddled into a compact shape off the ball and constantly found space to canter into when the opportunity presented itself in transition.
Lauren James never needs a second invitation to surge, ploughing through a cluster of red shirts before clipping a ball to the back post. Sandy Baltimore had the freedom of north London to stroll onto the inviting cross, nodding Chelsea into a 2-0 lead in the 17th minute.
One of the few figures in red who had shown any resistance to Chelsea’s crushing start was Foord. The dogged winger tiptoed around Lucy Bronze, turning down the shouts of her teammates to bend the ball around Hannah Hampton goal from a desperately narrow angle, halving the deficit at the end of an eventful first half.
Chelsea lost their way after taking a 2-0 lead against Real Madrid in the Champions League in midweek, eventually forced to nervily hang on to a 3-2 advantage. The Blues also endured some shakier moments after the break at the Emirates, thanks largely to a much livelier performance from the hosts – they couldn’t get much worse than those timid opening 20 minutes.
Stina Blackstenius came off the bench to sweep a late effort onto the crossbar from a set piece and Alessia Russo had a volley pawed away during a late flurry of goal-mouth activity. But one week earlier, Eidevall had warned that his team would need to “start quicker next time”. That abysmal opening ultimately cost the Gunners, who have already dropped seven points from the first four games of the new league season.
