THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal travel to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday evening in the Champions League quarter-final second leg with a 3-1 lead from last week’s first leg at Arsenal Stadium. The Gunners are on a run of 11 consecutive victories in all competitions, including a 5-2 thrashing of Spurs in the WSL on Saturday.
The defending champions will be keen to secure their passage to another semi-final and doing it against Chelsea would undoubtedly give the club and its fans extra satisfaction. However, this tie is a very long way from over. While Arsenal won the first leg 3-1 that game was a helter skelter that could have travelled down any number of different wormholes.
Arsenal will want a more controlled affair on this occasion while retaining the attacking threat that has seen them score thirteen goals in their last three games. Chelsea certainly looked defensively vulnerable in their 4-3 win over Aston Villa on Sunday. Bompastor’s side have a host of injuries too.
However, we know that Chelsea tend to fly out of the traps at the beginning of both halves and with Lauren James, even if they are not creating much she can conjure something from nothing as she did in the first leg. It feels like the next goal in this tie will truly determine the rhythm of the second leg and a 0-0 draw feels very unlikely.
TEAM NEWS
Leah Williamson is likely to be back in the squad after a hamstring issue. Katie Reid, Manu Zinsberger and Michelle Agyemang are all out with ACL injuries, Kyra Cooney-Cross is not available due to compassionate leave.
Available squad
Goalkeepers: 13.Votikova 14.van Domselaar 28.Borbe 40.Williams
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 6.Williamson 7.Catley 11.McCabe 24.Hinds 31.Holmberg
Midfielders: 8.Mariona 10.Little(c) 12.L.Maanum 21.Pelova 67.Brodie
Forwards: 9.Mead 15.Smith 18.Kelly 19.Foord 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘(The mood is) positive, of course, but it’s been a very good or a long time now and what’s important for us is, regardless of results, we always have the same processes. Players are in the controlled middle, never too high, never too low and I think that’s that’s been one of our big strengths. So, of course, we were happy with the win on Saturday. It was an important win for us, but we did our review just as we usually would and then quickly into preparation to Chelsea.
‘It was a very tight game against Chelsea in the first leg. We know it’s going to be a battle tomorrow again. It’s only half time, so there’s a lot of work to do for us, so that’s the way we’re gonna approach the game. We have a lot of experience in the group as players, as staff, as well, how to manage different moments and that’s what we definitely want to bring to the game tomorrow.
‘If you see the games we’ve played this season so far against each other it’s been very tight games. And we know that will be the case tomorrow as well. It’s a very good teams going against each other. We don’t think too much about the scoreline. We want to go in and play our game. We know what we’re good at, so we have a game plan in place and want to execute that. So it’s gonna be a tight game and we have a way we want to approach it tomorrow.’
LAST TIME OUT
In the first leg at Arsenal Stadium, the Gunners ran out 3-1 winners. First half goals from Stina Blackstenius and Chloe Kelly put Arsenal 2-0 ahead before Lauren James pulled one back. Alessia Russo restored Arsenal’s two goal advantage.
THE OPPOSITION
Chelsea continue to look like a team in transition in the WSL. On Sunday, they eked out a 4-3 win over Aston Villa at home having trailed 1-0 and then led 3-1 only to be pulled back to 3-3 all in the first half. A late Nusken winner gave them the points but they looked vulnerable to Villa’s attacks.
That said, their squad, a little like Arsenal’s, is replenished since the first leg by the returns of Sam Kerr and Ellie Carpenter from the Asian Cup. Chelsea rested Kadeisha Buchanan, Sandy Baltimore and Erin Cuthbert while Niamh Charles returned to the squad after four months out with injury. Their bench will look a little more familiar than it did in the first leg.
After enjoying a good run of starts and goals at the Asian Cup, the return of Sam Kerr is a boon for Chelsea. Last week, they played Lauren James and Alyssa Thompson as split strikers, excellent forward threats both but lacking in the penalty area presence Kerr has provided throughout her career. She remains a significant threat.
PLAYER TO WATCH
Stina Blackstenius has started Arsenal’s last two games against Chelsea and the plan was for her to start at home to Manchester City before she was injured in training the week of the game. Slegers and Arsenal tend to start the Swede in the big games and her partnership with Russo when the latter plays in a withdrawn position has really blossomed.
Blackstenius has scored in each of her last four games and I would be staggered if she was not a starter again at Stamford Bridge. Slegers was moved to comment on the development of her all-round game after the victory over Spurs. ‘I think what what we’ve taken away now, what Stina has taken away is the idea that she has a certain thing you put her in a box that this is Stina with physical ability and speed, but that’s so much more to her game.
‘I’m so happy that I’m very impressed with her because if I look at who she was when she was 16 and who she is now, it’s unbelievable.’ The idea that playing Stina simply means Arsenal are going to play in behind a high defensive line is a thing of the past, she is still very effective in those scenarios but she has added a lot more strings to her bow this season.
MY PREDICTED LINE UP
Subs: 5.L.Codina 6.Williamson 9.Mead 12.L.Maanum 13.Votikova 14.van Domselaar 19.Foord 21.Pelova 24.Hinds 31.Holmberg
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game kicks off at 8pm on Wednesday evening and takes place at Stamford Bridge, the game will be broadcast live on Disney + and BBC Two in the UK. Full global listings for the match are available here.
COMING UP
We will post the team line-up around an hour before kickoff, there will be Aidan Gibson’s on the whistle match report and every word from Renee Slegers’ post-match press conference will be posted around an hour after full-time. Jamie and I will record a pod for you Thursday evening UK time.
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