It was a performance to forget for defending Barclays Women’s Super League champions Chelsea as they slipped to a 4-1 defeat to title rivals Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium yesterday.
The defeat was The Blues’ first of the season but it wasn’t just about the three points lost, it was the performance that accompanied it.
When speaking in the post-match press conference, Chelsea boss Hayes did not hide away from the fact that it was a very bad day at the office for her side.
“I’m not going to make any excuses,” Hayes said. “That’s as bad as I’ve seen us for a long time. That’s not our best today, that’s probably our very worst.
“You play top level games and lots of our players have. They (Arsenal) had four shots on goal in the first half and three goals; all of them which quite frankly, if we want to compete, we have to be better than that. You can’t concede three goals from four shots at any level of football and expect to win the game.”
Arsenal set themselves up very well tactically and Hayes felt that her side failed to even do the basics well. Winger Lauren James, who was joint-top scorer in the league going into this weekend’s fixtures, was a threat that Arsenal knew that they had to nullify and they did that very well. Hayes also mentioned injured defender Millie Bright and said that it was a game in which the team really felt her absence. The Blues and Lionesses captain won’t be returning to the field before Christmas.
She said “First of all, they set up in a 4-2-3-1 in and around the middle phases. Lauren James was coming inside but they were tripling up on her, so we wanted to get on the outside because there was space there. We couldn’t execute basic things and even when we did so well to win the ball back, we gave it away again.
“They’re so deadly on the counter-attack but you can’t also be beaten with single balls from behind either. We just struggled as a team and it was a long 98 minutes.”
Hayes was quick to dampen any comments made about the importance of the result in the title race and made it clear that Chelsea were always going to lose a game.
“Last time we had a defeat like this in the Conti Cup, we did okay,” Hayes said. “You have to get beaten, you can’t go a whole season unbeaten. There are lots of top teams but what you can’t do is give away three goals before half-time and then give a mindless fourth.
“We’ve lost a football match, it’s not the end of the world. It’s three points we lost today, we haven’t lost the title or a final. It’s our first loss domestically this season and our disappointment isn’t just the result, it’s the performance.”
Chelsea will contest one further Barclays Women’s Super League fixture before the Christmas break. Their final league opponents of 2023 are Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Sunday.
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