Chelsea Women 1-3 Arsenal Women

Selhurst Park Park

Continental Tyres League Cup Final

Arsenal’s cup hopes could not have got off to a worse start, with Sam Kerr continuing her run of goals against the Gunners with a back post header past Zinsberger, meeting a peach of a cross from Guro Reiten. 

Reiten saw plenty of the ball down Chelsea’s left wing with Maritz unable to cope with the Norwegian, but Arsenal were able to put Chelsea under a spell of pressure with Maanum and Little combining well to try and respond to the early setback.

Stina Blackstenius scored the extra time goal against Manchester City to send Arsenal through into the final, and the Swede’s instinctive finish provided Arsenal a deserved equaliser in the sixteenth minute after Maanum’s strike deflected into the path of Blackstenius in the penalty area.

Arsenal’s turnaround then got even better as Ingle tripped McCabe to give Kim Little the chance to give Arsenal a 2-1 lead from the penalty spot. Arsenal’s skipper dispatched her spot kick in the draw with Chelsea in January, and made no mistake this time around too as the Gunners turned the tie on its head.

Chelsea looked flustered as the game turned on its head, with the Blues making errors across the park whilst Arsenal tried to control the final. Jonas Eidevall’s side did not let Chelsea settle as they pushed to extend their lead, and Emma Hayes even elected to make a substitution six minutes short of half time as centre back Khadija Buchanan was introduced with Chelsea switching to a back three.

With the change of shape working for Chelsea who worked their way back into the final, Arsenal delivered a sucker punch seconds before half time as Niamh Charles diverted a powerful header from Rafaelle into the back of her own net to send Arsenal fans into raptures.

Chelsea had to start the second half on the front foot and they did, Erin Cuthbert trying to flick the ball into the corner of the net with an inventive finish that went wide of Zinsberger’s left corner. Arsenal restricted the Blues to any more clear cut chances and substitute Victoria Pelova found space to unleash a shot that was saved by Berger.

Khadija Buchanan gave away two penalties on her Chelsea debut at the start of the season and somehow got away with an obvious trip on Foord in the box just after the hour mark, with both referee and assistant oblivious to the contact. There was no VAR in the final at Selhurst Park to assist the Gunners in this case, but Arsenal continued to dominate the London derby nonetheless, enjoying the better of the possession stats once again.

In front of a record League Cup final crowd in south London Arsenal continued to nullify Chelsea, who had been unbeaten in every domestic game since their shock defeat to newly promoted Liverpool on the opening day of the season. Lauren James finally found some freedom on the left wing up against substitute Wienroither, but the England star fired a shot over the crossbar and was then booked for a cynical foul on Pelova a few minutes later.

Maanum and Walti continued to control the midfield as the clock ticked towards an Arsenal victory, but Melanie Leupolz was inches away from pulling a goal back for Chelsea when her cross-cum-shot was tipped onto the bar by Zinsberger.

Chelsea could just not force enough openings as Arsenal closed out the game and saw out a superb 3-1 win to the delight of every fan dressed in red and white around Selhurst Park. It’s a performance that really could galvanise Jonas Eidevall‘s side to go on and put pressure on Chelsea and Manchester United in the title race and take on Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

As Kim Little and Leah Williamson lifted the trophy into the evening sky, Sam Kerr's header seemed like a long long time ago. What an afternoon for the Gunners.