Arsenal forced into Chelsea megastore purchase after sock fiasco
- Chelsea beat Arsenal 3-1 in Women's Super League on Friday night
- The Gunners forced to buy kit from Blues' megastore due to kit clash
- Both sides had brought white socks so Arsenal bought Chelsea's away socks and taped over logos
By Sean Walsh
Arsenal had to purchase socks from Chelsea's Nike megastore due to a kit clash for their WSL encounter on Friday night.
Chelsea ran out 3-1 winners thanks to a goal from Lauren James and a brace from Sjoeke Nusken in a frenzied first-half. Kim Little forced an own goal out of Catarina Macario late on to secure a consolation for the visitors.
The showpiece match at Stamford Bridge - which was watched by a new club paid record of 32,970 - was delayed by 30 minutes after match officials spotted a kit clash. Arsenal had brought their usual white socks, but this matched up against Chelsea's.
As a result, Arsenal were forced to buy socks from Chelsea's navy blue away strip from their megastore at Stamford Bridge. The Gunners then taped over the Chelsea and Nike logos.
After a defeat that left Arsenal six points behind leaders Chelsea in the WSL standings, manager Jonas Eidevall was asked about the kit clash ordeal.
"It was a clash of colour with the kits which came to mine, the players' and the other team's attention very late," Eidevall said. "We got told that we can't go out and play with the kit we had so we had to adapt and that was definitely a first. I was not involved in the process in how it was resolved.
"We found out when we left the dressing room to go to the tunnel so it was a very late call and notice. It is what it is. It was the same for both teams."
Chelsea boss Emma Hayes called for more sympathy towards Arsenal's kit man but was pleased to see the club's rivals don their colours.
"I'm not throwing the kit man under the bus," Hayes began. "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. Because we didn't have our blue socks I couldn't say, 'Don't worry about it, we'll put blue socks on'.
"I was delighted to see lion crests on Arsenal players' legs in the first half. Maybe that gave my players motivation, I don't know.
"It was an earnest mistake and something which that poor guy is going home tonight and will feel bad about. I'm certainly not going to pile in on him."
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