'Embarrassing': Sock change forces half hour delay in Arsenal's WSL clash with Chelsea

Chelsea's Women's Super League (WSL) clash with Arsenal was delayed on Friday night after a clash of socks led to an "embarrassing" last minute kit change.

Kick-off for Chelsea’s 3-1 victory was delayed by 30 minutes while Arsenal staff collected black socks from their opponents’ megastore, using blue tape to cover the logos.

The Gunners had arrived to Stamford Bridge with the same colour white socks as the hosts, causing referee Rebecca Welch to delay the match until a solution was found.

In a move that was branded "embarrassing" on social media, blue tape was used in a makeshift attempt to hide the Chelsea and Nike logos on the socks, with Arsenal's kit manufactured by Adidas.

Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall admitted the mix-up did not help his side after a Lauren James goal and two from Sjoeke Nusken gave Chelsea a 3-0 half-time lead.

He told Sky Sports: "I only knew it was a clash of colours with the kits and it needed to be resolved. Why that was I have no idea, that's not what I spend my time and energy on.

"Of course we had to deal with it from a mental and a physical perspective, how we can warm up again.

"When you're ready to go out and play then you have to reset. Of course we try to have strategies but we were slow in our start today."

As the scheduled kick-off time approached, a crowd of more than 30,000 in west London were instead treated to loud music.

Former Arsenal men's striker Ian Wright, a keen supporter of the women's game, posted on social media site X: "Embarrassing this. Ridiculous."

Broadcaster and Arsenal supporter Piers Morgan also criticised the delay, branding it as "embarrassing".

Chelsea boss Emma Hayes said she wanted to help Arsenal out to get the game started on time.

She said: "I'm gutted for their kitman to be honest, it's easy to have a dig. If we'd have had a change of socks I'd have put them on for us but these things are done a few weeks in advance.

"It didn't derail us whatsoever and I don't want to throw anyone under the bus. I don't want the game to be delayed 30 minutes."

Hayes added: "He's going to be feeling terrible tonight, it was a mistake. He's a new guy, new into the position so please don’t slaughter him."

Former England international Izzy Christiansen said the delayed start would have had an impact on the players.

She said on Sky Sports: "As a player you work so hard over the years to come up with your way of preparing for a game.

"Things like this are difficult to deal with. It's how you find a way of dealing with it internally and not let it affect your preparation."

Chelsea captain Erin Cuthbert admitted the players were "frustrated" by the delay.

The Scotland international told Sky Sports: "We'd been waiting to play the game for a while, we were quite fired up. But we dealt with it quite well.

"We'd already done our team talk, it was weird. It was really, really late in the day.

"I thought the girls handled themselves impeccably."

Arsenal's Kim Little refused to put her side's poor start down to the issue, saying: "No, we're all professionals, we all know we have to turn up as soon as that whistle blows."

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