Arsenal Women 4-1 Chelsea Women
"That's as bad as I have seen us for a long time," agreed Chelsea manager Emma Hayes after last weekend's comprehensive 4-1 thrashing at the Emirates in front of a record 59,042 crowd.
"The better team won by a country mile."
Chelsea Women travel to Bristol this Sunday for their final domestic match before a four-week winter break, giving every member of the squad time to reflect following a match that allowed the Gunners to draw level with the champions at the top of the WSL table.
"If we want to compete we have to be better than that. They bullied us. I felt that they dominated in the duels. I think that all phases of our play were poor. I'm not making excuses, we were disappointing," said Hayes in one of her most downbeat post-match assessments in memory.
Arsenal simply ran the show. Every team member was alert, co-ordinated, positive and eager, while picking four adjectives to describe Chelsea might earn me an internet ban.
Beth Mead coolly and calmly dribbled across the edge of the area before firing the Gunners' first after eight minutes.
While Chelsea managed to level five minutes later with a left-foot zinger from Johanna Kaneryd, Arsenal were 2-1 up, then 3-1 up, before the interval thanks to an Amanda Ilestedt header and an Alessia Russo breakaway cracker.
Halftime changes
Mass changes at halftime failed to rouse Chelsea from a torpor that affected everyone in the team, and when a soft penalty gave Arsenal the chance to put the game beyond doubt on 72 minutes, Russo converted.
The terrible truth is, Chelsea never came close to clawing their way back into a game where slick passing, lightning breaks and midfield dominance meant that Jonas Eidevall's team were in complete control, to the glee of the home fans.
If you were dishing out marks out of 10 for the champions in blue, no one would have scored above five. "You can't concede three goals from four shots at any level of football and expect to win a game," said a chastened Hayes.
"Even when we did well to win the ball back, we gave it away again. That is not our best today – in fact that is probably our very worst."
For Chelsea fans, there's only one thing harder to take than a mid-season stumble, and that's losing heavily to an Arsenal side who will now gain huge belief from the result.
"We haven't lost a title, we haven't lost a final, we lost three points today," added Hayes, trying to put everything in perspective. "Our disappointment isn't just the result, it is the performance."
She said that captain and defender Millie Bright wouldn't be returning to the squad after injury until January. But it's unlikely she would have made much difference to such a lacklustre showing.
Central defenders Jess Carter and Maren Mjelde were too easily overrun by fleet-footed Arsenal attackers, while the midfield simply couldn't compete.
Goalie Zecira Musovic can expect to start the next match after Ann-Katrin Berger's hesitant performance between the sticks, while off days for the usually reliable Lauren James, Niamh Charles and Eve Perisset means that Hayes may make some big calls about the starting line-up against Bristol City on Sunday.
The only positive Chelsea could take from the game was the reappearance of Guro Reiten after a two-month injury lay-off. Was there anything else good to come from the match? Hayes was asked. "Well, I only have a 20-minute drive home from here," was her response.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
