Arsenal and Chelsea coping with key injuries before Continental Cup final

Chelsea have been the dominant English side in the women’s game in recent years but Arsenal’s Jonas Eidevall is yet to see them pick up any silverware.

“I hate to say it, I don’t know if I’ve seen Chelsea lift any trophy, I think I’ve tried to escape those moments,” the manager says as he prepares for the Continental Cup final meeting of the two teams on Sunday. “It’s not about any revenge for me, it’s about what we want to try and create together and the memories we want to create together. That’s what we focus on. Chelsea have obviously been doing it very very well in the last couple of seasons; very impressive winning that much, but we need to focus on what we can do and do our best to win the game.”

Emma Hayes’s last campaign without a trophy came in 2018-19, which was also when Arsenal most recently won one. On Sunday, the two London teams meet at Selhurst Park in front of what will be a record crowd, with 24,000 tickets issued, one week on from their last meeting, when goals from Sophie Ingle and Sam Kerr ensured Arsenal’s elimination from the FA Cup.

Chelsea will be firm favourites again, with Arsenal having failed to secure a win against the Blues in the five games (two draws and three defeats) since a 3-2 victory at home in Eidevall’s first WSL game in charge.

It would be easy to get lost in the narrative that Arsenal are without their star forwards, Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema, and failed to add suitable back-up in January and that Chelsea are an unstoppable machine. However, Hayes has also had to deal with injuries to key players in the shape of Pernille Harder and Fran Kirby, their absences rupturing the team’s dynamism up top. Meanwhile, the centre-back Kadeisha Buchanan, recruited from Lyon in the