Chelsea’s assistant manager Paul Green says that the club recognise the increased attacking threats that latest opponents Aston Villa hold this season.
The Blues take on The Villans in their latest Barclays Women’s Super League match at Kingsmeadow on Sunday afternoon. The two sides last met in March when Chelsea needed a goal from Sam Kerr deep in second half injury time to see-off Aston Villa 1-0.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference ahead of the latest meeting, Chelsea’s Green said that Aston Villa pose a greater attacking threat this season.
“The recruitment that Carla (Ward) did in the summer has really improved them from an attacking point of view,” Green said. “Adding Rachel Daly, a proven scorer in America, and the loan signing of Kirsty Hanson from Manchester United has made them a lot stronger as an attacking unit.
“They’ve got more goals in them and they’re certainly a threat with the pace that they’ve got in transition, I think we are going to have to guard against that. We are expecting a tough game but we know that we’ve got the squad to cope with that and we are all looking forward to another game hopefully in front of a sell-out crowd at Kingsmeadow.”
Green went on to say that Aston Villa could set up in a similar way to how they did back in March, although he remains aware of that additional threat that they have on the counter attack.
He said “It’ll be interesting to see how Carla sets up because they’ve had a very good start to the season and the last few games, they’ve had a few defeats. It’ll be playing in her mind which way to go because they were so successful in their setup last season.
“Maybe they will set up similar to how they did at Kingsmeadow last year but now they have more quality going forward on the counter attack. We are not expecting them to come out and be open, it will be about defending and staying in the game and then looking to pick the right moments to attack us, it’ll be a bit of a mixture.”
Chelsea’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Aston Villa kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon.
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