Catley survives injury scare as Kerr’s Chelsea suffer title blow

Bompastor had given Kerr his first league start since his long-term knee injury but it was not a performance to remember from him or anyone else in Chelsea blue and Kerr was substituted just before the hour mark.

Kerr, who has scored five goals and provided one assist in his previous six games, is slowly approaching full match fitness. But here she was largely left without service, with herself and strike partner Alyssa Thompson too isolated from the rest of Chelsea’s flawed structure to threaten consistently.

The 32-year-old was greeted with a loud and expectant roar from the 30,545-strong crowd when he touched the ball for the first time, but he gave the ball away in the 55th minute as the first goal was scored. While the home fans rightly argued for a foul to be awarded, Arsenal quickly advanced down the other end and Beth Mead converted to give the North Londoners a deserved lead.

In response, Bompastor immediately pulled back a visibly disturbed Kerr for Lauren James – but just six minutes later, the Gunners scored again through Spanish international Mariona Caldentey, only to end the game and send the away fans into jubilation.

Chelsea went in a fruitless search for a goal late on, but it wasn’t helped by Kerr not posing a major threat in the penalty area. She had done as much as she could and, more importantly for Matildas like Catley, she had emerged from the match physically unscathed.

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The four Australian players who started here – the others were Arsenal’s Caitlin Foord and Chelsea’s Ellie Carpenter – will leave their clubs in about a month to link up with Montemurro and the rest of the Matildas ahead of the Asian Cup, which starts in Perth on March 1, at a crucial point in the English season.

But this tournament is on everyone’s mind right now; Their priority is to ensure that when they leave their club they do so in the best possible position in the WSL table.

“I’m looking forward to it, but I’m trying to make every minute count until I have to leave,” Catley said.

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