Games between Chelsea and Arsenal are often tight affairs decided by small details and Sunday’s was no different, with the margins going Chelsea’s way on this occasion with a 1-0 win that certainly ends any small glimmer of a title race. While I think a draw would probably have been the fairest result, Chelsea made four attacking changes from the bench with James, Reiten, Beever-Jones and Hamano coming on. Arsenal finished the game with Mariona and Russo on the wings. Kafaji did not come on until Arsenal were a goal and a player down on 88 minutes.
At the final hurdle of the game, Chelsea were able to introduce one more attacker than Arsenal were and Lauren James’ run into the penalty area drew the penalty that won them the three points. I am not going to do an overall tactical overview of this game because, frankly, it was a seesaw tactically, with each team making so many tweaks that such a thing would take forever. Instead, I am going to focus on Kyra Cooney-Cross’ performance.
Cooney-Cross came into the game already having played more WSL minutes this season so far than she managed in the whole of last season. Even though Lia Walti was declared fit to play, Cooney-Cross was preferred in midfield and she continued her fine form. Today, Slegers swapped Little and Cooney-Cross over on Sunday, with the Australian on the right of the partnership and Little on the left when it is usually the other way around.
Arseblog News asked Renee Slegers about this after the game, she said, ‘It was about how we wanted to press them and play Kyra and Kim to their strengths, connected to what we needed in the game today. Both have different qualities and both did very well in our pressing structure today.’ Let’s have a look at Kyra’s performance in-depth.
Part of the reason Slegers wanted Cooney-Cross on the right was her superior energy and running. Chelsea play with four right footers in defence and KCC was assigned the task of pressing Millie Bright onto her left foot. As soon as Hampton passes to Bright here, Cooney-Cross is already sprinting across.
The idea is to press Bright onto her left side. Cooney-Cross turns her body inwards to try to shield the pass to Macario and press Bright to the touchline.
Bright finds Charles and because she is also right footed, she is more likely to take the ball with her back to the Arsenal goal and look to pass backwards. Arsenal wanted to try to pen Chelsea in in these areas and likely felt that Cooney-Cross had the legs to do this better than Kim Little.
Charles ends up playing a blind pass in-field with her right foot which Kim Little picks up. Arsenal felt they could force turnovers on this side.
Here we see Cooney-Cross position herself nicely after an Arsenal throw-in and Mariona immediately looks for her. Arsenal’s 10 is usually asked to bear right. With Mariona playing as a 10 instead of as the left sided attacker today, she was on the right more often as opposed to the left. Cooney-Cross and Mariona have a good understanding and moving Cooney-Cross across to be closer to the Spaniard made sense.
Among Cooney-Cross’ best qualities is her ability to spread play. She carries the ball forwards a few strides and spots Beth Mead’s back post run.
It’s an excellent, raking cross to the back post but Mead is just offside. Playing on the right of the double pivot meant KCC could pick up these crossing positions more often on her right foot.
Once again, as Hampton finds Bright here, Cooney-Cross is immediately closing down.
Bright finds Cuthbert this time but, again, Cuthbert is right footed. She is receiving the ball slightly awkwardly because she wants it on her right side, facing her own goal with body faced inwards.
So Cuthbert sends the ball backwards and, in this case, actually ends up passing straight to Russo. It’s another example of why Arsenal felt Chelsea were susceptible to the press in this area and their first good chance of the game comes as a result of it.
It wasn’t just on the right side where Cooney-Cross did solid work, however. Here we see her and McCabe swap positions briefly with KCC picking the ball up at left-back. McCabe can see a space and is pointing for a long pass and Kyra’s long passing is one of her best qualities.
It’s an outstanding long pass into McCabe right into a dangerous area.
Cooney-Cross also excels in tight spaces. When Arsenal make a third good opening of the half, Cooney-Cross is again prominently involved. She receives the ball from Fox here with her back to goal and Bright and Baltimore close by.
A drop of the shoulder takes her away from pressure and, not only that, she has forced Bright to abandon her post. Emily Fox is running into that space. Kyra passes to Mariona, who finds Fox’s run first time but the American’s shot is saved.
Kyra’s intent to play forwards also really stands out. Arsenal’s next good goal scoring chance has her at its root again as she accepts this pass from Little.
She makes a line breaking pass into Russo and this starts the move that ends with Beth Mead curling a shot agonisingly wide. There were more conservative options available but KCC backed herself to make a higher value pass.
Her ability to play forwards in contested space shines through again here as she collects a Chelsea clearance. Hamano tracks her well and looks to force KCC back towards her own goal.
But once again she executes a three point turn to go around Hamano and get Arsenal facing forwards again.
Cooney-Cross’ willingness to play forward is the midwife to Arsenal’s next opportunity. Fox finds her here and Chelsea have space covered well.
