Sonia Bompastor salutes her Chelsea side for ‘huge’ win over Arsenal | OneFootball

Sonia Bompastor hailed her Chelsea team as being in a “good position” to win the Women’s Super League title for the sixth year in succession after a “huge” 1-0 victory over Arsenal on Sunday.

Guro Reiten’s 84th-minute penalty and Katie McCabe’s sending-off for dissent in the aftermath was the difference for the Blues at Stamford Bridge, who ended Arsenal’s unbeaten run under new manager Renée Slegers while maintaining their own. “In terms of psychological elements, the win is huge, but there are a lot of games to be played,” said the Chelsea manager. “If we keep the right mentality, if we keep almost all the players available, we are in a good position but you never know what can happen in football.”

Bompastor also praised Naomi Girma, with the world record signing presented to fans before kick-off. “I’m really pleased to have Naomi with us,” said the manager. “She’s a really talented player, she will bring a lot of quality to the squad even if the squad is already very talented. Having Naomi join the team will give us even more options. It was the perfect afternoon in terms of the announcement and the result.”

Slegers described the 10-point gap between Arsenal and the league leaders as “a much bigger mountain to climb” but did not concede the title. “We had our slips at the start of the season, and you never know when other teams are going to slip,” she said. “We will keep on playing our games and winning our games, that is all we can do. We knew it was important for us to win if we wanted to keep pace in the title race and we didn’t do that – but you never know what the future holds.”

Slegers, who had her interim role made permanent this month, expressed her frustration at the penalty decision. “I’ve seen footage, I see Kim [Little] gets the ball first but it’s not from me to comment on. We should have positioned ourselves better behind the ball to stop the counterattack,” she said.

“The stakes are getting higher in women’s football so I think we need that in the game,” said Slegers in regards to the possible introduction of VAR. “I also think it’s important that the game is attractive for fans and VAR does slow things down, but I think it would be good for the women’s game.”

Header image: [Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian]