Arsenal Women 4-1 Chelsea Women: How did the Gunners win? Should Chelsea be worried? Alessia Russo shines but Lauren James has lots to learn
Beth Mead, Amanda Ilestedt and Alessia Russo (2) saw Arsenal to a 4-1 win in the WSL on Sunday; Johanna Rytting Kaneryd replied for a below-par Chelsea; Arsenal are joint-top of the WSL with Chelsea, although the Blues remain top on goal difference
Senior football journalist
Monday 11 December 2023 14:57, UK
Never ones to agree on much, Emma Hayes said Arsenal 'bullied' Chelsea, but Jonas Eidevall believed it was all down to 'high-quality football'.
Sitting firmly on the fence, they are both right.
From the start, Arsenal pressed, harangued, harried and made Chelsea extremely uncomfortable. Players were forced into playing on their weaker sides, making hasty decisions as Arsenal took advantage of those errors.
Hayes also pointed to duels as one of the key areas of Arsenal 'bullying'. Interestingly though, the stats point to a far higher percentage won by Chelsea. However, it was in those second phases where the Blues came out second best.
Eidevall added of Hayes' assessment: «I don't really believe in these 50-50 balls, if one comes out winning the ball it is not 50-50, it was 51-49 maybe… because you have a better starting position and maybe you are more intelligent than the opponent, maybe you are stronger. We turned a lot of those situations into 51-49s and that is really important.»
Overall, Arsenal were quicker, more intense and had a clear game plan, qualities Eidevall says they have been working on in training. Almost every player had a perfect game — Kim Little, Lia Walti and Victoria Pelova are just three to mention.
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While Hayes was also quick to
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