A freakish last-gasp own goal from Lotte Wubben-Moy, who deflected in from an acute angle after Danish forward Pernille Harder tried to cross, left Arsenal manager Joe Montemurro searching for a “word between congratulations and commiserations” after Arsenal were denied their first win against bitter rivals Chelsea in seven matches and blew the Women’s Super League title race wide open.
A diving run and cross from WSL record goalscorer Vivianne Miedema to England forward Beth Mead in the 86th minute gave the Gunners’ a morale-boosting late lead but Chelsea fought back to keep then two points behind their opponents in second, having played a game less.
Chelsea manager Emma Hayes had made no changes to the starting XI that put four past Everton last weekend, but the manager was 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 Arsenal midfield, enabling them to match the aggressiveness and passing game of their London rivals much better than they did in last month’s 4-1 Continental League Cup loss without the pair available.
The biggest change though was on the bench in Montemurro. During last Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at Manchester United, the manager spent much of the encounter hunkered in the back row of seats in the dugout. Here the Australian skated up and down the full length of his technical box shouting encouragement and positional advice with, for those familiar with the popular Netflix show Cheer, the all the vigour of a “mat-talking” cheerleader.
“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 with the Blues having pummelled the confidence of the Gunners in part to atone for the 5-0 drubbing they had suffered at Kingsmeadow in October 2018, the last time they lost to Montemurro’s side.
Here, there was no room for the Arsenal players to be stuck in their own thoughts because they had the manager’s instructions were ringing the loudest.
“It’s the Italian in me, it comes out every once in a while,” he said with a laugh. “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 Australian forward Caitlin Foord smashed the ball against the crossbar from distance, it looped into the air and fell down on to the crossbar again until Ann-Katrin Berger could punch away under pressure from Mead. Until that point this tightly contested match had managed to draw one collective “oooo” from the watching press, as European player of the year Harder juggled her way through three red shirts.
As the game opened up a little, so did the chances. With four minutes left to play, Miedema was released on the left, cruised past 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 freshly announced player of the match, centre-back Wubben-Moy, who was helpless to see the ball loft over Manuela Zinsberger in her 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.”