After a four year wait, Arsenal women have at last got their hands on a trophy after thrashing Chelsea 3-1 to lift the FA Continental Cup. Not many believed Arsenal would manage to school Champions Chelsea, but anyone who watched the last two games between Arsenal and Chelsea can argue this Arsenal win was coming.
Arsenal has been the superior team in its previous two meetings with Chelsea. Even Chelsea’s 2-0 FA Cup 5th Round of win for many was a case of Arsenal losing, due to being wasteful of the numerous chances they had while Chelsea took advantage of the few they had.
Yesterday in the Continental Cup Final, Jonas Eidevall’s girls turned up for the party; even Sam Kerr’s goal in the 98th second of the game didn’t throw them out of the game, as they recomposed themselves and, as champions do, took only a few minutes to respond.
Under fire Arsenal striker Stina Blackstenius led the comeback, putting Arsenal back in contention in the 16th minute when she scored from Maanum’s shot, which ricocheted off Eriksson and into her path where she was unmarked 12 yards out, out of which she didn’t think twice but to shoot and score.
After which, in the 23rd minute, Katie McCabe then went on to win Arsenal a penalty, which Kim Little converted, sending Chelsea goalie Berger to her right as she scored through the left. Then, after a Catley inswinging corner, in the added time of the first half, everyone in the Chelsea box was confused, with the defenders trying to clear the ball, which unfortunately for the Blues hit Niamh Charles diverted past Berger and Ingle into her own team’s net to gift Arsenal the third goal that sealed Arsenal’s win.
The Arsenal women won that game as a team, but credit should go to Blackstenius for stepping up and finally capitalising on a chance the Arsenal women have been struggling to convert. With Miedema and Mead out, she needed to be delivering, and on Sunday, she showed she could. 90MIN gave her an 8 out of 10 match rating, and for that they claimed, “Made life extremely difficult for compatriot Eriksson. A constant penalty-box menace and was good value for her goal.”
On her part, Stina Blacksteinus, after the match, said via the Guardian: “I enjoyed it so much. I’m so proud of the team for coming back with such a strong performance after conceding an early goal. I really want to do everything for this team, and to score a goal in a final means a lot to me.”
“We have so much still to do this season, and I hope this will give us a lot of confidence.”
Arsenal still have a lot to do; they need to regain their focus in the WSL and also do well in the Champions League, where they face Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals.
Hope they can build on that and move up the wsl. Injuries Haven’t helped the course, we have villa a good player!