After she had reflected on a gritty team performance that clinched the win against Austria Vienna on Wednesday night, Sjoeke Nusken called for the Chelsea fans to get right behind the team when we face Arsenal this weekend.
The only goal of the game against Vienna came from Wieke Kaptein’s thunderbolt from outside the penalty area, but the opposition showed no fear, and we needed to make some crucial defensive interventions to protect the clean sheet.
While Nusken, who has been at Chelsea since 2023, acknowledged there is plenty that the team can improve on, she was satisfied that we got the job done ahead of Sunday’s London derby.
‘In the end, the win was important,’ she explained after the final whistle.
‘We needed to get the three points, and this is all we are playing for, to win. So it’s good that we kept the clean sheet and that we could win with a stunning goal.
‘It's always tough to play a team who did so well defensively. They played one-v-one over the whole pitch. It was really hard to find solutions, but we need to keep working on finding those solutions and scoring some more goals.
‘We are working a lot on crossing and finding the net. Maybe I had a situation that was the same as in training, but I missed the target, so I need to keep working on these kinds of things. But yeah, it's good to get in those situations.
‘It's always more difficult in the game, but we're practising this kind of connection.’
With the three points in the bag, focus immediately turns to recovery and preparation for Sunday’s huge game against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
Nusken is under no illusions over the expectations of playing for Chelsea, a club with eight Women’s Super League titles already in our cabinet. Yet the squad cannot repeat these achievements without the support of our fans, and the midfielder called for as many people as possible to turn out and represent the blue side of London at Stamford Bridge.
'We’re looking forward to Sunday now,’ she continued. ‘We need to improve our performance, of course. We need to get our connections back on the field, but we can't wait to play Sunday against Arsenal. It's always a big game, and we always want to win.
‘We need to perform every week. This is Chelsea - we need to win every single game. That's what we want. That's our aim. And we want to compete in every competition, and of course, it’s hard, but we have a big squad. We have good quality in the whole squad, so we have enough players to do it.
‘It's nice to play at Stamford Bridge. We hope that a lot of fans are coming to support us. It's important for us that the fans have our backs.
‘I think it's good to make the step to Stamford Bridge now because you can see that women's football is developing, and we will hopefully get more fans. To see Stamford Bridge maybe full in the future, that would be amazing.’