‘I was panicking’: Catley survives injury scare as Kerr’s Chelsea suffer title blow

1 month ago 15

London: For those back home who stayed up on Saturday night to watch the Women’s Super League’s unofficial ‘Aussie derby’, there was cause for great concern late in the first half at Stamford Bridge - so great that even Steph Catley herself briefly shared it, too.

As Sam Kerr shaped to take what would turn out to be her only shot of Saturday’s clash between Chelsea and Arsenal, Catley - her nearest marker, and her vice-captain with the national team - lost her footing, fell to the ground and yelled out in pain.

Beth Mead, Kim Little and Steph Catley celebrate Arsenal’s win.

The kind of fall-and-yell combination that too often precedes bad, bad news, of which the Matildas have had too much of in recent years.

As Catley received treatment, Australian hearts were in mouths, and Joe Montemurro was tearing his hair out somewhere as the Matildas’ grand Asian Cup plans briefly hung in suspended animation.

“To be honest, I was panicking a little bit,” Catley said post-match.

“Both legs went away at the same time. They just decided to go in separate directions, but I’m fine. Just a bit of a groin stretcher.”

Kerr’s effort did not go in, drifting wide of the far top corner from an ambitiously wide angle. It might have been a cross; we’re being charitable. Catley, after waiting for a couple of minutes on the sidelines, returned to the field and played out the full 90 minutes.

The day belonged totally to the visitors. Arsenal’s dominant 2-0 win all but ended Chelsea’s WSL hopes - even their manager Sonia Bompastor admitted as much post-match, acknowledging the prospect of upending runaway leaders Manchester City and securing back-to-back titles was “probably gone” after this result.

Bompastor had handed Kerr her first league start since her return from a long-term knee injury, but it was not a performance to remember, from her or anyone else in Chelsea blue, and she came off just before the hour mark.

Kerr is slowly approaching full match fitness, having scored five goals and provided one assist in her previous six matches. Here, though, she was largely starved of service, with her and strike partner Alyssa Thompson too isolated from the rest of Chelsea’s malfunctioning set-up to threaten consistently.

The 32-year-old was greeted with a huge, expectant roar from the crowd of 30,545 when she first touched the ball - but in the lead-up to the opening goal in the 55th minute, she gave it away. As the home fans rightly argued for a foul to be given, Arsenal swiftly marched it up the other end, and Beth Mead converted to give the north Londoners a deserved lead.

In response, Bompastor immediately withdrew a visibly annoyed Kerr for Lauren James - but, just six minutes later, the Gunners scored again through Spanish international Mariona Caldentey to all but put the game to bed and send the away fans into raptures.

Chelsea embarked on a fruitless late search for goals, which was not helped by the absence of Kerr’s imposing threat in the box. She had done what she could while she could, and importantly for the Matildas, like Catley, she came through the match physically unscathed.

The four Australian players who started here - Arsenal’s Caitlin Foord and Chelsea’s Ellie Carpenter were the others - will leave their clubs in about a month’s time to link up with Montemurro and the rest of the Matildas ahead of the Asian Cup, which kicks off in Perth on March 1, at a crucial juncture of the English season.

That tournament, though, is currently back-of-mind for them all; their priority is to ensure that when they do depart their clubs, they do so with them in the best position possible on the WSL table.

“I am looking forward to it, but I’m making sure that I make every minute count up until I have to leave,” Catley said.

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