Since this article was published, this game has been called off due to a coronavirus outbreak in the Chelsea Women squad. A new date for the game will be confirmed in due course.
Chelsea Women need to bounce back after their second defeat of the Women's Super League season last weekend allowed Arsenal to open up a four-point gap at the top of the table.
West Ham United Women are the visitors to Kingsmeadow on Sunday, and they enter this London derby on a five-game unbeaten run across all competitions.
Match preview
© Reuters
Since winning last season's FA Cup title at the beginning of December, Chelsea have struggled to handle the amount of games they have had to play this month.
Last weekend the Blues travelled to the Select Car Leasing Stadium where they faced an in-form Reading side, and Deanne Rose's fourth minute strike was enough to send Chelsea to a 1-0 defeat despite the visitors recording 34 shots in total.
Another away game followed as Emma Hayes's side had to travel to Germany on Thursday to face Wolfsburg in the final group game of the Champions League, where all they needed to qualify was to avoid defeat.
The Blues found themselves 2-0 down at the break and the German outfit went on to double that advantage, meaning that last year's runners-up crashed out at the group stage on goal difference after Wolfsburg, Juventus and Chelsea all finished on 11 points.
That was an extremely disappointing evening for Chelsea, who would have aimed to go one better than last year and win the Champions League this time around, but they have no time to dwell on the result as three points is vital on Sunday to stop Arsenal potentially going seven points clear.
West Ham will prove to be as tough a test as any at the moment with the good form they find themselves in, and that continued in the League Cup on Wednesday when they beat Brighton & Hove Albion 3-0 in Group E.
Kate Longhurst, Melisa Filis and Katerina Svitkova ensured the three points stayed in East London and Olli Harder's side progress in that competition having recorded a 100% return from their three games.
Last Sunday, the Hammers earned a point in Merseyside where they faced Everton, as Zaneta Wyne's strike for the visitors was cancelled out by Toni Duggan's 76th-minute goal for the game to end in a 1-1 draw.
An away game against the reigning WSL champions is never an easy task, but perhaps West Ham will be glad that their turn to visit Kingsmeadow has fallen this weekend after Chelsea have experienced one of their worst weeks in a long time.
In this fixture last year, Chelsea came out on top as 3-2 winners but the second game of that campaign involving these two teams was more comfortable for the Blues, who secured a 2-0 win, with the Hammers expected to run their hosts close this weekend.
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
- L
- W
- W
- W
- D
- L
- L
- W
- D
- L
- D
- W
- D
- L
- D
- W
- W
- D
- W
Team News
© Reuters
Chelsea goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger and midfielder Drew Spence are unavailable this weekend after testing positive for coronavirus, with Zecira Musovic expected to start between the posts for the Blues.
Hayes is likely to rotate her side again on Sunday with her players having played so many games this month and travelled a lot of miles, and Jessie Fleming could come back into the starting lineup after only playing 16 minutes on Thursday evening.
Erin Cuthbert is expected to keep her place in the right wing-back role despite playing three 90 minutes in a week, and Guro Reiten is likely to start on the other side as left wing-back.
West Ham will play with a back five including Svitkova, Grace Fisk, Hawa Cissoko, Gilly Flaherty and Wyne, with Svitkova and Wyne claiming important roles to help the Hammers get up the pitch using the wings.
Striker Claudia Walker did not start against Everton last weekend, and if that is the case again this Sunday then Lisa Evans is expected to be the Hammers' furthest forward player.
Chelsea Women possible starting lineup:
Musovic; Eriksson, Carter, Bright; Reiten, Ingle, Leupolz, Cuthbert; Fleming, Kerr, Kirby
West Ham United Women possible starting lineup:
Arnold; Svitkova, Cissoko, Flaherty, Fisk, Wyne; Hasegawa, Stringer, Yallop; Evans, Brynjarsdottir
We say: Chelsea Women 1-1 West Ham United Women
Given Chelsea's long-running good form in the WSL it can be hard to go against them despite everything being thrown at them currently, but West Ham will be confident that they can get something from this game as they are in good form themselves.
The Blues struggled in front of goal against Reading and looked tired which is only likely to be more of the case this weekend after Thursday evening, giving the Hammers a great opportunity to take a point home with them.
Top tip
Sammy Wynne
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Chelsea Women win with a probability of 92.79%. A draw had a probability of 5.5% and a win for West Ham United Women had a probability of 1.73%.
The most likely scoreline for a Chelsea Women win was 3-0 with a probability of 13.67%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 4-0 (12.58%) and 2-0 (11.14%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (2.61%), while for a West Ham United Women win it was 0-1 (0.71%). The actual scoreline of 2-0 was predicted with an 11.1% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Chelsea Women would win this match.
