2 hours ago
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The boos rang out at the Emirates Stadium as the officials exited the pitch at the final whistle, the result of two disallowed Arsenal goals – one for handball and one for offside – the second of which would surely have turned a 1-1 draw into a 2-1 home win if it had stood. Alessia Russo’s late equaliser did at least keep alive the Gunners’ slim hopes of remaining in the title race, the gap between them and Chelsea, the league leaders, remaining at five points.
Renée Slegers had warned that her team would “have to be ready from the get go” against defending Women’s Super League champions, but the message had not stuck. It was Chelsea that stepped on to the pitch with an almost unplayable intensity coursing through them and the Gunners couldn’t cope. The Chelsea press was exceptional, with the players alert to every move, heads up, ready to stifle the home side from stringing passes together over and over again.
That they took the lead was unsurprising and deserved. Thompson was magic and the finish was sublime. The US international, who returned to the starting XI with Aggie Beever-Jones rested as a precaution following the top scorer’s dead leg in England’s game against Australia, shifted across the top of the box from left to right and played a one-two with Johanna Rytting Kaneryd before sweeping the ball into the far corner.
Sonia Bompastor’s side should have been two ahead soon after: Lucy Bronze left Katie McCabe in her wake as she raced down the right before finding Catarina Macario, who forced a save from Daphne van Domselaar. The ball clipped back off the bar but the keeper was equal to Wieke Kaptein’s follow-up effort.
Arsenal played without a natural 6, with Mariona Caldentey and Victoria Pelova sitting behind Alessia Russo in the No 10 position and Stina Blackstenius in ahead of her, and they looked vulnerable at the back. There were issues further forward too, with decision making in the final third poor as they started to see more of the ball. Hannah Hampton’s life in the Chelsea goal was made easy because of it.
The home side maintained their freshly found energy after the break and in the 53rd minute believed they had equalised, as did everyone else, TV screens and liveblogs still displaying the score at 1-1 long after the decision had been made to rule the goal out. The decision was an odd one, Blackstenius alleged to have handled the ball when she brought it down before she fired into the roof of the net after both Niamh Charles and Bright failed to connect with Beth Mead’s corner. Replay after replay, though, was inconclusive, the ball looking more like it came off her thigh or middle and with no video assistant referees in the WSL to intervene the referee’s decision stood, much to the fury of the crowd and Slegers.
Chelsea would dispute that the corner should have been awarded in the first place but the perceived injustice against Arsenal lit a fire in the stands, the referee’s decisions were jeered, the roars for every positive play were loud and there was a festering tension that just did not lift. The players responded and Olivia Smith entered the fray as they pushed for the equaliser.
As time ticked away and effort after effort stung the hands of Hampton hope was dwindling, but with three minutes remaining they finally found the equaliser, the substitute Frida Maanum’s angled pass finding Russo, who fired in. The England forward was potentially marginally offside, though without lines drawn on the angle of replays made it hard to tell.
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Slegers’ side were denied a desperately needed winner soon after, this time the flag went up, Maanum adjudged to have been offside as she raced on to Russo’s through ball and lifted it over Hampton and in.
The spoils were shared, Arsenal are down but not totally out. The attention now will be on the officiating.
