Arsenal Women’s 14th FA Cup triumph will have to wait another year, as they were defeated 3-0 away at Chelsea on Sunday afternoon. Tim Stillman caught up with Gunners midfielder Dominique Bloodworth to reflect on the tie, exclusively for Arseblog News.
On Arsenal starting with a back 3….
We had a plan that involved having 3 at the back, we knew where we could exploit their weaknesses, but we didn’t score our chances and we conceded goals we shouldn’t have so that just makes it difficult against a team like Chelsea.
On playing Miedema and Mead as a front 2…
We started with 2 upfront because we wanted to put pressure on them on the ball. We thought we could get them to make mistakes if we could put them under pressure in possession. We made good chances to score in the first half, but we didn’t take them and the game got away from us after that.
On making mistakes for the Chelsea goals….
We made mistakes today and Chelsea didn’t. The first two goals were mistakes and then we had to push on to try and find a goal. That meant we had to leave spaces and they start to play with more freedom. We needed to get it to 2-1 but conceded the third, which made it impossible really. We had a good game plan today, we just didn’t execute it properly.
The pace and the finish from @Bethany_Eng15 here! ⚡️
What a way to wrap up the game! ?#CFCW pic.twitter.com/1WB17VsZJF
— Chelsea FC Women (@ChelseaFCW) February 17, 2019
On Chelsea’s speed and depth upfront….
They have lots of quick attackers and then they bring on Fran Kirby and Ramona Bachmann as substitutes and they are not normal substitutes, they have lots of quality and are very quick too. We had to leave spaces in behind at 2-0 and they have quicker players than us and that’s one of their big qualities.
On her marking role on Ji So-Yun….
My job today was to get close to her and not let her dictate the game. I think that worked well at the beginning of the game, but we had to go to a back four and I dropped in there because our strategy wasn’t working anymore. It was just too difficult to come back from 3-0.
On bouncing back for a big week ahead….
We spoke about it this week and we very much spoke about there being 3 prizes to play for, we’re Arsenal and we want to compete for every trophy. We are all a bit devastated at the moment, but we have to turn it around, compartmentalise this, look at what went well and what didn’t go well and look ahead to Wednesday against Yeovil because that’s a very big game for us.
Wasn't meant to be…but true fighters stand up, regroup and take the next step ??⚪ @ArsenalWFC pic.twitter.com/xK4hE2AC4n
— Joerdeli Photography | Daniela Porcelli (@joerdeli1) February 17, 2019
Yet again Arsenal Women flatter to deceive At the start of the season it was win win win now we just roll over and lose. Surely we don’t rely on our injured players (Jordan Nobbs) so much that we can’t win without them? No grit no fight just empty promises that the next game we will do better, I seem to have heard that before with the Mens team it became their theme song.
Harsh! They have only lost 3 games all season 2 to last season’s WSL Champions and 1 to the runners up scoring 50 league goals in 13 games!
I am certain Wednesday’s game will be very different.
Yes a disappointment today! Apart from 10 minutes after the first goal where we had the Chelsea goal under siege there was not much to write home about. We cannot even blame injuries as that was a decent team on the pitch for the entire game. Unfortunate mistake by Emma and when we could not equalise immediately it seemed the tempo slowed to a crawl. We need to mix up play a bit and get on with it. Passing side to side looks good on the possession stats but does nothing for the result. It just allows a well organised… Read more »
https://twitter.com/stillberto/status/1097180189811974144?s=21
This goes a long way to explaining. Against really good teams, losing Nobbs, Evans, Wälti (Leah W didn’t train this week due to illness too) is just too much. The only time we’ve had even a half decent bill of health against an immediate competitor, we won 5-0. We’re good enough to beat the other teams even with the injuries, but it makes a big difference in games like this. It’s just too many. That said, the decision to continually leave Sari out is utterly baffling to me. We’re handicapping ourselves there.
Of course we are missing Jordan but I think the biggest miss is an unsung heroine of the early season Lia Wälti. It seems performances have taken a turn for the worse since she has been out. Well impressed with the contribution of Katrine Veje though who can only improve as her confidence and familiarity with the rest of the team increase.
No excuses for this match however. We were too slow on the ball and at times you wondered what Plan A was never mind Plan B or C!