Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor has revealed that goalkeeper Hannah Hampton will be sidelined for “a few weeks.”
Hampton missed the midweek Champions League win over St. Polten, with Livia Peng stepping in between the sticks.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s trip to Liverpool, Bompastor said: “Hannah won’t be here, she picked up a quad injury. She’ll be out for a few weeks so we’ll see if we can see her before the end of the year, but I’m not sure.”
A close battle at the top of the Women’s Super League (WSL) sees Chelsea sit one point behind leaders Manchester City, who host rivals Manchester United on Saturday.
Speaking about the WSL, Bompastor said: “The league is really competitive here, even if I understand from your point of view last season, maybe the competition was not that high because we finished in a really strong position 12 points ahead of Arsenal.
“But for us, it always felt every weekend was tough and the competition was high, so it doesn’t change anything this season.
“We know a lot of teams in this league can compete for the title, the title race has been really tough and Man City is now top of the table, but it doesn’t change anything for us.
“We are still early in the season, we know what we want to achieve and we keep this in mind. We are focused and still in a good position.”
Renee Slegers insisted Arsenal had taken responsibility for their Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich.
On the back of a 1-1 WSL draw with Chelsea, the Gunners squandered a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 in Munich and Slegers is hoping her side can respond against north London rivals Tottenham.
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“If we look at where the squad was at after Chelsea, it’s positive, of course very disappointed, but there was a real belief and a lot of good things in our performance,” she said.
“You see the first half against Bayern, we do a lot of really good things, but then of course we’re not happy with the second half – how we don’t manage that.
“That’s not good enough, really disappointing and we’ve acknowledged that as a collective. Everyone has taken responsibility so that’s good.
“We had a really good session out on the pitch today with lots of energy, so the players will use this as fuel going into the north London derby.”
Elsewhere on Sunday, Aston Villa host London City Lionesses, Brighton face Leicester, while Everton travel to West Ham.
