Chelsea v Arsenal: Women’s Super League – live | Women’s Super League

Half-time reading

Half time: Chelsea 3-0 Arsenal

45+2 min With Catley off the field, James receives a short corner from Perisset and curls over from 20 yards. The camera cuts to Jonas Eidevall, who drags his hand down his face to reveal an expression that is three parts haunted, two parts really, really, really hacked off.

45+2 min Catley is down and needs treatment. She had a clash of legs with Nusken, which looked innocuous but apparently wasn’t.

45+2 min Maybe Chelsea put something in the socks.

45+1 min Three minutes of added time.

45 min “Blackstenius, Russo,” muses Charles Antaki. “Arsenal could be playing Nellie the Elephant top front for all the difference it would make. As much as Chelsea are irresistible, Arsenal aren’t really doing that much resisting. It’s getting close to humiliation, and it’s certainly curtains for any chance of winning the league.”

43 min Reiten’s free-kick brushes the roof of the net. Zinsberger didn’t move.

42 min An elegant, sinuous run from James ends when she is tripped on the edge of the area by McCabe, who is – shock, horror – booked. James has been magnificent.

40 min This is surely the end of Arsenal’s title challenge. Any defeat would have been a serious blow, but a hammering like this – assuming that’s how it pans out – will surely be too much to overcome.

37 min Sjoeke Nusken, who surprisingly started up front for Chelsea, has scored two and made the other. We’ll miss Emma Hayes when she’s gone.

36 min Foord runs through on goal after a nice pass from Blacksteinius, but Perisset gets between her and the ball and Hampton comes out to claim. Good defending.

34 min James shoots over after another Chelsea break. Arsenal are a mess.

Rytting Kaneryd read a dodgy crossfield pass from Williamson just inside the Chelsea half, got to the ball ahead of Catley and ran into space. She kept going to the edge of the area, with the Arsenal defence exposed, then cut inside Wubben-Moy and swept a left-foot shot that took a huge deflection off her teammate Nusken and flew into the far corner.

Nusken was trying to get out of the way of the shot and turned her head almost apologetically when it went into the net. That part was lucky; Rytting Kaneryd’s was brilliant, even if her shot was probably going just wide.

GOAL! Chelsea 3-0 Arsenal (Nusken 32)

30 min Arsenal are having their best spell of possession, which I guess is a natural response to the second goal from both side. Mead tries to surge past Charles, who does well to force her wide and win a goalkick. Can you win a goalkick? You know what I mean.

27 min Arsenal have been bright enough going forward, if a little imprecise. But they are really struggling to deal with James, who is giving a tutorial in how to play as a false nine.

24 min Cuthbert fouls Pelova 25 yards from goal. Mead steps up for the free-kick… and smashes it high over the bar.

23 min So far this has been a triumph for Emma Hayes, especially the deployment of James and Nusken. Chelsea have been terrific, playing with an intensity they lacked when they were hammered by Arsenal earlier in the season.

James, who is playing sensationally as a false nine, started the move by dropping deep, turning Walti (I think) with ease and surging into space. She waved a nonchalant pass out to Reiten, whose cross from the left was chested down by Kaneryd at the far post. She laid the ball off to Cuthbert, whose mishit shot from 25 yards was deftly turned into the net by Nusken.

I thought she might have been offside but Williamson was playing her on. It’s a good goal and Chelsea are 2-0 up.

GOAL! Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal (Nusken 20)

17 min Arsenal almost have an immediate chance to equalise. Mead moves into the area from the right with loads of time, almost too much, and eventually her low cross is crucially cut out at the near post by Carter.

16 min The consensus in the commentary box is that Zinsberger should have done better. I wouldn’t disagree, though she was pretty unfortunate with the spin of the ball. And James really did welt it.

Reiten won the ball just inside the Arsenal half, which allowed Nusken to sweep an excellent pass across the field to James. She moved into the area, slowed down and then veered outside Catley before battering a shot back across goal. The diving Zinsberger got a good hand on the ball, which looped up in the air before spinning into the net despite a desperate attempt to clear it off the line.

GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal (James 15)

14 min There’s a cracking pace to this game, with both teams pressing as high as up the field as possible. Talking of which…

11 min This game is warming up nicely. James wanders out to the right, turns onto her left foot and lifts a marvellous pass over the head of Walti on the edge of the area. Kaneryd runs onto it but is just beaten to the ball by Zinsberger. I think James’ imagination might have surprised Kaneryd, who looked a little slow to react.

10 min The resulting corner is half cleared but Arsenal regain possession. Williamson slides a fine pass to release Catley on the right side of the area, but she shoots straight at Hampton from a very tight angle. That was the wrong option.

