THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal take on Chelsea in the Champions League quarter-final first leg at Arsenal Stadium on Tuesday evening in one of the biggest club games in the history of British women’s football (I hope I haven’t undersold it there…) Champions League holders Arsenal will take on Chelsea across two legs with the second leg at Stamford Bridge eight days later.
The Gunners come into the game in fine form with nine wins in a row in all competitions, while Chelsea were held to a draw by London City Lionesses on Sunday afternoon and dropped to 3rd in the WSL table, two points ahead of the Gunners who have two games in hand on Sonia Bompastor’s team.
It does feel like the pressure in this tie is more with Chelsea than Arsenal with The Blues chasing a first Champions League success and now looking certain to not win the WSL title for the first time since 2019. The success, or lack thereof, really rests on this competition.
However, the holders do not get a free underdog pass, there is pressure on Arsenal too who are also very unlikely to wrestle the WSL title from Manchester City’s grip. The Gunners have had to reluctantly watch Chelsea’s domestic dominance- and it is worth pointing out that for all their troubles this season, Chelsea did win the Subway Cup just over a week ago- and would love to continue to lord their superior European record over their London rivals.
TEAM NEWS
Leah Williamson is out of this game with a hamstring injury, while Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross arrive in London on Monday after competing in the Asian Cup and will be assessed before a decision is made as to whether they make up part of the matchday squad. Manu Zinsberger, Katie Reid and Michelle Agyemang are out with ACL injuries. Frida Maanum returns from illness.
Available squad
Goalkeepers: 13.Votikova 14.van Domselaar 28.Borbe 40.Williams
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 11.McCabe 24.Hinds 31.Holmberg 44.Harwood
Midfielders: 8.Mariona 10.Little 12.L.Maanum 21.Pelova 67.Brodie
Forwards: 9.Mead 15.Smith 18.Kelly 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘All teams go through different phases and it’s much easier said than done to just be unbeaten and be at your highest level constantly across seasons. If you look at Chelsea, what they’ve been doing I think they’ve been excellent at doing that for a very long time. All teams go through phases.
If I look at their team and their squad, they have a lot of quality so we’re very prepared to play against a very good team. We’ve had two full days to prepare- doesn’t mean that the work hasn’t started earlier so there’s a there’s a lot of work already been done. But all the details were set in these two days. There is an unpredictability with how Chelsea is gonna come out.
How they’re gonna play this first game at the Emirates, what shape they’ll play in, what players they’ll have available. So we just have to be ready for all scenarios that’s that’s the bigger pictures where we have to prepare scenarios but on the other hand, that’s also us focussing on ourselves and what we want to bring to the game regardless.
LAST TIME OUT
When the teams met at Emirates Stadium in November, it was a 1-1 draw. Alyssa Thompson gave Chelsea a first half lead before a late equaliser from Alessia Russo.
THE OPPOSITION
Chelsea are in the midst of a transition with key players like Sam Kerr and Millie Bright set to leave at the end of the season and Guro Reiten having just departed for the NWSL. The departure of totemic figure Emma Hayes in the summer of 2024 was initially reasonably serene, with Sonia Bompastor coming in from Lyon and managing the club to a domestic treble in her first season.
However, this season has proved more complicated. Injuries have not helped, while Bompastor is now much more in the midst of a period of squad turnover. Behind the scenes, Head of Women’s Football Paul Green left the club earlier this year, another important foundation brick in Emma Hayes’ era defining Chelsea.
In short, there has been a lot of upheaval and the move to a back three / five formation late last season has endured mixed results. However, you simply cannot write Chelsea off across a tie like this. They showed their mettle again in the Subway Cup Final against Manchester United, they have a muscle memory of winning big games.
PLAYER TO WATCH
When the teams met at Stamford Bridge in February, Bompastor’s decision to play with a back five simply took a midfielder out of the equation for Chelsea and Arsenal consistently had superior numbers in the middle of the park. It would be surprising to see Bompastor repeat that mistake again.
In January, Kim Little and Mariona Caldentey ran the game. In big games and big ties like this, your biggest players show up and Mariona is arguably Arsenal’s best player. In this competition last year, she scored crucial, tie-breaking goals against Real Madrid and Lyon and she has now won this competition four times.
She has played in World Cup and European Championship Finals and this is the most high level tie imaginable outside of a final. Put simply, if Arsenal are going to win the Spaniard will be at the heart of it. As well as being Arsenal’s creative force, she is part of a midfield double pivot that opponents are finding it very difficult to play through.
MY PREDICTED LINE UP
Subs: 9.Mead 12.L.Maanum 13.Votikova 14.van Domselaar 21.Pelova 24.Hinds 31.Holmberg 44.Harwood 67.Brodie
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game takes place at Arsenal Stadium at 8pm on Tuesday evening and will be broadcast live on Disney + in the UK. Full global listings for the match are available here.
COMING UP
We will have the lineup posted around an hour before kickoff, Aidan Gibson’s on the whistle match report including goal clips, as well as every word from Renee Slegers’ post-match press conference online around an hour after full-time. Jamie and I will record a podcast for you on Wednesday morning too.
Don’t forget to sign up to our free weekly Arsenal Women Newsletter here.