WSL: Sonia Bompastor’s winning streak continues as Chelsea snub Arsenal | OneFootball

Chelsea took three points from the Emirates Stadium for the first time in their history on Saturday after beating an unconvincing Arsenal side 2-1.

A difficult week for Jonas Eidevall’s side came to a head in their latest Women’s Super League clash. The Gunners hosted Sonia Bompastor’s bold Chelsea side at the Emirates in a competitive league clash, following their heavy defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League midweek.

Goals from Mayra Ramírez and Sandy Baltimore put the Blues well ahead. Caitlin Foord, however, pulled one back for Arsenal before half-time.

Starting XIs

Arsenal

Van Domselaar; Fox, Wubben-Moy, Williamson, McCabe, Little, Wälti, Foord, Mead, Caldentey, Russo

Chelsea

Hampton; Bronze, Buchanan, Bright, Baltimore, Kaptein, Nüsken, James, Kaneryd, Ramírez, Reiten

A tough outing for Arsenal

Mayra Ramírez soon opened the scoring for Chelsea. With her back facing the goal, the forward looped an impressive overhead kick beyond Daphne van Domselaar to put the reigning champions in front. With just four minutes on the clock, a lacklustre showing from the Arsenal backline saw them fall behind.

The Blues capitalised on the defensive disorganisation of their hosts, and doubled their advantage a little more than ten minutes later. The second goal of the afternoon came after Lauren James passed Arsenal’s defenders with ease. The England international sent her cross in to a completely unmarked Sandy Baltimore. The left-back got her head to it, and fired the ball straight in to the back of the net.

Arsenal looked to counter as the interval drew near, but the Gunners’ frontline failed to hit the Chelsea target. Despite threatening their rivals, only Caitlin Foord could put Eidevall’s side back in the game in the 43rd minute. After being fed by Emily Fox, the forward dodged her defender at the post, and slotted it over the line.

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Chelsea earn first Emirates win

Following the break, Arsenal looked stronger. There were little moments of magic from Chelsea, too, with James dribbling her way to the face of goal on one occasion, but the scoreline was unchanged.

A wide free-kick taken by Katie McCabe in the final five minutes was volleyed by substitute Stina Blackstenius, but the striker could find only the crossbar. It was chaos on the goal line for both sides, before Chelsea eventually cleared.

Substitute Aggie Beever-Jones drove towards Van Domselaar in the dying moments of the game, but the youngster’s strike was narrowly wide. The Blues attacked again, but 2-1 was the final result of this tense London derby.

Six minutes of added time were not quite enough for Arsenal to earn a point, regardless of a late corner and questions continue to be asked surrounding Eidevall’s shaky start to the season.

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What does it mean?

This difficult Arsenal period continues, while Chelsea top the table in advance of Manchester City’s meeting with Liverpool on Sunday.

The Gunners will return to the Emirates on Wednesday night, when they host Vålerenga for a UWCL Group Stage tie after suffering a 5-2 defeat against Bayern Munich earlier this week.

The Blues, by contrast, continue their early unbeaten run and can approach Thursday’s UWCL visit to FC Twente with an air of confidence, if they couldn’t already.

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