FAWSL 2019/20: Chelsea Women vs Arsenal Women – tactical analysis

After the international break, the FAWSL had given fans a spectacle between two top tier teams in women’s football. Both Chelsea Women and Arsenal Women are behemoths of women’s football and have assembled squads full of international stars. Coming into this game both teams were unbeaten, with this game deciding who would continue to gain momentum. With the next league game on 27th October, this match was an opportunity to stake their claim and continue to challenge Manchester City Women for the title.

Before this match, neither side had faced defeat yet. Chelsea won two and drew one in the league, and got off to a good start in the Continental Tyres Cup. Arsenal also enjoyed a perfect start to the season, with three wins in the FAWSL, one in the Continental Tyres Cup and a comfortable victory over Fiorentina in the Champions League. This is Arsenal’s first real test against quality opposition with last season’s fixture resulting in a 5-0 win for the Gunners. Sitting first in the league, Chelsea were only two points behind their rivals before kickoff and a win would propel them to second, two points off Manchester City Women.

This tactical analysis will look to elaborate and detail the tactics employed by both managers at Kingsmeadow and how they tried to claim all three points.

Lineups & squads

Chelsea Women came into this game unchanged. Emma Hayes decided to keep faith in the same eleven that thrashed Bristol City 4-0. The Blues lined up in a 4-4-2 with Bethany England partnering Fran Kirby upfront. Two-goal hero, Guro Reiten retained her place on the wing. Hayes has wanted to settle on the 4-2-3-1 for years but sticks with the two-striker system as its the seems to bring out the best of Kirby and England. Ji-So Yun and Sophie Ingle continued their partnership in central midfield together.

Joe Montemurro made three changes to the side that beat Brighton & Hove Albion. Pauline Peyraud Magnin, Jordan Nobbs, and Viktoria Schnaderbeck were replaced by Manuela Zinsberger, Lia Wälti, and Jill Roord. Arsenal looked to play a 4-2-3-1 formation with Roord playing behind Vivianne Miedema.

Chelsea (4-4-2): Berger; Mjelde, Bright, Eriksson, Andersson; Cuthbert, Ingle; Ji, Reiten, Kirby; England.

Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Zinsberger; Evans, Williamson, Beattie, McCabe; Wälti, Little, Roord, Van de Donk; Miedema, Mead.

Arsenal fails to win the midfield battle

A major part of Arsenal’s loss was down to their inability to control midfield and transition possession towards their attackers effectively. Danielle van de Donk, Miedema, and Beth Mead were starved of service but Dutch striker Miedema was especially poor. Kim Little was unable to affect the game as she usually does, and cutting her supply was important for Chelsea. The Blues looked to frustrate Arsenal’s attacking trio by closely marking them and using Bright’s strength in aggressively pushing out to dispossess Miedema early.

Arsenal didn’t lose quality overnight. They were still incredibly dangerous and that was evident from their early goal. Chelsea looked bright but Arsenal just took advantage of space available to them. While Chelsea pressed early, Arsenal were still able to string together passes. Little’s smart run dragged Ingle away from Danielle van de Donk’s run who was stationed between the two centre-backs. The Dutch midfielder scored but that was the only real positive moment for the Gunners.

After the first 15 minutes, Chelsea grew into the game and started to take a hold of proceedings. Arsenal’s two central midfielders were caught napping on multiple occasions and were not able to match the speed of Chelsea’s duo. Ji and Ingle complemented each other perfectly for much of the game. Both players dominated possession and effectively pinned Little, Roord, and Walti. Little, an attacking player by nature was often seen patrolling her defensive third due to the intelligent movement of Chelsea’s attacking players.

While the South Korean midfielder pulled the creative strings with her purposeful running and link-up play, it was Ingle who shored up Chelsea’s midfield by keeping things simple. Regularly recycling possession and offering support wherever it was needed, the Welsh international was always seen within touching distance of her midfield partner and offered a passing outlet any time Ji was unable to progress the ball forward.

When Arsenal Women were able to bypass Chelsea and shift possession into the final third towards Evans or Van de Donk, they were marshalled well by the opposing full-backs. Both Mjelde and Andersson were exceptional in an attacking and defensive capacity and kept Mead and Van de Donk quiet.

Mjelde is a versatile midfielder who was deployed at right-back and paid close attention to the Dutch attacker. Van de Donk looks to station herself between the lines of midfield in order to commit defenders towards her position, opening up gaps in behind for her to drive into and play her teammates through. Mjelde did well to thwart her efforts and force her to play back or force her down the line.

Chelsea Women’s out of possession

Chelsea Women started the match on the front foot by applying early pressure on Arsenal’s defence and midfield. Hayes wanted her team to pressurise Arsenal into giving away possession in different areas of the pitch and force them to make mistakes. Chelsea were energetic and clinical in their passing and movement throughout the match, especially in the opening exchanges. They employed a high press that started with the front two of Kirby and England. Chelsea’s strategy was to disrupt any flow and rhythm between the back four and force their defensive midfielders to drop back slightly.

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