Sports

Arsenal head to Chelsea needing a win to stay in the title race

Errol MayfieldPublished 15m ago2 min readBased on 4 sources
Arsenal head to Chelsea needing a win to stay in the title race
Photo by MichaelEmilio / CC BY 4.0

Arsenal head to Stamford Bridge on Sunday seven points behind Manchester City and in desperate need of a win. The trip to Chelsea feels early for a must-win, but the league table already looks uncomfortable.

Kick-off in the Women's Super League, England's top flight, is at 16:30 BST on 27 September. Arsenal have a game in hand on City, yet they cannot afford to let the gap grow. Chelsea at home is the hardest place to close it, according to BBC Sport.

Renee Slegers brings a team that has forgotten how to finish. Arsenal have drawn their last two league games, against Crystal Palace and Manchester United. Across their first three WSL games this season they have had 56 shots and scored twice.

The Palace game still stings. Palace were newly promoted. Arsenal had 79% possession and 70 touches in the Palace box. It finished 0-0.

United was different, but no better. Arsenal trailed and needed a 95th-minute equaliser to rescue a 1-1 draw. Then came relief in Europe, a 93rd-minute penalty to beat HB Koge in the Champions League, Europe's top club competition.

Goals are the problem. Alessia Russo scored 13 WSL goals last season, second only to Manchester City striker Khadija Shaw. This season she has started every league game in the number 10 role, the playmaker who operates just behind the main striker, and she is yet to score.

The numbers are stark. Russo has had 11 shots, 10 of them from inside the box. No goal. Arsenal need her touch back, fast.

History adds weight. Arsenal had gone seven years without winning the WSL title as of September. In that time they lifted the Women's Champions League and the Women's Champions Cup. The league is the one they want.

For fans, this means ninety minutes with an edge. A win pulls Arsenal back into the pack and lifts the noise around the club. A defeat leaves City out of sight before autumn has really started.

Arsenal won 2-0 on their last league visit to Stamford Bridge in January. They would take the same again now. Nothing less will do.

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