She opts to play forward first time and find Mariona and from there, Arsenal build a good opportunity which sees Maanum’s shot blocked. KCC’s willingness to make quick, positive passes was a real highlight.
Chelsea clear but Arsenal win the ball back and we see another example of KCC’s positivity and intent to go forwards. Williamson passes her the ball here and Hamano approaches to close her down.
Hamano initially pushes Cooney-Cross back towards her own goal.
But once again, she turns the after burners on and accelerates away from Hamano and finds Russo on the flank and Arsenal are going forward again.
Arsenal’s performance was good. The result was bad. Kyra Cooney-Cross was excellent and has really grown into the team this season.
Thanks, Tim. Great to see the detail on a special performance. I can’t wait to see KCC and Pelova together. Pelova’s injury layoff gave KCC’s development time to catch up. She is much better at defending but it hasn’t dimmed her attacking spark. And now it seems everyone – Walti, Little, Pelova and KCC – can work with everyone else in the midfield. I liked your substack piece about quality additions. Injuries aside, we have too many players with a “but” attached to them. So the actual number of available players is less than it looks. So… I don’t suppose… Read more »
Yes was unsure of KCC when she arrived. She appeared a little timid (funny for an Aussie!) without much confidence and would readily defer to those that she thought of as being more senior in the team. Having been given a run of starts due to various midfield injuries I can see why she was brought in. Not yet the finished article but she is still developing. I do worry when Renee says “we are happy with the players we have”. Without pointing fingers, you know who they are, there are players who we really now ought to be looking… Read more »
The thing is, RS is right in the sense that there isn’t a lack of quality, it’s quantity that is our problem. But no question, that has to be addressed – and fast.
If we do not sign Trinity Rodman before Chelsea do, I’ll be VERY disappointed.
Why do you think Rodman is going anywhere? Isn’t she happy where she is?
I’ve often wondered whether either Leah or Lotte would be able to play a DM role. As well as their defensive qualities, they are both decent ball-players and passers.
DM is Leah’s second position. Lotte, I would think no.
On the subject of incomings I read a Guardian report on the match which made mention of Chelsea’s new signing and stated that it posed a question: Where was Arsenal’s ambition? It was a player they could have signed. One player does not make a team but certain players, maybe that one, could make a difference but the club, as the guardian stated in disbelief “did nothing”.
Well, in order to land Girma, we would have had to top Chelsea’s bid – to bolster an area where we are already very strong. £1m-plus for the next Bunny Shaw or for Jule Brand or Trinity Rodman (not going to happen, just my fantasy) – absolutely. Maybe we could do both but I doubt it.
We didn’t bring in Dom Janssen for whatever reason, but that would have been the kind of signing which is worth its weight in gold – in one player, a quality rotating option at DM, LCB/RCB and LB.
Agree with you about Janssen.
Trinity Rodman is a no brainer for me.
I don’t have anything solid yet on incomings, no. I too would love a wide player. I think we will need more than one in the coming windows so it would make sense to do some of that work now, in any case.
Thanks, Tim. Everything crossed for another Kyra Cooney-Cross style deadline day signing!
I still think Codina could play LB at a high level
I agree, good performance, bad result and KCC among a few that stood out for the right reasons.
Whilst I’m firmly in the “that was never a penalty” camp, it’s disturbing that we got caught with Mariona and Kim covering our left flank in the passage of play that led to it. Against anyone but Chelsea we’d probably get away with that. But we’re only a whisker behind them, and it looks like it needs some tiny tweaks to get in front.
Great article Tim. KCC was certainly our player of the match, even perhaps the pom.
We match them pretty well now as a 1st 11 but they still have the edge on physicality & that bit of nastiness, which a top team does need. Penalty was generous, a touch on a foot is not enough to decide a game like that.
“A touch on a foot is not enough to decide a game like that” is the most pertinent comment of all that I’ve read on the site in the last couple of days.
Flint don’t let KCC hear you call her a Pom…
She was brilliant
An erudite article as always Tim. On a day when so many passes went astray (on both sides) KCC did pretty well. I thought the penalty was a combination of tiredness and a predilection to change the game (for Chelsea of course), and wondered should Kim have been given a rest? One thing I would like an answer to is this – are there any “tall” midfielders in women’s football? They all seem pint-sized!
Just like the defeat to chelsea in the 2021 FA cup final, arsenal defensive line high and dropping back too late in transition moments. Easier for everyone to focus on the referee and red cards (who I thought was fair to both teams and allowed both sides to grind at each other) than to acknowledge arsenal’s lopsided defensive back line skewed high and to the left with McCabe only 10 yards away from the corner flag. No haste or urgency once possession was lost when ball landed to Bronze except for Little and Caldentey, seeing 3 passes into the future,… Read more »