Chelsea vs Aston Villa Preview | A new era for both clubs
Our preview for tomorrow’s WSL opener as the champions Chelsea take on Aston Villa with both sides hoping for a positive start under new head coaches.
The new Women’s Super League season gets underway tonight at Kingsmeadow as the defending WSL champions Chelsea start their campaign when they face Aston Villa at 19:00 (BST). Both teams are coming into the new season with new head coaches who will be looking to get a first win to begin on a positive front.
The last time the two teams faced both looked very different in their respective dugouts with Emma Hayes and Carla Ward in charge of the teams. It was Chelsea who were 3-0 winners courtesy of goals by Aggie Beever-Jones, Maika Hamano and Kadeisha Buchanan.
A win for Chelsea will mean that they maintain what is a long unbeaten run against Aston Villa, as they have a 100% record against them in the WSL having never been beaten or dropped points when they have faced off.
Chelsea - Team News
For Chelsea, they actually come into the opening WSL fixture of the Sonia Bompastor era with a few injuries to their still well-stacked team. Players who we do know for a fact will be out of this match against Villa includes defender Niamh Charles, who had surgery on a dislocated shoulder she suffered in the last pre-season friendly against Feyenoord.
There’s also long-term injuries with Sophie Ingle out with an ACL injury and the same sadly goes for Jorja Fox as well who was set to spend the season on loan at Crystal Palace, however a second ACL injury in her career has unfortunately ended that.
In terms of those who are available, we should expect to see a few debuts for some of the new signings. More likely out of some of them we could see Lucy Bronze and Sandy Baltimore make their WSL debuts for Chelsea. The same could even be said for Wieke Kaptein who was out on loan last season at FC Twente and having featured a lot in pre-season, she could go straight into Chelsea’s starting XI having impressed Bompastor.
Chelsea - Predicted Line-Up
It is sometimes to hard to predict how a team is going to look straight after pre-season, but given how the line-up looked against Feyenoord just a week ago I am not sure it will look too different other than the one enforced change.
Niamh Charles being out leaves the left-back spot open and given she is listed as a left-back on the club website and had played their at times last season, Ashley Lawrence should come into the starting XI now you would think. Also, Hannah Hampton I expect starts in goal despite Zećira Mušović starting last week but Bompastor could absolutely still choose the Swedish goalkeeper to start vs Villa.
Lauren James as well starting in the left has been seen in pre-season with Baltimore in the middle and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd on the right side of that three behind Mayra Ramirez up front.
Aston Villa - Team News
Robert De Pauw becomes the first Dutch head coach in a WSL dugout tonight as he looks to stun the WSL champions and get Aston Villa’s own new era underway with a bright start.
There are two known injury concerns with Aston Villa, one of them being new signing Jill Baijings continuing her rehab after a back injury suffered in pre-season training a few weeks ago. The other player out for the Chelsea game is young striker Georgia Mullett.
Aston Villa have seven of their eight signings available to make their WSL debuts for the club, with a couple of them potentially making their WSL debuts entirely. Left-back Paula Tomàs is one of those who have caught a few eyes so she might be in line for a start.
Aston Villa - Predicted Line-Up
Bit more of a difficult one to predict with Aston Villa’s potential line-up. Out of the new signings I could see debuts given to goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo, Paula Tomàs as mentioned and maybe even Chasity Grant who was signed from Ajax.
I could see De Pauw sticking with some of those who have the WSL experience and give a bit of time for some of the other new signings to make their mark and maybe taking a starting place as the season goes on. For example, the likes of Katie Robinson, Missy Bo Kearns and club-record signing this summer Gabi Nunes are players likely to appear off the bench potentially for their debuts.
Villa’s depth feels like it is a lot better this season than it has been in previous years, so how they manage players within games could be something they think about a lot more. Especially when there are other names like Kirsty Hanson, Lucy Parker and Danielle Turner who can come in as well. Overall, Aston Villa at this early stage of the season have a good squad of players to choose from.
Pre-Match Manager Quotes
Sonia Bompastor:
“We’re really professional as staff and we have been looking at their games - and I had the opportunity to watch their games, too. I know they have good players in the squad. They are a good team and they are investing in women’s game. They are as ready as we are and I think it'll be a tough game. I always show respect for all the opposition. They have a new coach and I just want to welcome him. I know I am new as well but I want to tell him welcome to the league and I hope we both show good football tomorrow night.”
Robert De Pauw:
"We need to be ready for the moments that will come. It won't always be the wind in our sails, it will also be against us in some moments. Then you will truly see if there is a team or not. But at the moment I see good signs that there is a team here."