Chelsea striker nets twice to win Continental Cup – and break Arsenal hearts
On the morning of Chelsea’s first Continental Cup final, Emma Hayes’ sister texted her with the Brian Clough quote: I wouldn’t say I was the best manager in the business, but I’m in the top one. “Well, I’m there today,” said Hayes. “I’ll take that today.”
By Hayes’ own admission, Chelsea were comfortably the second-best team at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground – where Clough made his legendary name.
“The better team did not win the game,” she said. And were it not for the heroics of Chelsea goalkeeper AnnKatrin Berger, the trophy would be travelling to a different part of London.
Arsenal, for their part, had been warned to stop the Bethany England and Sam Kerr partnership. On 92 minutes, they saw why. Kerr’s natural athleticism had torn a hole in the Arsenal back line and England skidded in at the back post, via Erin Cuthbert, to secure Chelsea’s first Continental Cup.
Six minutes earlier the Arsenal head coach, Joe Montemurro, had surged from his technical area and let out a roar that signified the catharsis of watching his side draw level with four minutes to go, as Leah Williamson diverted the ball, which had been pinballing around in the area, into the bottom corner from close range.
Before then Berger had comfortably earned her corn for, if nothing else, her save at full stretch to prod away a Vivianne Miedema header, deep into the second half, that dropped menacingly and rolled along the line.
Perhaps no one will ever know how she sprang into position to keep Miedema out at the near post with just eight minutes to go – a save with her stomach that necessitated treatment.
Injury-hit Arsenal were without Beth Mead, Swiss midfielder Lia Walti and Scotland’s Kim Little and, despite their endeavour and control, there was an angst in front of goal that was so atypical of a player of Miedema’s class.
She lacked her usually instinctive menace: she worked hard on the ball but that moment of magic was not forthcoming. The same applied to Jordan Nobbs, who miscued a shot on the hour mark.
“A lot of coaches say we should have, could have, would have,” said Montemurro. “But in the end, you have to do it. We didn’t do it.
“We created chances, we created opportunities. In the end, they scored the ones they created and we didn’t. This team will keep fighting. It could have been a different story. Look at the mental attitude to come back, to dominate, to actually really have the ball and completely dominate a team that did what they did to us at Borehamwood.”
That was the last time these sides met, when Chelsea dismantled these opponents so ruthlessly that they had been three goals to the good within 20 minutes.
It felt that Arsenal’s chances of getting anything here rested not only on whether they had been able to banish any lingering ghosts from the day Nobbs had spent an hour chasing Sophie Ingle’s shadow and England and Kerr had tied the Arsenal defence in knots, but more crucially, whether they had learnt.
That it took Kerr just 51 seconds to record Chelsea’s first shot on target suggested otherwise. For the seven minutes before Chelsea got the breakthrough they were in total control.
Then England was on the scene, opening her account three minutes earlier than she did in the 4-1 win just over a month ago. It was not the tidiest goal she will ever score, scuffing the initial finish before turning to prod home her second chance. Arsenal will be aggrieved that they did not deal with Jonna Andersson’s initial cross or that they left Maren Mjelde free at the back post to nod the ball into England’s vicinity.
It was testament to what the game could have become at that point that Chelsea Women’s official Twitter account marked the goal with the words: “We’re up and running.” The next 10 minutes were lived in a thrilling backand-forth before settling into a concerted spell of Arsenal pressure as Berger denied Louise Quinn, Nobbs and Miedema. Caitlin Foord and Miedema, out wide, with Danielle van de Donk linking in the middle, caused a below-par Chelsea no end of issues.
“It isn’t always about being the best team, possessing the ball the most,” Hayes said. “No one in our camp thought this would be a dominant Chelsea performance. To win the game knowing that they dominated, out-possessed us, out-footballed us, for me, shows what a great team we really are.”