Three days after getting thumped 5-2 by Bayern Munich in midweek, Arsenal shipped two goals in the opening 20 minutes to a physically dominant Chelsea side. Caitlin Foord reduced the deficit before the break, but an improved second-half performance couldn’t help Arsenal avoid falling to a second consecutive defeat for the first time in almost eight months.
Chelsea, by contrast, extended their perfect start to life under Emma Hayes’ impressive replacement, Sonia Bompastor.
How the game unfolded
Bompastor told her players before the match that “it is about enjoying this moment”. Mayra Ramirez wholeheartedly embraced the occasion, silencing the swollen Emirates Stadium crowd of more than 45,000 within the opening four minutes with an audacious flicked effort. Facing away from goal, Chelsea’s towering number seven managed to hook the ball over her head and everyone else’s in Arsenal’s crowded penalty area.
Eidevall’s out-of-form side were bullied all over the pitch in a one-sided first half. Chelsea huddled into a compact shape off the ball and constantly found space to canter into when the opportunity presented itself in transition.
Lauren James never needs a second invitation to surge, ploughing through a cluster of red shirts before clipping a ball to the back post. Sandy Baltimore had the freedom of north London to stroll onto the inviting cross, nodding Chelsea into a 2-0 lead in the 17th minute.
One of the few figures in red who had shown any resistance to Chelsea’s crushing start was Foord. The dogged winger tiptoed around Lucy Bronze, turning down the shouts of her teammates to bend the ball around Hannah Hampton from a desperately narrow angle, halving the deficit at the end of an eventful first half.
