A freakish last-gasp own goal from Lotte Wubben-Moy, who deflected in from an acute angle after the Danish forward Pernille Harder tried to cross, left the Arsenal manager, Joe Montemurro, searching for a “word between congratulations and commiserations” after his side were denied their first win in seven matches against bitter rivals Chelsea, a result that blew the Women’s Super League title race wide open.
A driving run and cross from the WSL record goalscorer, Vivianne Miedema, to the England forward Beth Mead in the 86th minute gave the Gunners’ a morale-boosting late lead but Chelsea fought back to keep themselves two points behind their opponents in second place, with a game in hand.
The Chelsea manager, Emma Hayes, had made no changes to the starting XI that put four past Everton last weekend, but remained coy about the tactical battle that would play out at Meadow Park. “In terms of personnel, no, but tactically, I respect Arsenal,” she said pre-match. Begrudging respect was perhaps a more appropriate way to describe the play in the first half.
For Arsenal the reintroduction, following injuries, of Jill Roord and Kim Little added some much needed steel to their midfield, enabling the home side to match the aggression and passing game of their London rivals much better than they did in last month’s 4-1 Continental League Cup loss.
The biggest change, though, was Montemurro’s demeanour in the dugout. During last Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at Manchester United, the manager spent much of the encounter hunkered in the back row of seats. Here the Australian skated up and down the full length of his technical box shouting encouragement and positional advice.
“Come on, come on, go, go go”, “yes, yes, yes”, “just settle it”, “manage it, manage it” and more, rang out across the chilly, rain-lashed pitch.
Perhaps there was method in the madness, so to speak. Montemurro talked before the game about the mental block that has developed around matches between the sides. Prior to this meeting Arsenal had lost to Chelsea on six consecutive occasions since the 5-0 drubbing the Blues suffered at Kingsmeadow in October 2018, the last time they were beaten by Montemurro’s side.
On Sunday there was no room for the Arsenal players to be stuck in their own thoughts because they had the manager’s instructions ringing loudly in their ears.
“It’s the Italian in me, it comes out every once in a while,” Montemurro said. “Chelsea, the very good team that they are, will get you in a moment that you switch off. I just felt we were able to keep the energy up and keep the alertness. I was probably a little bit more vocal than I normally am. It might be the new Joe Montemurro.”
In a brief spell of pressure on the Chelsea box at the close of the half the Australian forward Caitlin Foord smashed the ball against the crossbar from distance, it looped into the air and bounced on the crossbar again before Ann-Katrin Berger could punch away under pressure from Mead. Until that point the tightly contested match had managed to draw only one collective “ooh” from the watching press, as Harder, the European player of the year, juggled her way past three red shirts.
As the game opened up a little, so did chances become more commonplace. With four minutes left to play, Miedema was released on the left, cruised past the England centre-back Millie Bright and crossed for Mead to power in.
Unwilling to give up a unbeaten run that stretches back to January 2019, Chelsea bit back, as Harder tried to cross but found the ball whipping wickedly off the centre-back Wubben-Moy, who had just been announced as player of the match, but was helpless to see the ball loft over Manuela Zinsberger for an own goal. “We’ll have to speak to the announcer, to not announce it … That’s the first thing we’ll do,” joked Montemurro.
“I think it was an average performance but an unbelievable point for us,” Hayes said. “And I’m pleased because these are the games I fear.”
from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/36B5vxv
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