Emma Hayes says that Chelsea have to focus on themselves as they prepare to face Barclays Women’s Super League title rivals Manchester City at Kingsmeadow.
The Blues face The Cityzens in one of the biggest games of the season tomorrow night. Chelsea lead Manchester City by just three points at the top of the Barclays Women’s Super League table.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Chelsea manager Hayes said that there’s no need to build up the importance of the game and that her side simply need to focus on their own preparation in the normal manner.
“When you play so much top opposition throughout the year, you have to regulate your emotions,” Hayes said. “When you are having to deal with so many adrenaline rushes and crashes with such an accumulation of games, you just have to get yourselves prepared in the best way possible. For some, self-talk might be hyping it up and for others, it might be the opposite.
“What I have learnt over the years is not to change between games because you shouldn’t place more importance on one fixture over another.
“Kingsmeadow is our home, we feel comfortable there and we know that our fanbase will be big for us tomorrow.
“We understand the opponent that we are playing but for us at Chelsea, the focus is only on us and getting ourselves right. If we do that, we know we will make it a competitive game.”
Chelsea go into the clash on the back of a 33-match unbeaten streak at home in league competition. The Blues have won 32 of those matches. Hayes is paying no attention to the record that her side have built over the last three years.
She said “I don’t talk about records because the focus becomes around that instead of the performance.
“It’s like anybody when they go home, it’s that feeling of comfort, it’s a familiarity and a ground that we’ve had such amazing memories at.
“I know this dressing room enough to know that a lot of these players have played in big games all of the time. This is just another notch in our season and I just look forward to hearing the fans in the stadium, it makes it a much more enjoyable experience.”
Chelsea’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Manchester City is scheduled to kick-off at 7.15pm on Friday evening.