Last Saturday, Arsenal Women faced Chelsea Women in a crucial clash in the WSL, which saw Arsenal suffer another defeat at The Emirates.
Both Arsenal and Chelsea are strong title contenders, making this a very important match so early on in the season.
The match was held at Emirates Stadium therefore meaning that Arsenal had the home advantage, especially with a crowd of over 45,000.
Arsenal have been unbeaten in their last four home games with Chelsea in the WSL, ultimately adding additional pressure to the already struggling team.
Everyone thought it would take Chelsea time to adjust to their new way of play with Sonia Bompastor, after the departure of Emma Hayes; however, they were all proved significantly wrong immediately when Sonia started the WSL season with a 1-0 win over Aston Villa at home quickly followed by a 7-0 away victory against Crystal Palace.
This was all followed by a great 3-2 win to Real Madrid at Stamford Bridge to kick off their Champions League campaign.
However, the new season hasn’t started as well for Arsenal's manager: Jonas Eidevall, by dropping four points in the first three games.
Arsenal didn’t start the Champions League off well either by losing 5-2 to Bayern Munich.
The two managers Sonia Bompastor and Jonas Eidevall have only faced each other twice before in the 2022/23 UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage.
Arsenal beat Lyon, Sonia’s former team, 5-1.
Game Analysis:
From the beginning, Chelsea dominated the first half of the game by scoring two goals with in the first 16 minutes, thanks to Mayra Ramirez and Sandy Baltimore.
This put Arsenal under pressure, but Caitlin Foord managed to get a goal back through a piece of individual skill for Arsenal just before half time, leaving it at 2-1 to Chelsea.
In the second half Arsenal dominated, the ball majority being played with in Chelsea’s half almost the whole 45 minutes, creating a lot of additional tension.
Despite this, Arsenal didn’t manage to score as Chelsea keeper Hannah Hampton made some great saves, leaving the game 2-1 to Chelsea.
* Since writing this article, Jonas Eidevall has resigned as head coach of Arsenal.
Featured Image Courtesy of Gabriella Valentine. No changes have been made to the image.