Chelsea v Liverpool
The FA Tesco Women's Premier League
2pm, Sunday 21 October 2007
Metropolitan Police FC
(Imber Court, East Molesey, Surrey, KT8 OBT, Telephone 0208 398 1267)

Chelsea captain Casey Stoney will lead her team out against Liverpool on Sunday urging the need for a solid victory to kick-start their faltering start to the FA Tesco Women’s Premier League season.

The summer signings of Stoney and her England colleagues Eniola Aluko and Siobhan Chamberlain raised the Chelsea profile to the point where they were seen as one of the few teams who in the 2007-08 campaign could challenge quadruple winners Arsenal.

But despite two big Premier League Cup wins against lower division opposition, Blues have taken just one point from the three League games to date – their draw with Doncaster Belles has been sandwiched with defeats by Arsenal and Bristol Academy.

Stoney, back to health after a spell of illness following her return from the Women’s World Cup finals in China, says: “Sunday’s game is a massive one for us because we have got to get ourselves into winning ways.

“We competed well for a while against Arsenal and probably didn’t deserve to lose 3-0, then after drawing with Donny in a game I missed through illness we really should have beaten Bristol after going three goals up.

“Instead we let them back in, gave away three goals from corners and in the second half they wanted it more than we did and came out with a 4-3 win. We were all gutted after that, but we have to learn lessons from that game and learn them quickly.

“Going out wearing a Chelsea shirt doesn’t give you the right to win football matches and sometimes we perhaps haven’t shown the sort of passion and desire that you need to win any game in the National Division.

“You have to respect every team and we’ll certainly have to do that with Liverpool. They’ve only just got promoted but they’ve picked up some good results already and they’ll give us a tough game – but it’s a game we should be capable of winning.

“All of our players are internationals at some level, we’ve got some of the best youngsters in the country and with more experienced players like me also involved we should definitely be competing at the top end of the table – so let’s do it!”

At the end of Sunday’s game Stoney will be listening out for the result of her old club Arsenal’s Premier League Cup tie at Newquay, with the winners set to meet Chelsea in the quarter-finals.

“If it’s Arsenal it’s a good draw for us,” says the 25 year-old defender. “To win any Cup you almost certainly have to beat them at some stage, and although they’re the best they are not invincible – they’ve got weaknesses and we’ll have to find them.

“But that’s not on our agenda at the moment. The most important thing facing us is a League match on Sunday and the challenge of beating Liverpool to boost morale and confidence and hopefully get us started on a long winning run.”