Why did Chelsea lose the Continental Cup final (again)?

Let's take some time to talk about the actual football

Arsenal’s Continental Cup final win has generated a lot of noise and attention for what happened away from the field of play but not quite as much about what went down in the match itself. Stina Blackstenius’ extra time goal gave Arsenal a 1-0 win and consigned Chelsea to a third consecutive Conti Cup loss. So what stood out about the actual match?

Chelsea dropped Guro Reiten and it was probably the wrong call

The fact that Chelsea and Arsenal had played each other only a couple of weeks ago made this meeting an intriguing test of how managers Jonas Eidevall and Emma Hayes altered their teams. Midfielder Lia Wälti picked up an injury since that match so Eidevall used Kim Little, Victoria Pelova and Frida Maanum in midfield whilst Emily Fox came in at right-back allowing Katie McCabe to revert to left-back. Alessia Russo had been unwell in the week so Stina Blackstenius started as she had at Stamford Bridge. Cloe Lacasse replaced Caitlin Foord.

Chelsea meanwhile had Mayra Ramirez back fit and chose to start the Colombia striker up top, with Sjoeke Nüsken continuing her second striker/number 10 role. That meant Guro Reiten was dropped on the left wing to make room for Lauren James. 

Reiten has played a variety of roles for Chelsea during her career but has predominantly been used this season as an inside forward. This means that she normally positions herself slightly off the flank with Niamh Charles given the freedom of that whole left hand side. It also allows her to contribute in midfield. With James used in that area instead, she drifted around to pick up the ball, whilst Nüsken remained alongside Ramirez. This meant that Arsenal found an overload in midfield as Melanie Leupolz and Erin Cuthbert were left to deal with Arsenal’s trio.

When asked about the tactical implications of the decision after the match, Hayes demurred. 

“I felt that going forward, we didn’t use the ball well enough in the first half.

“That was our biggest problem. They locked us off to play down the right. We didn’t switch it enough. I thought we didn’t take care of the ball in the right ways.”

Arsenal continue to look ponderous in attack

The match itself was pretty even with Arsenal probably having the better of the first half with Chelsea looking slightly more up for it in the second half. Yet despite Arsenal getting the ball into dangerous positions, and exploiting some of Chelsea’s issues, they lacked threat in front of goal.

Failure to score has been an issue for Arsenal all season. Some of that feels like a protracted run of poor luck. In the league, they are massively underperforming their expected goals and a number of their forwards are having career-worst finishing seasons. But in this match, it was more reminiscent of some of their games against low blocks this season, with the exception that Chelsea were not playing a low block.

When players got into dangerous situations, they often took too long to make a decision about what to do next, allowing Chelsea to get back in position or close them down. In many cases, it was not even about not having options. They just simply looked static as a team.

Arsenal lack the profile of a winger who excels at going past players on the outside, which has often been pointed out when they have struggled against teams with set defences. But this felt more like a coaching problem. Given that the Continental Cup final effectively marks the end of their season, Eidevall has five more matches to try out new ideas in-game. How he uses that time will be an intriguing indication of what we might be able to expect next season.

Hannah Hampton is essential to how Chelsea play

Chelsea have used Hannah Hampton to solve their build-up issues in the second half of the season, with her distribution key to how they play out of the press. However, with Hampton looking more than a bit nervous starting in what was the biggest match of her career, Chelsea struggled to progress the ball.

Normally Chelsea wait until the press has been triggered, which in this case was when Jess Carter received the ball, before playing back to Hampton who then chips the ball out wide to Charles. The problem was that Hampton, who is normally excellent with her feet, kept failing to find her mark. That forced Chelsea to come up with new solutions in build up during the match.

Hampton has exceeded expectations since coming into the Chelsea team and still made a handful of good saves during the game, although she should have done better with Blackstenius’ goal. If anything, how much Chelsea struggled with her not being quite at her best only demonstrated how crucial she has become.

Fresh legs decided the game

Given Chelsea had played eight games in March compared to Arsenal's five, Emma Hayes’ reticence to use substitutes was surprising. Hayes’ only meaningful substitutions were to bring on Guro Reiten in the 77th minute and Catarina Macario in the 96th. Meanwhile Eidevall used all five of his subs, although two were enforced by injury. 

As the game ticked towards extra time, it became even more transitional and it was clear that freshness was going to play a big role. Arsenal notably retooled their entire left hand side with Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord coming on to play up against Kaneryd and Perisset. It felt unsurprising that the goal came from there. Meanwhile Chelsea had two right-sided players in Fran Kirby and Ashley Lawrence who stayed firmly on the bench.

Hayes insisted after the game that reaction around this was outcome bias, pointing to Chelsea’s opportunity to win the game themselves through Lauren James mere minutes before Blackstenius scored. But the outcome matters, and Chelsea lost. Even during the match, it felt apparent that Chelsea players were tiring with any benefit from their cohesion being lost as a result of their on-ball ability declining. It was a strange call from Hayes who is normally remarkably proactive when it comes to making changes, and one that ultimately cost her team.