Pre-Match Report

WSL: Arsenal Ladies v Chelsea - Preview

Laura Harvey has warned her players that Chelsea will be like "a wounded animal" when the sides meet in Thursday's London derby at Meadow Park.

Arsenal Ladies kept their WSL title challenge on track with a comprehensive 3-0 win over Liverpool at the weekend but Chelsea went down to Everton to leave them four points adrift of the Gunners and 11 behind leaders Birmingham.

Gilly Flaherty's close-range finish separated Arsenal and Chelsea when they met on the opening day of this inaugural WSL campaign and Harvey expects another tight battle.
 
"I think it will be a tough game," she told Arsenal.com. "Obviously they lost on Sunday so they will be a wounded animal wanting to prove that they can compete at the highest level.

"We’ve got to be on our game but I think if we can perform like we did against Liverpool on Sunday then we won’t have any worries.
 
"As a team Chelsea are very well organised. They work really hard for each other and they are decent on the ball and when they haven’t got the ball they don’t let you play so we’ve got to make sure we get our standards right.
 
"As it stands at the minute it’s about us not about the opposition. It‘s about what we do and we know that if we get it right people can’t live with us so we’ve just got to make sure we keep doing that."

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