Chelsea Women now turn our attentions to the FA Cup Fourth Round fixture against Championship outfit Charlton Athletic on Sunday afternoon and midfielder Maren Mjelde insists the Blues will not be underestimating our opponents.
Emma Hayes’ side will travel to Charlton full of confidence following our impressive 4-1 victory away to league leaders Arsenal last weekend.
Our hosts Charlton are yet to earn a victory in their league and sit bottom of the Championship having lost four games and drawn six, but Mjelde says the Blues will not be taking our opponents lightly as we look to book a place into the next round of the FA Women’s Cup.
‘It’s always the case with teams we don’t face often, we don’t know too much about them and they will play like it’s their cup final,’ Mjelde said.
‘They are expecting a lot of people to come so it will be an interesting game, but one we should win.
‘It’s going to be a bit different, because they are a team we don’t know that well but this is hopefully one game on a journey to another cup final for us so we will take it seriously and getting an early goal is definitely the aim.’
Chelsea have clinched the FA Cup twice in our history with the last time being in 2018 and the triumph against Arsenal at Wembley Stadium was the first final Mjelde had won in her career after several near misses. After a taste of FA Cup success, the 30-year-old says she wants to experience the special day again, as do all her team-mates.
She said: ‘I’m really excited for the game on Sunday. There is something really special about the FA Cup. All of us who have played at Wembley before know that the biggest goal for this club is to go back to Wembley.
‘The whole group is motivated to play the game on Sunday and get a step closer to where we want to be.’
The Blues have a busy week ahead as three days later we travel north to play Manchester United in Continental Tyres League Cup semi-final. And next Sunday we return to action at Kingsmeadow for the visit of West Ham United in the Women’s Super League.