In two-and-a-half years managing Arsenal women, Joe Montemurro says he has never got it so wrong.
It took just 20 minutes for Chelsea to go three up against the title holders to narrow the gap at the top of the Women’s Super League table to one point, with a game in hand for the Blues.
Star signing Sam Kerr, the all-time top goalscorer in the American and Australian leagues, headed in her first goal of the WSL as Chelsea maintained their unbeaten run in the competition this season.
Arsenal’s key striker Vivianne Miedema was nowhere to be seen in the 4-1 defeat as the Gunners moved to second behind Manchester City on goal difference.
“It’s probably the biggest setback I’ve had in my two-and-a-bit years here,” said Montemurro. “We couldn’t even get the ball down and put passes together. We decided to not play with a lot of width. We played with a lot of inside to outside movement and it didn’t work.”
Even Chelsea manager Emma Hayes did not expect to win like that. “We’ve been horrendous with our execution [at times this season], but everything we hit went in the top corner,” she said.
Beth England opened the scoring for Chelsea and their other goals came from Sophie Ingle and Guro Reiten.
