Chelsea vs Brighton: Women’s Super League preview, team news, TV channel, stats, kick-off time | Football news

Everything you need to know ahead of Chelsea Women vs Brighton Women on Saturday; kick off at 11:30 am.

Brighton boss Hope Powell has no doubts that Chelsea will want to ‘right the wrong’ of their loss to the Seagulls last season when the teams meet on Saturday.

Albion inflicted the only loss of the 2020-21 Women’s Super League champions’ campaign, beating them 2-1 at Kingsmeadow in February.

Powell said at a press conference on Friday: “Last season was last season. It’s a different season – but I’m not kidding they will want to right this wrong.

“We recognize it’s going to be very, very difficult. We know they’ll probably have a lot more possession than we get. We just need to be resilient and work hard for 90 minutes.”

Brighton, who finished sixth in the WSL last season, opened this season with wins over West Ham (2-0) and Birmingham (5-0), then lost 1-0 at home to Aston Villa, before qualify for the FA Cup semi-final. -finals Wednesday by eliminating the Charlton Championship team 1-0.

Chelsea lost their first game of the campaign, losing 3-2 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, before beating Everton 4-0 and Manchester United 6-1, then winning 4-0 at Birmingham in the last eight of the cup.

Powell added: “I hope they have a real drop in form, that would be good for us.

“They are a great team with great players. They have a depth that far exceeds ours. But we did it last season. A bit of luck, a drop in their form maybe. , we never know.”

Chelsea striker Fran Kirby believes recent postings from Emma Hayes show they are “hungry and motivated”.

Kirby said on the club’s official website: “We were really disappointed to lose the opener of the season, but we used it as fuel and motivation.

“You can see in our performances now that we’re hungry and motivated to score goals and get all three points.

“Playing on our field, we see it as a fortress and we want to make sure we continue to do it for the fans.”

Saturday’s other game will see leaders Arsenal, who have the most points from their three games so far, surrender to an Aston Villa side two points behind in third.

Villa boss Carla Ward – in quotation marks on their official website – said the victory at Brighton last weekend was her team’s “performance of the season so far”.

She added: “We still have work to do, we have to keep improving. We have to build on it. We have to stay grounded.”

How to follow

Chelsea Women vs Brighton Women is live Sky Sports Premier League from 11 am; kick off at 11:30 am. You can watch free in-game clips in the live match blog on the Air sports website and app. Highlights will also be posted on the Air sports digital platforms and Sky Sports Football YouTube channel shortly after the final whistle.

The last time…

Opta Statistics

• Chelsea and Brighton last met in the top flight in February, when the Seagulls ended the Blues’ record 33 games unbeaten in the WSL, knocking out the winners 2-1 at Kingsmeadow.
• Chelsea have scored in each of their previous five WSL clashes with Brighton, although the two they themselves conceded in the two sides’ last meeting were more than in their previous four encounters (1).
• Prior to last season’s win at Chelsea, Brighton had lost each of their other five top-level games to the reigning WSL champions without scoring a goal (15 conceded).
• Brighton have won three of their last five away games in WSL (L2), the same number of wins the Seagulls have had in their first 24 road games in the competition previously (D7 L14).
• Since losing at home to Brighton, Chelsea have won five straight WSL home games without conceding a single goal and scoring 20 times themselves.