9 min And now the first opportunity for Arsenal. Wubben-Moy hammers a brilliant crossfield pass to Mead on the right edge of the area. She touches the ball back to Little, whose first-time shot is pushed round the near post by Hampton. It was going wide anyway but she took no chances.

6 min The first bit of pressure from Chelsea, with Perisset, Cuthbert and Reiten all having crosses cleared in the space of 20 seconds. That all stemmed from a really deft lay-off by James on the halfway line.

4 min Nusken is playing much higher than expected, almost as a second striker, which is an interesting tactical move from Emma Hayes.

3 min Kim Little checks her teeth after being caught by the flailing arm of Buchanan. She’s fine.

2 min James shoots over from 25 yards, this time with her left foot. If I were Arsenal I wouldn’t keep letting her shoot from there, or indeed anywhere.

1 min Lauren James, playing as a false nine, has the first shot from distance even before the clock has appeared on the TV screen. It’s blocked by Wubben-Moy.

1 min After the players take a knee, Chelsea kick off from left to right as we watch.

A reminder of the teams

Chelsea (possible 4-3-3) Hampton; Perisset, Buchanan, Carter, Charles; Cuthbert, Leupolz, Nusken; Kaneryd, James, Reiten.
Substitutes: Musovic, Ingle, Macario, Lawrence, Kirby, Hamano, Cankovic, Beever-Jones.

Arsenal (possible 4-3-3) Zinsberger; McCabe, Williamson, Wubben-Moy, Catley; Pelova, Little, Walti; Mead, Blackstenius, Foord.
Substitutes: Fox, Maanum, D’Angelo, Russo, Codina, Cooney-Cross, Holly Reid, Bouhaddi.

Referee Rebecca Welch.

The players are in the tunnel, for real. Never mind that weird delay, it’s time for a huge game in the WSL title race. Let’s sock!

Arsenal are wearing black Chelsea socks, bought from the Megastore, with tape over the Chelsea and Nike logos. Arsenal are sponsored by Adidas. The players are now having a second warm-up. What an odd build-up to such a big game.

The socks are on offer at the Chelsea Megastore, reduced to £12.99 a pair, so Arsenal have at least saved a few quid. Sort of.

Kick off at 7.30pm

The DJ is keeping the crowd entertainined by going through the Friday night classics: Failure by Swans, The Beast in Me by Nick Lowe, Gravity by Coldplay. The place is rocking.

No update on when the match will kick off. Apparently Arsenal have to change their white socks, which are the same colour as Chelsea’s. The men wore red socks when they played here in October.

Kick off delayed

“Blackstenius rather than Russo – not a choice many Arsenal fans would nod sagely at,” writes Charles Antaki. “It’s true that Blackstenius scored three against Villa the other day, but Chelsea are a nut of a much tougher variety. She’s admirably tireless and committed, but tends to run straight lines; Russo is the more subtle and elusive player. We all know what Chelsea are like, so unless Russo is out of sorts for one reason another, this does look like an odd choice.”

As does Jonas Eidevall

The loudest supporters tonight will be them [points to the away end].

[On Blackstenius and Russo battling for a place up front] Competition in a squad is really good so long as you don’t lose self-confidence as a player. The moment you lose self-confidence, it doesn’t matter what ability you have – especially as a striker. If you lose the bravery and start overthinking, you lose your edge.

We try to communicate about their strengths and what we want to see; make sure they don’t need to have second thoughts. That’s the art of coaching. I’m not saying I’m doing it perfectly but it’s a really, really important aspect of the game. If you want to win thing you will need to get that right.

[On Emma Hayes] She is so flexible tactically. As soon as something is not working for Chelsea, she will change personnel, formation or the way of playing. We expect them to change as the game goes on – she will be very proactive. Me and Emma are slightly different as coaches. I will stick with plan A for longer because I believe so much in it and the reason we have that plan.

Emma Hayes talks to Sky Sports

I believe every single one of our players is ready. I hope we use the crowd – we have to create the noise and give them something to be excited about. If we carry out the things that really, really matter, and are important to me, it’ll be a cracker of a game.

[Lauren James] is good, she’s ready to go. She’s had her hair done. She’s got it ready for the crowd!

Read the great Karen Carney on the title race

Arsenal have arguably the best squad in the league and the opportunity to chase down the other two. Their home victory over Chelsea was the performance of the season and they need to replicate that. The Gunners have great variety in attack, making them able to adapt to circumstances. Whether they need runners in behind or more crosses into the box, they have a squad of problem-solvers.

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