Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal: Kerr scores in 100th game as Blues progress in Women's FA Cup

Sophie Ingle enactment Chelsea successful beforehand aft 21 minutes astatine Kingsmeadow

Sam Kerr marked her period of Chelsea appearances with a extremity arsenic holders Chelsea bushed 14-time winners Arsenal successful the Women's FA Cup 5th round.

It was Kerr's 82nd extremity successful 100 games for Chelsea and kept them successful the hunt for 4 trophies this season.

Arsenal, meanwhile, proceed to struggle, with an FA Cup exit coming connected apical of nary league wins truthful acold successful 2023.

Classy Kerr proves scourge of Arsenal again

There was immoderate astonishment Kerr started this fixture, having played 3 matches for Australia successful her location federation implicit the planetary break, the astir caller of those connected Wednesday.

However, erstwhile you person a striker with Kerr's singular onslaught rate, it is adjacent intolerable to permission her out.

And what has truthful often been inevitable successful Chelsea matches since the 29-year-old joined successful 2020, happened 11 minutes into the 2nd half.

Jelena Cankovic fed Kerr with a good through-ball and she clipped a calm decorativeness implicit Manuela Zinsberger to treble the location side's advantage.

"Even with pitchy lag, she's amended than you," sang the delighted Kingsmeadow assemblage during a interruption successful play, which drew a laughter and applause from the guardant herself.

Arsenal indispensable beryllium peculiarly sick of the show of Kerr arsenic this was her 5th extremity successful 11 appearances against them. Her precocious equaliser besides earned Chelsea a WSL constituent astatine Emirates Stadium successful January, kick-starting the Gunners' mediocre league signifier this year.

And they are apt to look the Chelsea fig 20 again, with these sides gathering successful the League Cup last adjacent weekend.

Gunners can't extremity Chelsea's cupful 'dominance'

Chelsea and Arsenal ne'er look capable to debar each different successful the Women's FA Cup either - this was their eighth gathering successful the past 10 years successful the competition.

The Blues person had the precocious manus of late. They thrashed Arsenal successful the 2020-21 final, earlier the Blues defeated Jonas Eidevall's squad successful the semi-finals past season, with Emma Hayes describing some arsenic "dominant" performances.

That imbalance possibly stung the visitors into aboriginal enactment and they astir led wrong a minute, Frida Maanum cutting successful from the near and curling a close footed changeable which Ann-Katrin Berger did good to extremity implicit the bar.

Arsenal made the amended openings successful the archetypal 20 minutes but, arsenic they pushed higher to effort and steadfast up their advantage, Chelsea struck first.

A shot implicit the apical from Eve Perisset recovered Steph Catley retired of presumption and Lauren James had abstraction and clip to chopped wrong and laic disconnected to Ingle, who recovered the bottommost country with a debased effort via the mitt of Zinsberger and the wrong of the post.

Arsenal, though, continued to threaten, with Berger making a brave treble prevention to contradict Caitlin Foord soon earlier half-time.

Kerr's strike, however, condemned them to a 3rd successive FA Cup elimination astatine the hands of their London rivals.