Crucial week for the Chelsea Ladies

It's a crucial week for the Chelsea Ladies, as we prepare to face both Liverpool and Arsenal in quick succession. We caught up with manager Matt Beard as he outlined his hopes for the two crucial league fixtures and assessed the impact of our new acquisitions. Wounded animal threat It's been a decent start to the season for the Chelsea Ladies. With a place in the semi-finals of the FA Cup already secured, and a league campaign off to a winning start courtesy of a 3-1 victory against Doncaster Belles, it couldn't have gone any better thus far. However, with league fixtures against Liverpool and Arsenal over the course of the next week, the manager will have a better idea of just how much his new-look side can achieve for the remainder of the campaign. Liverpool head to Wheatsheaf Park off the back of a 4-1 thumping against Bristol on theopening day of the season but, as Beard admits, our opponents will be desperate for an immediate response. 'It will be a tough game. If you look at the men's Premier League, anybody can beat anybody else on a given day, and it's the same with the Women's Super League now,' he tells the official Chelsea website. 'Each team has their own strengths, Liverpool lost 4-1 to Bristol in their last game but that was a result which flattered Bristol. No disrespect to Liverpool, but if we have aspirations of being in the top half of the table we need to be beating them. 'They came to us last season having not won a single game, and they beat us 1-0 that day. It won't be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination; they're organised, competitive, aggressive and we need to make sure that we stick to our game. If we do that, I'm confident we'll pick up three points, but like any football match, you have to earn the right to win the game.' Tough capital test A victory at home against the Merseyside outfit on Sunday would set us up perfectly for Thursday night's clash against Arsenal at the Emirates. The game represents a massive test for the Blues, and coming only three days ahead of the FA Cup semi-final against the same opposition, Beard will have learnt a lot about his side at the culmination of the two games. Due to the soaring levels of interest in the fixture, Arsenal have decided to play the game at Emirates Stadium, with 10,000 tickets available, and Beard insists a win would put us in a fantastic position. 'If we go into the Arsenal game with two wins under our belt that will be massively important. They aren't playing this week because they're playing in the Champions League, so if we can beat Liverpool we'll be three points ahead of Arsenal before we play them, so it gives us a big advantage going into the game,' says Beard. 'We're taking each game as it comes. Both games will be different, the FA Cup game is obviously a knockout game, but the good thing about the league game is that it gives the players the opportunity to play at the Emirates, one of the best stadiums in the world. 'Arsenal will have some players who haven't played there either, but the good thing about it is the pitch will be a fantastic standard, which should make for an interesting spectacle. What I don't want is for the girls to get overawed by it all, it's still only a game of football and it's no different to if we're playing at Borehamwood or Staines Town.' So far, so good With six new players joining the club prior to the start of the campaign, and a pre-season which didn't go according to plan, Beard and his coaching staff deserve a great deal of credit for overseeing a positive start to the season. By the end of next week we will have a clearer idea of just what the side are capable of producing, but the manager is adamant that given time, there is more than enough quality in the squad to challenge for honours. 'We've got so much to improve on, but to have six new faces coming it will inevitably take time for the players to gel,' he admits. 'Our pre-season wasn't the best due to weather and international call-ups, but there's a lot more to come from this side. 'On the training pitch they've been top-class, but in serious matches it's a pressurised environment. It's been pleasing so far, but from what I've seen in training there's a lot more to come. As the players get to know each other a bit better, we'll definitely see much better performances.'