Chelsea manager Emma Hayes says that the atmosphere in the camp is normal as the South West Londoners prepare for their home fixture against Everton on Sunday.
The Blues fell to a frustrating 3-2 defeat to Arsenal last weekend with Beth Mead’s decisive goal coming from an offside position. Hayes put forward her claims for the introduction of VAR in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League after that game.
Speaking in her pre-match press conference ahead of her side’s latest game against Everton at Kingsmeadow this weekend, Hayes said that there has been no special reaction amongst the players to the Arsenal defeat and it is very much business as usual.
“We have been training as usual, we have had really good sessions;” Hayes said. “It is great to have got the players back together in the last couple of weeks (following the Olympics) so we are just preparing as we normally would and looking forward to being back playing in-front of our fans on Sunday.
“We’ve had a brand new pitch laid, the groundsman has done a great job. It will be a cracking game, Everton have brought in a lot of quality players and it will be two wonderful teams on show again.”
Everton arrive at Kingsmeadow on the back of a 4-0 opening day defeat to Manchester City last weekend. Chelsea will be the favourites to come out with three points on Sunday but Hayes knows that Everton have quality in their ranks and top teams will drop points over the course of the season.
When asked whether Everton will be challenging for the top three places this season after their opening day defeat, Hayes said “I’d hope so, especially given the amount of money that they have spent. I think that Willie (Kirk) will expect that of his group.
“It was a 10-15 minute period (where Everton lost the game against Manchester City), the second half was a completely different game.
“I think you’ll see that with the amount of football on show for everybody this year, there will be some indifferent results throughout the season. Yes, of course Arsenal started the fastest but we are one game in.”
The Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture between Chelsea and Everton kicks-off at 12.30pm on Sunday afternoon. The match will be broadcast live on BBC Two.
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