Great pass from Chelsea Women’s Melanie Leupolz to Aggie Beever-Jones, as the latter rushes to the box from the left wing. The youngster tops it with a dink over West Ham’s keeper, as Sjoeke Nüsken arrives just to make sure the ball goes into the back of the net.
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- Chelsea Women couldn’t avoid the less than optimal game plan of spamming crosses in their attempts to find the lead. However it did work out as Johanna Rytting Kaneryd met Erin Cuthbert at the far post to complete our comeback over the Hammers in extra time.
Chelsea FCW vs. West Ham United FCW, Women’s FA Cup: Confirmed lineups and how to watch
Chelsea Women take on West Ham on their immediate return from the winter break that began in late December last year. Beyond the target of beating the Hammers today so we can continue defending the FA Cup title, it’ll be interesting to get a glimpse of manager Emma Hayes’ solution to a Sam Kerr-less Chelsea team.
Chelsea starting lineup (3-4-3?):
Musovic | Buchanan, Carter, Lawrence | Périsset, Cuthbert, Ingle (c), Reiten | James, Kirby, Kaneryd
Substitutes from: Hampton, Fishel, Nüsken, Leupolz, Fleming, Mjelde, Cankovic, Beever-Jones, Björn
West Ham starting eleven:
Arnold (c) | Smith, Shimizu, Tysiak, Snerle, Ueki, Zadorsky, Hayashi, Asseyi, Cooke, Gorry
Chelsea FCW vs. West Ham United FCW: Women’s FA Cup Preview, Team News, and How to Watch
The winter break was long and heartbreaking, with Chelsea losing Sam Kerr to an ACL injury for at least the rest of this season. No one knows how massively impactful her absence will be until we hit the pitch, so all eyes on today’s game against West Ham in the Women’s FA Cup, 4th round, as we begin our defence of the Cup.
Date / Time: Sunday, January 14, 2024, 13.00 GMT; 8am EST
Venue: Kingsmeadow, Kingston upon Thames, UK
Referee: Emily Heaslip
Forecast: light cloud and light winds
Chelsea team news: Chelsea entered the winter break on December 20th with a 3-1 away win against BK Häcken to take over first place in our Champions League group. Erin Cuthbert’s brace made sure Sam Kerr’s first-half opener wouldn’t go to waste after the hosts had equalized.
Aside from Kerr’s injury, the break was welcomed by manager Emma Hayes who had time to offer her squad some well deserved rest before also getting in some fitness work during the warm-weather training camp in Morocco.
Kerr joins Millie Bright, Kateřina Svitková, and Catarina Macario in our list of long-term injuries. Macario could be getting close at the right time, having recently made her belated return to training with the team. New signing Nathalie Björn should be set to make her debut.
West Ham team news: West Ham entered the winter break in very bad shape, competitively speaking. They had not won a game since October 11, when they beat Charlton in the League Cup: seven losses and two draws have followed since.
But this is the FA Cup, and Chelsea don’t have Sam Kerr. And West Ham do have a few new players, including USWNT midfield Kristie Mewis (who just so happens to be engaged to Sam Kerr) as well as Shelina Zadorsky (on loan from Spurs) and 100-times capped Katrina Gorry of Australia.
While it still feels like stars and planets would have to align in order for West Ham to win a match this season — they currently sit 11th (of 12) in the Women’s Super League with just five points from 10 played — we haven’t had any easy matches this season.
Previously: Goals from Sam Kerr and Erin Cuthbert at the end of each half give Chelsea a 2-0 win over the Hammers at Kingsmeadow back in October.
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