Aston Villa have nothing to lose against Chelsea says Arroyo | OneFootball

Aston Villa head coach Natalia Arroyo says that there is no pressure on her side going into this weekend’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Chelsea.

The Villans play host to The Blues in their first home fixture of the season on Sunday afternoon.

Chelsea were 2-1 winners against Manchester City last weekend and Arroyo says that there are questions over how the South West Londoners will line-up at Villa Park.

“They had phases [against Manchester City] and they look as strong as they were [last season] or even more,” Arroyo said when commenting on Chelsea’s opening day performance in the pre-match press conference. “Sonia [Bompastor] is giving them new layers of football; they’ve added a few more passes in their actions and they could show that against one of the best in terms of possession. They look strong.

“Let’s wait and see about the shape because they’re still adding different things. It’s difficult to see even from their friendlies; they are not always playing with this back-five. They tried it against Manchester City but the question is how are they preparing for this game? Will they keep this shape or use another? That will be one of the big issues.

“They’re strong and they can hit you when they go vertical because they have this physicality. The addition of Ellie Carpenter has given them a lot of power on the right. We will need to focus on the out of possession work which will be hard. The challenge is also to have better sequences in possession, so that they need to defend us. Let’s see what we can do.”

Chelsea are unbeaten in the Barclays Women’s Super League since May 2024 and Arroyo says that her side go into their meeting with The Blues with nothing to lose.

She said “I probably prefer that [facing an unbeaten side] than facing a team that is losing all of their games because you have less pressure. We have this nothing to lose feeling around, maybe because of the media, the fans and the expectation on the opponent. We are not here competing for the title, they are.

“We need to face this knowing that it is our first game at home. This is the toughest opponent that we can face but it’s a challenge where we want to show ourselves to see how much we need to grow and how ready we are. We will try to play a competitive game without fear but with a lot of respect because they’re super-good. We have our tools to make them feel uncomfortable.”

Aston Villa signed-off the 2024/2025 campaign with important home wins over Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion. The fans really bought into Arroyo’s playing philosophy and she is hoping to build connections further this term.

She said “They’re super-important. There will be moments when you have tired legs and the little shouts [from the crowd], clapping, sounds from the stands help the players to stay connected and gives them something to fight for.

“In the bigger picture, if you feel like you’re building this bond with the fans, it’ll make the Villa Park experience bigger. Hopefully, we can make that feeling big enough, so that they become our 12th player and we can fight together.

“It starts with good performances. We need to do our job and if we are doing that week-after-week, our fans will be connected with us. I ask them to get behind us in the tough moments because they will help us to have fun in the game.”

Aston Villa’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Chelsea kicks-off at 12pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.