Speaking live on Sky Sports, Sonia Bompastre admitted the WSL title race is “probably over” after Chelsea’s loss to Arsenal on Sunday gave them a nine-point lead over Manchester City.
Second-half goals from Beth Mead and Mariona Caldenti for the Blues deservedly ended Arsenal’s seven-year winless run against Chelsea, handing them their second defeat in four WSL games.
That leaves City, who have won 11 games in a row since their opening game defeat at Stamford Bridge, with a chance to build a three-point lead over their nearest rivals by the end of the week, and is enough for Bompasta to all but end his side’s chances of winning the title.
Sunday, January 25th 11am
11:55am kickoff
“Today we understand the situation and we know that the title fight is probably gone, but our mentality is to fight to the end. We will never give up,” she told BBC Sport. “Right now we have to focus on getting points, staying second and doing our best.
“There is a huge gap and if City win tomorrow it will be nine points. They are in control and if they perform at their best it will be difficult to close the gap. My job is to cheer everyone up and we will take what we have learned and go into the next game ready to perform.”
“It’s going to be pretty down for a day or two, but we’re going to have some good conversations like we always do and it’ll lift everyone up.”
Chelsea’s head coach admitted his team were not “aggressive” enough for the home match, but refused to blame his players and said it was his fault that his pre-match message did not get through.
Two goals in six minutes in the second half seal victory for Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
“Every game has a game plan, most of the time it’s based on the game model, but sometimes there’s something specific.
“Defensively we left them too much space, they were too comfortable on the ball and we weren’t aggressive enough.
“Those two things were in the game plan and we didn’t execute well enough, but it’s my responsibility to give the players clarity. It’s not the players’ responsibility, it’s my responsibility.”
Arsenal head coach Rene Sleggers felt clarity was what made the difference for his team. They could have won by an even bigger margin if they had made the most of their many early chances and finally found their clinical touch after the break.
“When it’s called for, when it really has to be done, this team does it. This team has a lot of strengths. One of our strengths today was that we came into the game with great clarity, and they continued to go into the game with a clear mind to make the right decisions and stay focused on the task.”
“We won against Aston Villa, but against Man United we didn’t win in two games where we did a lot of good things and we didn’t do it in the final third.
“We’ve been working on it. We’ve proven to ourselves how you can be calm and that’s how you can win games. That’s natural for the players, they’re very calm and invested. Very constructive, solution-based and full of belief.”
