Interview

'We need to be brave, we need to be confident'

Women's Super League games don't get much bigger than this. 

The countdown has started ahead of Sunday's headline clash with Chelsea at Meadow Park, with Joe Montemurro's side looking to pick up their first win over the Blues since October 2018.

And Lia Walti believes a tough test against the reigning champions is exactly what we need to bounce back from last weekend's defeat at Manchester United.

"It's good that we have have another top team to play against," the Switzerland midfielder told Arsenal.com. "We all know what it means against Chelsea. It's 100 per cent performance from everybody and I think in the past we were sometimes a bit unlucky with our performance on that day. 

"But hopefully this defeat against Man United will help us to work hard through the week, to be concentrated and do what we didn't do well enough on Sunday. Everybody knows where we have to change something. I hope that Sunday will be a good day and that we can change the things that have to change in order to get the three points from Chelsea.

"We read a lot, we hear a lot, we talk about it a lot and obviously it shows that the results against top teams haven't been great in the last two years. I'm never a fan of always saying that we can't handle the pressure, or that we have don't have the quality. I don't think that's true. 

"There are always different things which affect our performance in these games. The pressure situation is definitely something we need to learn from, we need to grow and learn how to be more calm and be more confident, no matter what team is on the other side. But also we need to believe in our strengths. 

"Sometimes I think we focus too much on the opponent's team and I do think we have the quality to beat them. We need to be brave and we need to be confident. That's easy to say but harder to show. 

"If we can take ourselves and lead each other through the game with a lot of confidence, a lot of positive thoughts, I think our quality can give them problems and we can show better performances against these teams."

See Full List

Fixtures & Results

Premier League
Ticket Info