Archive November 7, 2025

Women’s Super League: Arsenal v Chelsea

Venue: Emirates Stadium, London Date: Saturday, 8 November Kick-off: 12:00 GMT

Chelsea have not lost a match in the Women’s Super League in 555 days.

Their French manager Sonia Bompastor has never experienced the feeling of defeat in the English top flight.

Since losing 4-3 to Liverpool on 1 May 2024, Chelsea have claimed two WSL titles, changed managers and gone 32 league games unbeaten.

If they avoid defeat on Saturday, the Blues will equal the longest unbeaten streak in WSL history – set by Chelsea under Emma Hayes between 2019 and 2021.

But Arsenal, who are desperate to keep their title hopes alive, stand in their way.

While Chelsea have stayed unbeaten at the start of 2025-26 campaign and sit top of the WSL table, Arsenal have been less fortunate.

The Gunners’ hopes of a title charge suffered an early blow with a defeat by Manchester City and draws against Manchester United and Aston Villa.

Those results have left Arsenal five points behind Chelsea and a defeat on Saturday would surely end their dreams of winning a first league title since 2019.

While they have endured a shaky start to the season, the Gunners did strengthen in the summer and Slegers has a deeper squad to challenge the reigning champions.

Arsenal will also take confidence from their triumphant Champions League run last season, when they beat eight-time winners Lyon and favourites Barcelona to lift the one trophy that Chelsea have yet to win.

Former Gunners defender Jen Beattie says Arsenal have the players to cause Chelsea problems.

“I do think that they have more than enough quality in their squad to [win], ” she told the Women’s Football Weekly podcast.

“We’ve seen that over the past sort of 12 months of course – it’s whether they get it tactically right.”

Slegers will also be well aware that Bompastor’s side have looked far from invincible this season.

The Blues overcame a slow start to beat Aston Villa and they narrowly edged past Leicester, while they dropped points in a surprise draw against Dutch side Twente in their Women’s Champions League opener.

Describing Chelsea’s unbeaten run as “ridiculous”, former England striker Ellen White added: “It is going to be a real challenge for Arsenal and I think it comes at a good time for them.

“They have to put everything together now and they have to perform and improve and really kickstart their season.”

On their way to becoming the first WSL side to finish a 22-game season unbeaten, Chelsea did the league-double over Arsenal last term.

One goal separated the two teams on both occasions.

During their last outing at the Emirates, Chelsea netted twice in the opening 16 minutes – a cushion that the Gunners, who were playing under Jonas Eidevall, could not overturn.

In January’s reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge, Guro Reiten’s late penalty saw off to Renee Slegers’ side.

Arsenal have won three of their past 10 meetings against Chelsea in all competitions, losing six.

Their last victory against the Blues arrived in the 2024 League Cup final, when Stina Blackstenius scored a 116th-minute winner.

More than 50,000 tickets have been sold for Saturday’s meeting, which Slegers says will be “a beautiful occasion”, as well as a “great opportunity” to get back into the title race.

If Chelsea were to win, they would move to 22 points – eight ahead of Arsenal, whereas if the hosts were to triumph, they would cut the deficit to the Blues to just two points.

And Arsenal boast an impressive home record, having lost just one of their past 24 home matches in the league – although that did come against Chelsea last season.

“This is why the players work so hard, what they live for, to play these kinds of games where there’s so much at stake,” says Slegers.

Lando Norris pipped McLaren team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri to the fastest time at the very end of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris, who took the championship lead from Piastri by one point following his win in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Australian by 0.023secs.

Until then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour of running before sprint qualifying at 18:30 GMT.

Verstappen’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, albeit lightly, when he spun at Turn Four early in the session.

The Japanese lost control over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was fortunate to get away with just a light touch of the barrier.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the session, rotating twice coming through the fast downhill Mergulho corner leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.

The seven-time champion ended the session 19th, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs off Piastri’s pace.

Pep Guardiola will take charge of his 1,000th game when Manchester City host Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday and the Spanish manager is in awe of the numbers he has achieved in his career.

Guardiola has collected 715 victories in all competitions since first taking charge of Barcelona B in 2007, going on to lift 12 top-flight titles at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City, as well as three Champions League crowns.

The 54-year-old has lost only 128 matches, claiming another 14 cup victories during his illustrious career.

Asked by BBC Sport if he knows how many wins he has achieved over the course of his time in management, Guardiola replied: “Of course I know, a lot. The numbers are insane, I’m sorry to tell you.

“I’m not thinking how many but when you have the milestones and you read what you have done, the victories, the average, not just in Premier League but in the Champions League too, we have won incredible things in Barcelona, Bayern Munich and here.

Guardiola is seen as changing the face of English football with a style of play that has been imitated by other managers across the country.

He has also achieved incredible numbers at City, leading the team to become the first to reach 100 points in the league, the first team to achieve the domestic treble and becoming the first side to win four league titles in a row.

Guardiola said: “It looks like I have false humility but this amount of percentage, beyond 70% of victories – [it means] every 10 games we win seven and will draw one or two.

“It can happen because you are at Barcelona, Munich and City with the players I have. After that, it is a lot of hard work. Dedication, passion, love – in that nobody [can] beat me.

“I love to scrutinise the secrets of what you can do to opponents, convince the players and go in together. All the times the players follow me. All the time.”

Asked for his response on being called the greatest manager of all time by some, Guardiola said with a smile: “They are completely right!

“The influence of every manager has been through history. Of course, I can say I’ve been part of that because the numbers explain, I’ve had success and it’s been nice to watch my teams.

The Spaniard was inducted into the League Managers Association (LMA) hall of fame for reaching the milestone, with ex-Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson saying the longevity in achieving the landmark “can never be underestimated”.

On Sunday, Guardiola and City come up against a Liverpool side that they have forged a classic rivalry with, as one of the two teams have won the Premier League in each of the past eight seasons.

“I think we pushed Liverpool to be better and they pushed us to be better, for sure,” said Guardiola.

“If I had to choose one rival for this personal milestone – I want to share it with many, many people – that would be the best.

“Because I have been in this country longer than ever, Barcelona the impact in my life as a ballboy, football player and manager was obvious and Bayern were an incredible step as well.”

With 10 losses, the Reds – along with Tottenham – are the side Guardiola has suffered the most defeats against and he has heaped praise on the opponents for pushing him to be the best and also credited former boss Jurgen Klopp.

The German is the manager he has faced the most number of times during his career (31) and also beating Guardiola on the most occasions (11).

“Liverpool, especially with Jurgen, have been the biggest rival in this country,” he added. “It could not be better, to be honest. The universe decide that. It’s nice to live it at our best.

“What happened with the Jurgen period means this has been the biggest because maybe after the first season the Premier League was between us and them.