Arsenal Women suffer heavy defeat to Chelsea

Another Derby, another defeat!

Just as we thought things could not be any worse for our ladies at the moment, they fell to another defeat at the hands of another top team- Chelsea.

The first game in our Continental League Cup group didn’t exactly go to plan on Wednesday night.
Although Caitlin Foord managed to score a stunning goal that flew past Carly Telford, and summer signing Malin Gut made her full debut for us, these were really the only two positive points that we could take out of an altogether frustrating evening.

The game was open from the start and both teams used their attacking force to pile on the pressure. But as we have done in our previous games, it didn’t take long for us to concede, when Chelsea defender Magdalena Erikkson headed home from Chelsea’s first corner. Arsenal came back with a quick response three minutes later though when Foord cut inside and lifted a curling effort over Telford in between the sticks.

But as we have previously had trouble keeping the lead, the same occurred yesterday when only less than two minutes later Norwegian midfielder Guro Reiten restored Chelsea’s lead with a simple finish from close range, it took her just five minutes to add her second and Chelsea’s third, firing home from the edge of the area after Sam Kerr was denied by Manuela Zinsberger.

A talking to from Montemurro clearly showed after the break as we came out looking the more stronger and created a number of chances coming from Beth Mead, that Miedema failed to produce the finishing touches for to get us back into the game. As time was running out and we failed to convert, Chelsea rubbed salt into the wounds by adding a fourth, where Beth England raced behind our defence to finish past Zinsberger and seal all three points.

We ended the night bottom of Group B after just one match and with games against London City and our North London Rivals Tottenham to come, it is clear there will be some even tougher tests to come.

So again, we lost in the battle of the big guns. This time it was 4-1 to a dominant Chelsea side, and yet again Manuela Zinsberger failed to keep a clean sheet conceding four goals. She may not be solely to blame but if we are to change our fate at the moment, then surely the first change would need to come in goal. Gooners?

Shenel Osman