Women’s FA Cup: Chelsea face Arsenal in a repeat of last year’s final

Chelsea host Arsenal at Kingsmeadow in the fifth round of the Women’s FA Cup.

The London rivals faced each other in the FA Cup final last season in front of a record crowd at Wembley when Chelsea won 3-1 thanks to a brace from Ramona Bachmann and a Fran Kirby strike.

Arsenal are record 14-time winners of the FA Cup and will be looking to get their hands on the cup once more.

The Gunners beat fourth-tier Crawley 4-0 in the last round where 16-year-old Ruby Grant scored a hat-trick. Chelsea won 2-0 at Everton to progress.

The two sides have had their league meetings for the season with Arsenal winning the first one 5-0 in October and Chelsea victorious in the reverse fixture in January with a 2-1 win.

Chelsea are attempting to defend the league and the cup and sit four points behind second-placed Arsenal. The Gunners have two games in hand as they aim to lift their first league title since 2012.

Blues keeper Carly Telford is looking forward to the third London derby of the season.

“To have a red versus blue, so early in the competition, with a big team to go out, is huge,” Telford told BBC Sport.

“It’s our cup to lose at the moment. We’re the holders. It [the Women’s FA Cup]is the pinnacle for us.

“We all know it’s the big one and we’re really looking forward to it. Form goes out the window. It’ll just be who wants it most on the day.”

 

 

Arsenal midfielder Kim Little is relishing playing against one of the biggest sides in the cup.

“If you want to win the cup, you’ve got to win every tie and beat the best sides, so it just makes it more exciting to be drawn against Chelsea at this stage.

“For me, it’s just another game against another side, so we have to put past ties against them out of their minds.

“Obviously they outplayed us in the final last season, but we’ll be doing our best to put that right on Sunday.”

The winners of the FA Cup will secure £25,000 in prize money while the runners-up get £15,000.