Key events
As for Chelsea, Bjorn and Baltimore are replaced in defence by Lawrence and Charles, which I think means Bronze moves inside to centre-back; at the base of midfield, it’s Jean-Francois and Kaptein, not Walsh and Cuthbert; at in attack, Hamana and Kaneryd come in for Macario and Ramirez. Or, in other words, Bompastor is prioritising midweek.
City are without Yamashita today, so Hampton replaces her in net; otherwise, Ouhabi, Fowler and Murphy drop to the bench, with Layzell, Park and Miedema coming in; Blindkilde-Brown is out of the squad entirely.
I’ll write these down, then will think about how things might go.
Manchester City (4-3-3): Keating; Casparij, Prior, Aleixandri, Layzell; Hasegawa, Roord, Coombs; Kerolin, Miedema. Park. Subs: Annets, Startup, Ouahabi, Fowler, Wienroither, Oyama, Murphy, Davies.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Hampton; Lawrence, Bright, Bronze, Charles; Jean-Francois, Kaptein; James, Hamano, Kaneryd; Beever-Jones. Subs: Spencer, Bjorn, Baltimore, Walsh, Cuthbert, Macario, Nushken, Fishel, Ramirez.
Elsewhere, West Ham, eighth in the table, lead Spurs, ninth, 1-0 thanks to Josefine Rybrink’s own goal.
Preamble
In a sense, this is the one that doesn’t matter. Last Saturday, Chelsea beat Manchester City 2-1 to win the League Cup; last Wednesday, Manchester City beat Chelsea 2-0 in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final; and on Thursday, the clubs reconvene to decide the tie.
Today, though, is a mere league game, and Chelsea lead the table by five points with a game in hand – from Arsenal, with City trailing by 12. Every game, though, contains within it the seeds of the next, and another positive result for Nick Cushing’s side will make them strong favourites to progress when the sides reconvene.
More than that, though, there’s just a chance that when we look back in years to come, this set of four games will mark something more significant than the games themselves. Emma Hayes left Chelsea in such a strong position that, so far, her absence has barely registered. But rarely in football history has an epochal icon departed to no change and, good though Sonia Bompastor is, we might now be witnessing the end of an aura.
On top of which and talking of epochal icons, City – who changed managers more recently – have Vivianne Miedema. Goodness knows how Arsenal feel about letting Jonas Eidevall force her out only to resign himself a few month later. Fit, happy and at her peak, Miedema has the ability and personality to elevate any team; if she has another good day, this one will matter very deeply.
Kick-off: 2.30pm
