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Within 20 minutes of kick off, it was clear that Joe Montemurro had got his approach to the meeting with Chelsea wrong.

As early as the third minute of the game, Beth England was planting seeds for how the match would eventually turn out. On this occasion, she peeled off to the half-space on the right to get in behind the Arsenal defence before whipping the ball across goal.

Minutes later, she darted down the left to do the exact same and by her third attempt - which came back down the right, she had a goal to her name. With Louise Quinn back-peddling as she came across, England had the simple task of just rolling the ball inside before lifting her shot into the far corner.

With the Blues actively looking to take advantage in the wide areas, the Gunners suffered - especially as Montemurro admitted he went into the game focusing on the centre of the pitch.

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"We decided not to play with a lot of width and instead go for inside to outside movement and it didn’t work," he said following the loss.

"The thought was to press a little bit higher up the pitch and to stop them playing through the middle and create overloads in the middle of the park, it didn’t work and I take full responsibility.

"I can’t say we prepared correctly, the plan didn’t work and I have to take responsibility for that."

England wasn't the only Chelsea player getting joy down the flanks, however, as Erin Cuthbert and Guro Reiten were also found free in those areas multiple times. Cuthbert's crosses were dealt with for the most part but Reiten was able to whip one deep to the back post where Sam Kerr nodded back across Manuela Zinsberger for her first Chelsea goal.

The lack of presence out wide was much more damning when the Gunners were in possession, however.

Although Katie McCabe has excelled at left-back in the last couple of seasons, the lack of support made her task almost impossible. Each time she ventured forward she had to find a way past both Cuthbert and Maren Mjelde as a support run from midfield was often too late.

She did manage to get deep into the box one one occasion but her eventual shot was straight at Ann-Katrin Berger's feet.

On the other flank, not starting Lisa Evans was the wrong call. Instead, Viktoria Schanderbeck manned that position and offered much less going forward than McCabe. Incredibly conservative while out wide it was no surprise that Evans was brought on early in the second half and the fact Montemurro recognised this was positive.

With Evans at right-back - and Beth Mead ahead of her - the Gunners looked much more dangerous. Willing to get into Chelsea's half, the Scot's overlapping runs of the ball as well as her delivery added the wide threat Arsenal had been missing all game.

Pair this with the attacking intent of Mead and the pair were two of the brightest players on the pitch for Montemurro despite playing 32 minutes of football. Despite Mead's goal only being a consolation, it was a tangible reward for the impact both she and Evans made.

Losing their first game since the October loss against Chelsea, the Gunners have now dropped out of top spot in the FA Women's Super League. Now in second place because an inferior goal difference to Manchester City Women and just a point above Chelsea who have a game in hand, the title racer will become even tighter.

The result will also place even more weight on their next league fixture which is against City on February 2. A few weeks away, however, Montemurro will have time to rectify the tactical mistakes made for Chelsea - which he already started doing in the second half - and take the driver's seat in the title race once more.

"There’s a lot of football to play and we can’t predict the future," the Australian said on the result's baring on the title race.

"We review, we look at what went wrong and we get the energy levels up and we get the frame of mind right and we keep going. This team is resilient and won’t give up. It’s a setback, probably the biggest we’ve had since I’ve been here."