Chelsea go nine points clear in WSL after Reiten’s late penalty downs Arsenal
Chelsea go nine points clear in WSL after Reiten’s late penalty downs Arsenal
Share:
The WSL is not a three-tier league, it’s a four-tier one, because the reality is that Chelsea are operating in a league of their own. A 1-0 win for Sonia Bompastor’s side over closest rivals Arsenal means they remain unbeaten and sit top with a surely unassailable nine-point lead.
![[Arsenal’s Katie McCabe (right) is shown a red card.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b8a4e9a5fcf7de28b64518b3d53a633ff2750e3a/0_0_4226_2536/master/4226.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
To rub salt in the wounds, Naomi Girma, a player US manager Emma Hayes described as the best defender she’s ever seen and a player Arsenal were priced out of the running for, was unveiled to the fans on the Stamford Bridge pitch prior to kick-off, her recruitment to an already stacked side symbolic of the gap between the Blues and the rest.
It wasn’t totally straightforward for the hosts, they needed their bench to navigate their way past a resurgent Gunners, Lauren James providing the impetus off the bench, forcing Kim Little into conceding a penalty that fellow substitute Guro Reiten would convert to deliver victory, Katie McCabe sent off for dissent in the process.
This was supposed to be Arsenal’s chance to exorcise the ghost of their poor start to the season, the apex of which was a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea in the reverse fixture, a loss that would trigger Jonas Eidevall’s resignation three days later and begin the ‘Reneeissance’. The Gunners were unbeaten under interim turned permanent manager Renee Slegers, having won 12 of their 13 games and scored 40 goals in all competitions since Eidevall’s exit.
Win, and the gap would close to four points, lose and it would grow to 10. “We need to beat Chelsea really, it’s as simple as that,” Arsenal captain Little had said succinctly, prior to the meeting in front of a crowd of 34,302 fans at Stamford Bridge. Unfortunately, the task was far less simple, the Gunners had failed to win any of their last five WSL games away at Chelsea, a run stretching back to their thumping 5-0 defeat of the Blues under Joe Montemurro in October 2018, and that run would be extended.
.jpg?trim=85,0,86,0&quality=75&auto=webp&width=1000)
-Cropped.png?width=1200&auto=webp)
