With 59,042 fans, Arsenal set a new record for the most people ever to watch a Women’s Super League (WSL) game. On Sunday, Jonas Eidevall’s team beat Chelsea 4-1 at Emirates Stadium.

The North London team had the most fans before this one; 54,115 showed up to watch them play Liverpool at home in October of this year.

Arsenal and Chelsea are now tied on points, but Chelsea is still in first place because they have scored more goals than anyone else. Alessia Russo scored two goals, and Beth Mead and Amanda Ilestedt scored one each.

Since England’s win at Euro 2022, WSL attendance has gone up by 200%, and Arsenal has had consistently good attendance at its games for the past two seasons.

Five of the six WSL games with crowds of over 40,000 people have been held at the Emirates. Last year, 60,063 people bought tickets to see the team play Wolfsburg in the Champions League semi-final.

“Another important event was breaking our own WSL attendance record. All of the people who have helped make this moment possible—our women’s team, our great fans, and everyone else in our club—make us happy. Arsenal CEO Vinai Venkatesham said in a statement on Sunday, “We will continue to work hard to build relationships with our fans and keep doing the things that got us here.”

Attendance and TV viewership numbers have been going up across the WSL this season, which is good news. We want to make sure that we keep getting this much help season after season as we continue to speed up the long-term growth of the women’s game.

Arsenal’s next WSL game at the Emirates is in February against Manchester United. The club said that 25,000 tickets have already been sold, making it the fastest-selling women’s game in the club’s history.

Arsenal throws down the gauntlet for the WSL title by beating champions Chelsea.

Arsenal tied winners Chelsea for first place in the Women’s Super League with a win over them in front of an English league record crowd at the Emirates Stadium.

Two goals in three minutes in the first half from Amanda Ilestedt and Alessia Russo, who joined the team this summer, helped the league leaders lose their first game in all competitions this season.

Arsenal had lost their first two league games of the season, but then they won their next six games, pulling them within three points of their opponents at the top of the Women’s Super League.

But they had a bad recent record against Chelsea. In their last nine games against the reigning champions, they only won one, 3-2 at the Emirates Stadium on the first day of last season.

They fixed things this time by putting Chelsea out of the game by halftime after failing to beat them at home in the league in January because they didn’t take advantage of their many chances. Their head coach, Jonas Eidevall, has never lost at home against Chelsea in three games.

The game started very quickly, even though it was raining hard in North London. Fast attacks came from both wings for Arsenal, and their leader, Kim Little, led one of these attacks that scored the first goal in the eighth minute.

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Arsenal beats Chelsea 4–1 in the WSL thanks to two goals from Russo.

Reuters, December 10, 2012 – Alessia Russo scored twice as Arsenal beat Women’s Super League leaders Chelsea 4-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday in front of a league-record 59,042 fans. This broke the tie for the title very wide open.

After beating Aston Villa 2-1 on Saturday, Manchester City moved into third place with 19 points, one point behind Arsenal. Chelsea lost their first game of the season but are still in first place because they have a better goal difference.

In the eighth minute, Arsenal forward Beth Mead scored the first goal. She finished off a determined drive by keeping her cool to cut back inside Niamh Charles and fire with her weaker left foot into the roof of the net.

The lead only lasted five minutes before Chelsea winger Johanna Rytting Kaneryd scored a similar goal to Mead’s. She did this by moving inside Steph Catley to make room and scoring with a low shot that hit the near post.

Amanda Ilestedt, who plays for Sweden with Rytting Kaneryd, scored Arsenal’s second goal in the 36th minute. Less than two minutes later, Russo scored a quick third goal as Chelsea’s defense fell apart.

Blues coach Emma Hayes made three changes at halftime, but it didn’t make a difference because they still couldn’t get their attack to flow. There was no chance of a comeback after Ann-Katrin Berger gave up a penalty for a foul on Russo. In the 74th minute, Russo scored from the penalty spot.

Chelsea’s Sam Kerr had a chance to cut the lead in the last few seconds, but her header from Fran Kirby’s cross wasn’t strong enough, and Arsenal held on to win easily.

Liverpool came back from being down a goal to tie 1-1 at home with a Bristol City team that was getting better quickly. Elsewhere, Brighton & Hove Albion and Leicester City played to a 2-2 tie, with both teams sharing the points.

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