‘I expect an angry Chelsea’ – Aston Villa boss Arroyo expects Blues reaction | OneFootball

Aston Villa head coach Natalia Arroyo says that she is expecting to come up against an angry Chelsea off the back of their UEFA Women’s Champions League defeat in midweek.

The Blues went down 3-1 to Arsenal in the first leg of their quarter-final tie at the Emirates Stadium.

Aston Villa will hope to add to Chelsea’s misery this afternoon but head coach Arroyo expects the South West Londoners to come out fighting stronger than ever.

“I expect an angry Chelsea,” Arroyo said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “We are aware that they will have Champions League in their heads but if you go into the game with the mindset that they’ll be beaten or only thinking of Europe, you will fail.

“They have the mentality of playing every three games and they have the ability, that’s something we need to learn from these top teams. They need a comeback against Arsenal and a good performance to progress in Europe and usually, these teams need the best preparation in the game before.

“I think Chelsea will be aggressive, angry, super-strong from the start to show that they are capable of doing what they have to do against Arsenal.”

Aston Villa have taken points from all of the top teams other than Chelsea this season. Arroyo explained what her side needs to do well at Kingsmeadow this afternoon.

She said “We’ve got to bring parts of the game that were good against them in the last two games. We need to stay as consistent as we were for 80 minutes at Villa Park last season and create as many chances as we were able to create [in the last game]. Let’s see if we can create a shot, let’s see if we can get it on target, let’s see if we can score. 

“In the end, it’s about having a mix of all of the good parts that we’ve had in these big games where we were able to perform [against the top teams]. It starts with a good plan and I think we have a strong plan. We need to bring it from minute one to the last.”

Aston Villa have a four-week break after this afternoon’s game and Arroyo plans to use this time constructively.

She said “I expect this break to be useful for us, it will allow the players to have some rest and to continue building up the training to ensure we finish the season strong. We will need a bit of a break, a bit of individual training and a bit of disconnection as the players go away on international duty with their teams then come back ready for the last three games.”

Aston Villa’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Chelsea kicks-off at 12pm.