Wasteful. Disjointed. Beatable. These are not words typically associated with Sonia Bompastor’s Chelsea squad. This is the team who bulldozed their way to a domestic treble last season, collecting a record-high Women’s Super League points tally of 60 (from 22 games) along the way. Until December, they were on the longest unbeaten run in league history at 34 matches. And yet, by losing 2-0 to Arsenal at home on January 24 and 5-1 at Manchester City on Sunday, they have made unwanted history. Chel
This is the team who bulldozed their way to a domestic treble last season, collecting a record-high Women’s Super League points tally of 60 (from 22 games) along the way. Until December, they were on the longest unbeaten run in league history at 34 matches.
And yet, by losing 2-0 to Arsenal at home on January 24 and 5-1 at Manchester City on Sunday, they have made unwanted history.
Chelsea had not lost consecutive WSL matches since 2015, a marker of how high their standards have been, but also of how unprecedented the current situation is.
There were no major departures from the playing squad or coaching staff over the summer. Yes, there have been injuries, but any other WSL manager would still jump at the chance to manage a squad of the quality Bompastor has available.
So what has changed on the pitch to leave Chelsea vulnerable?
The main tactical change from last season has been Bompastor’s increased use of a defensive line formed of three centre-backs and two wing-backs.
“It’s more about being unpredictable and being able to play with different systems,” Bompastor said after the first game of the season in September. “I think it brings some good in possession of the ball, some good control, being able to play back three.”
It is important to note that Bompastor views her setup as a back three, not five. She deploys wing-backs Ellie Carpenter and Sandy Baltimore with heavy attacking involvement, the aim being to add two more wide threats in the final third of the pitch rather than two more defensive bodies.
The problem with this shape is not that it leaves Chelsea bottom-heavy, but that it leaves them light in the middle.
Attacking full-backs are an aspect of their game that has been increasingly emphasised since Carpenter arrived from French side Lyon, where she played under Bompastor for three seasons, in the summer. The Australian and Baltimore are crucial to Chelsea’s ball progression, and in build-up they tend to move high and wide to try to create overloads on the wings.
When they get free, it can yield excellent results — see Carpenter’s superb overlapping run for her goal against Barcelona — but that build-up shape leaves the midfield light.
With Baltimore and Carpenter playing these advanced roles, the back three often remain deep to provide stability while the midfielders move higher and wider to create combinations with the wing-backs, leaving a gap between Chelsea’s lines for opponents to exploit.
Below, as Chelsea try to build from the back against Arsenal, Guro Reiten has stepped into the forward line and Wieke Kaptein has also moved up to offer support to Carpenter. Erin Cuthbert is the only holding midfielder, stationed in front of the back three.
After Chelsea striker Sam Kerr loses the ball, Arsenal quickly have an overload and can play wide to Beth Mead, who scores the opening goal of that recent 2-0 win.
Part of the problem here is that Baltimore’s advanced position grants Mead space — but in the build-up to the second goal that day, we see how even with all five defensive players back, the way the Chelsea team are set up leaves too much space in the midfield.
As Arsenal striker Alessia Russo receives a long pass from Katie McCabe, the support runners bypass Reiten, Cuthbert and Keira Walsh to invade the space in front of the Chelsea defensive line.
If anything, a Chelsea formation some of their fans say is too negative has left them vulnerable by creating gaps in front of their defensive line.
They are considerably more susceptible to conceding chances on the break this season, as this chart shows:
Bompastor said in October that an increase in expected goals (xG) conceded was related to wanting to take “more risks”.
Chelsea’s defensive quality means that opponents have not punished their vulnerability most of the time; in the first half of this season, they conceded six goals, the same as in the same period of their title-winning 2024-25 campaign and the lowest figure in the league. Until the seven goals they shipped in losing against Arsenal and Manchester City, the risks in Bompastor’s setup were not backfiring defensively, but the gamble was not paying off in attack.
Bompastor has acknowledged multiple times that her side’s failure to put their chances away is costing them.
The chart below shows how Chelsea’s output has fallen far below expectations based on the chances they have been generating.
The 1-0 defeat to Everton in December that ended their 34-match unbeaten run was the pinnacle of this — only six of their 30 Chelsea shots in that game were on target.
Part of that is due to injuries.
Chelsea have not had an in-form centre-forward: Mayra Ramirez has not featured this season following hamstring surgery in September and will remain out having picked up a calf issue this week, Kerr has not been her previous clinical self since returning that same month after more than a year out recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her knee, and Aggie Beever-Jones and Catarina Macario have had sporadic fitness problems that have limited their output.
Was Bompastor right to hint on Sunday that she would have liked more backing in the summer transfer market? The headline signings of Carpenter and forward Alyssa Thompson mean fans elsewhere in the WSL are unlikely to have much sympathy, but there are other areas where strengthening might have been prudent.
Chelsea’s attacks have felt characterised by the pace of Carpenter, Baltimore and Thompson, but been lacking the central creativity to balance them out. Perhaps nobody can match Lauren James’ quality when fit, but they need a deputy to cover for her frequent injuries. Kaptein’s transition into a more attacking role has been impressive, but that is still a work in progress.
In suffering issues with Kerr, Ramirez, Beever-Jones and Macario, Chelsea have been unlucky in the centre-forward department. That is perhaps an area they could have bought in January to refresh a forward line lacking in confidence. They have historically shown willingness to react in that window — Ramirez was brought in for a then-world record fee after Kerr tore her ACL in January 2024. However, it could be that the number of strikers already on their books made the club more reluctant to splash out again.
Still, Bompastor has a squad of enormous experience and quality to draw on. These players should be more than capable of working with her to solve these tactical issues.
A seventh straight WSL title may be inching out of their reach with City taking prime position, but there are still three other trophies to fight for at home and in Europe this season and if Bompastor can restore Chelsea’s missing confidence, there is no reason they cannot lift them.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Chelsea, Women's Soccer
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Category: General Sports
