This weekend’s FAWSL fixtures brought us the final matchup between this season’s top three sides. Manchester City Women travelled to London to face Emma Haye’s Chelsea Women side. Both sides have aspirations of ending the campaign with a league title, which increases the impetus on this match.
Each side has found some very good form in recent weeks. Manchester City Women have been running rampant against some of the smaller sides in the league, with some new tactics resulting from injury issues. Chelsea Women have continued from strength to strength this season. Only dropping points to Brighton and Hove Albion in the second match of the season, they have gone on to earn impressive victories over Arsenal and Manchester United.
In this tactical analysis, we will look at the tactics Hayes used to come away with the 2-1 win over Nick Cushing’s Manchester City Women’s side. This game went back and forth for the majority of the match before Chelsea Women’s pressure paid off, scoring two goals to seal the win after going down. This analysis will take a look at the specific tactics that proved trumps on the day.
Lineups
Chelsea Women (4-1-4-1): Berger; Mjelde, Bright, Eriksson, Andersson; Ingle; Cuthbert, Bachmann, Ji, Reiten; England
Manchester City Women (4-3-3): Roebuck; Beckie, Houghton, Bonner, Stokes; Walsh, Weir, Scott; Wullaert, White, Hemp
Chelsea Women set up in the shape that proved successful against Manchester United Women two weeks ago. Fran Kirby missed out on a place in the squad through injury, but this was the only notable absentee. As we will discuss later in this piece, Chelsea used some different formations in-game to defend against City.
Cushing kept his team the same as in previous weeks. Janine Beckie continues at right-back in the absence of Aoife Mannion. Tessa Wullaert began on the right side, but during the match, she was given the freedom to roam around the pitch in support of Ellen White up top. Caroline Weir occupied a deep position closer to Kiera Walsh to add defensive stability for this match.
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