Matildas Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross have been involved in an awkward kit mishap as Chelsea and Arsenal’s WSL clash had to be delayed by 30 minutes because of a clash of socks.
The trio all play for the Gunners who arrived at Stamford Bridge with the same colour white socks as the hosts, causing referee Rebecca Welch to delay the match until a solution was found.
Arsenal ended up sporting black socks from Chelsea’s megastore to enable the match to go ahead.
Blue tape was then used in a makeshift attempt to hide the Nike logo on the socks, with Arsenal’s kit manufactured by Adidas.
As the scheduled kick-off time approached, a crowd of more than 30,000 in west London were instead treated to loud music.
Former Arsenal men’s striker Ian Wright, a keen supporter of the women’s game, posted on social media site X: “Embarrassing this. Ridiculous.”
Things did not improve for Arsenal once the match began, as a Lauren James goal and two from Sjoeke Nusken gave Chelsea a 3-0 half-time lead.
Chelsea’s Catarina Macario scored an own goal in the 86th minute to put the Gunners on the board.
The victory moved the league leaders three points clear of Manchester City, who have the chance to respond against Brighton on Sunday, and six ahead of the Gunners.
Former England international Izzy Christiansen said the delayed start would have had an impact on the players.
She said on Sky Sports: “As a player you work so hard over the years to come up with your way of preparing for a game.
“Things like this are difficult to deal with. It’s how you find a way of dealing with it internally and not let it affect your preparation.”
Source Agencies
