The most successful club in the English women’s game, Arsenal ended the longest trophy drought in their modern history by winning the Continental Cup, defeating their perennial London rivals, Chelsea 3-1 to win their their first trophy in four years.
Arsenal’s victory was a record sixth in the English League Cup, sponsored by Continental Tyres, and their first honor since winning the Barclays FA Women’s Super League in 2019, ended a run of 1394 days without a major trophy.
Formed in 1987, Arsenal won their first major honor, the English Premier League Cup in 1992 simultaneously gaining promotion to the top flight of English women’s soccer. Thereafter, they became the pre-eminent force in the women’s game, the record title holders in every major competition and the only English side to win the women’s Champions League in 2007, then called the UEFA Women’s Cup.
However, since winning their 15th English league title in 2019, west London rivals Chelsea and Manchester City have won every single major domestic title with Chelsea in particular assuming Arsenal’s position as the country’s dominant force winning three successive English titles and four of the last six domestic Cup competitions. In two meetings so far in 2023, Chelsea had emerged with a fortunate draw away from home in the league before eliminating Arsenal from the Women’s FA Cup last Sunday with Sam Kerr scoring in both games.
Speaking to me earlier in the week, Arsenal captain Kim Little accepted that their opponents had replaced her team as the number one team in England.
“Obviously, Chelsea have been dominant for the last number of years. We haven’t picked up a trophy. That’s not without will and want, we obviously want that as players and as a club. We need to continue to keep aiming for that and taking the right steps to getting back to that position we have been before as a club.”
Source: Forbes
