Aston Villa Women

Chelsea continued their unbeaten run in the WSL this season, after an own goal from Sarah Mayling gifted the title leaders the full three points at Villa Park. The Blues have dominated the WSL so far this season, they remain undefeated with 12 wins and only a single draw in the competition so far under manager Sonia Bompastor. Only a fine margin divided Aston Villa and Chelsea last time out, a goal from Rytting Kaneryd giving Chelsea the victory: she started on the bench for this fixture. 

In the opening 15 minutes of the fixture, there were chances for both teams to take advantage of a counter attack, the best chance was handed to the home side where a mistake from Hampton provided Villa with a goal-scoring opportunity but her quick recovery defended the close-range chip from Nunes.

Chelsea were quick to dominate the home opposition after some careless football in the defensive third. The referee awarded The Blues with multiple corners but despite the impressive deliveries, there wasn’t a player in the six-yard-box to knock it home for Bompastor’s side. 

After the convincing spell from the away opposition, Arroyo’s side stood-out for the remainder of the first 45, consistently punishing Chelsea for their errors with the away team’s defensive line criticality keeping Villa from scoring first. The final chance of the first half came from Chelsea’s Lauren James who fired the ball just wide before the whistle was blown for the break. 

The only substitution made at half-time was Chelsea’s Guro Reiten, being replaced by Rytting Kaneryd who would have hoped to build on some of her team’s positive attacks. However, the home side came back out fighting and didn’t give The Blues an opportunity for a shot on target for the first 15 minutes of the second half, until a shot from range from Macario ricochets into D’Angelo’s hands.

After substitutions from both sides, the game remained an end-to-end battle with chances for both sides to score an opener. The best opportunity for the home team to punish Chelsea followed an impressive team counter-attack, finished with Hanson hitting the crossbar after the ball narrowly exceeded Hampton’s fingertips. 

It was Bompastors side who were awarded the first and only mark on the scoresheet, though, after Villa’s defensive mistakes left an opening for Chelsea leading to a messy own-goal from Mayling. A disappointment after Villa held their own for the entirety of the game and deserved to take a point away from the game.

The score ended Villa 0-1 Chelsea, the title leaders going 10 points clear at the top of the table. 

Post-match, both managers reflected on their teams performances in the fixture with Arroyo stating that she is “sad but proud” of her teams’ performance. She determined that her team needed to “make a bigger impact in some details” because “the only big chance they [Chelsea] had, they put the ball in”.

I asked if Arroyo could see the improvements in the Villa side since they last lost 1-0 to Chelsea back in September, she acknowledged that at the start of the season, the team “struggled in the first half”. Her team is “totally in” and “have trust” in her as the new head coach.

“I had the feeling that they [the fans] were there,” she added. “I loved the atmosphere, hopefully we can put more people in the stadium, but if not, it's nice what they were doing.” 

Bompastor also reflected on her teams’ slightly lackluster performance that earned them the full points away at Villa Park stating that “the starting XI wasn’t good enough”, adding “that’s my responsibility”.

“I don’t really care about the fact we have been unbeaten, it will happen one day” The Blues’ boss relayed. She wants the team “to focus in every game, because if we are able to perform in every game until the end, we will be in a really good position to have the title.”

I asked Chelsea’s manager about new signing Keira Walsh, who completed her first few minutes in a Chelsea shirt against Villa and Bompastor could already recognise what she is going to bring to the team. “She’s so smart, she brings the calmness”. “We’re really happy to have her and I think she’s really happy to be with us.”