Bompastor on Chelsea’s win over Arsenal and Lauren James’ fitness

Chelsea Women boss Sonia Bompastor praised her side’s mentality and defensive resilience after a hard-fought 1-0 win over Arsenal, while also explaining why Lauren James was withdrawn after an hour.

Alyssa Thompson’s 39th-minute strike proved the difference at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea held on for all three points.

“The plan for us this season is mindset and mentality,” she said.

“I’ve been talking a lot about being strong and being together. No matter what happens in the game, I always want to see a group of players, and also a team who is together in our high moments when we’re doing well, but also in the low moments.

“We came into this game well-prepared in terms of knowing we were going to have some moments in the game where we were probably not in control, especially in possession of the ball, because we knew how good Arsenal are at doing that.

“So we prepared the game for those moments.”

Bompastor also provided an update on James, who returned to the starting line-up after missing the midweek win over Austria Vienna but was taken off after 60 minutes.

“We knew after LJ got a knock in training, we didn’t want to take any risks because this game was coming,” she said.

“With the information from the medical team from the beginning, I knew we were going to prepare for LJ to start this game, and it was great news.

“Having 60 minutes was probably a good plan because she hadn’t played for one week.

“She didn’t stay home for a long time, but I think maybe she still couldn’t work the way she would have liked to. So 60 minutes was good, and she brought a contribution to the game.”