When Chelsea Women faced an Austrian team last season, they had little to no difficulties dispatching them even though they were playing away. We had more than 43 shots against their goal and if it wasn’t for a whopping 14 saves from St. Pölten goalkeeper Carina Schlüter, this match would have hit the history books.
That team that didn’t let St. Pölten get a breath anywhere close goalkeeper Livia Peng at the time seems to be long gone. We can still hold onto the ball at home and score an opener, which
we did early on with Wieke Kaptein. But you can rarely ever think things are safe even when we face minnows.
Of course this team has been hard hit by injuries and have let go of several legends over the years, some of which could still provide what we needed – especially in front of goal. But how does a eight-time Women’s Super League tam fail to get proper substitutes to these exits?
Nostalgia really does your head in at times and you can’t say Emma Hayes’ teams were perfect, especially at the continental stage. But are we supposed to “suffer” when trying to beat Austria Wien at home?
One of several terminologies to describe the state of many things in the world is “managed decline”. This is how things feel like at Chelsea Women at the moment.
Carefree. I guess.
- Melvine Malard upfront.
- Keira Walsh out with injury early in the first half. Can we take a break from those?
- Why are we parking the bus against Austria Wien at home?
- Next up: Arsenal at home in the Women’s Super League.
- KTBFFH.
