Chelsea boss Emma Hayes said she didn’t know if it was “a point gained or two dropped” after her side were held by Brighton in the Women’s Super League.

Brighton withstood the pressure and defended resolutely, with goalkeeper Megan Walsh making a number of saves.

Erin Cuthbert also hit the crossbar to sum up Chelsea’s frustration.

Chelsea, who were playing for the first time in the league since 11 December after three games were called off because of Covid, missed the chance to narrow the gap on the Gunners.

“These are weird times – these are Covid times,” Hayes told BBC Sport. “It’s a wide-open race, I’ve felt that all along. I know all the other teams feel the same way.”

Following a run in which they scored in 59 consecutive WSL matches, this is the first time Chelsea have failed to score in consecutive league games since October 2018.

“Well played to Brighton but we’ve come here before and not played as well as that,” said the Blues manager.

“We played well today. If a chance goes in from the first-half dominance I think it’s a different outcome but a team like Brighton grows in confidence within the game.

“We had one-on-ones and we hit the bar. These are great situations but we didn’t execute and that’s why it’s a point rather than three.”

‘We showed we can compete’

Despite making it seven successive games without scoring themselves, the result means Brighton put an end to their run of six consecutive defeats in all competitions.

Brighton manager Hope Powell said: “It comes down to hard work and honesty. The girls weren’t satisfied with their performances the last few weeks, we talked about pride in the badge and consistency and today we showed that, it was more about pride in our performance.

“We knew it was going to be a fight and probably wouldn’t be pretty, but it shows that on our day we can compete.”

The first real chance of the game fell to the hosts, with Danielle Carter’s long-rage effort drawing an impressive save from Ann-Katrin Berger.

Chelsea were playing without the WSL’s top scorer Sam Kerr, who is on international duty with Australia at the Women’s Asian Cup.

They created plenty of chances and came closest to an opener on 25 minutes when Pernille Harder made a clever run in behind the Brighton defence, but both Fran Kirby and Guro Reiten could not get enough on the end of her cross at the far post.

Kirby was through on goal and had a chance to make amends late in the first half, but she side-footed her effort too early allowing Walsh to make the low save.

That wasted chance summed up the Blues’ first half, they dominated possession but managed only two shots on target from their 10 attempts on goal.

It was much the same after the break, Kirby twice went close before an unmarked Erin Cuthbert blasted her effort wide of Walsh’s post from inside the box.

Cuthbert was left with her head in her hands not long after when she thought Chelsea had finally found a breakthrough, but her powerful shot from inside the box ricocheted off the crossbar.

After Manchester United’s win over Tottenham, Chelsea slip to third in the WSL, three points behind Arsenal who take on Manchester City at 18:45 GMT.

Sourced From BBC