Chelsea team news: Trio miss out through Asian Cup duties

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Dario Vidosic's squad return to WSL action after three weeks without a game.

Heather Miller

2026-03-17T15:30+00:00

Kiko Seike and Moeka Minami are away with Japan at the Asian Cup. 📸 by Kyle Hemsley.

Albion face Chelsea at Kingsmeadow on Wednesday evening, kick-off 7pm.

The match marks the first outing for Dario Vidosic’s team since their Adobe Women’s FA Cup tie against West Ham United.

Dario Vidosic on Chelsea...

"Firstly, congratulations to them (Chelsea) for winning the League Cup. It's been a good training week for us, we've got a few extra days extended due to the League Cup final, but everyone's ready to go, especially after such a long break since our last time on the pitch together.

"It's hard to say a team will dominate year upon year, we have to give credit to (Manchester) City and there's a lot of teams that have pushed them [Chelsea] even throughout those six years, but they always manage to find their way into that number one place.

"At the minute, they're probably not where they want to be. I'm sure they were very happy with the outcome in the League Cup final, but I think with City's slip up over the weekend, it's going to put even more emphasis on a positive result - it's the same for us. We want to go there and try to get the three points."

Team news

Charlie Rule's Australia have reached the final of the Asian Cup. 📸 by @ByTheWhiteLine.

Dario confirmed that Charlie Rule, Kiko Seike and Moeka Minami remain on international duty with Australia and Japan at the Asian Cup, with the Matildas confirming their place in the final on Tuesday afternoon, while Japan will play their semi-final on Wednesday morning.

He also confirmed no new injuries, " They've (players) all been training. Some we will need to look after in regards to minutes and we also have a quick turnaround with the midweek game. We'll need to see how they're progressing and see how we can juggle it across the two games."

Previous meeting

Albion faced Chelsea in a 3-0 loss at Broadfiled Stadium in December. 📸 by Kyle Hemsley

Albion hosted Sonia Bompastor's squad at Broadfield Stadium in their final game of 2025 ahead of the winter break. The game ended in a 3-0 loss to Vidosic's side, but the head coach is eager

Stats and facts

Chelsea have won five of their six WSL home games against Brighton and Hove Albion, with the exception a 2-1 loss in February 2021. The Blues have won 4-2 in this fixture in both of the last two seasons.

Brighton and Hove Albion have only won one of their 14 meetings with Chelsea in the Women’s Super League (D3 L10), going winless in nine (D2 L7) since a 2-1 win under Hope Powell in February 2021.

Chelsea have responded to back-to-back losses by winning their last two WSL games, both 2-0 (vs Spurs and Liverpool) – the Blues last won three in a row when winning their first four league matches this season, and last did so without conceding when winning their final four matches of last season.

This will be Brighton and Hove Albion’s first WSL game since February 8th, 38 days ago; it is the longest wait between top-flight matches in a season by any club since the Seagulls, Leicester City and Liverpool waited 42/43 days between December 2022 and January 2023.

Chelsea have recorded the most clean sheets in the WSL this season (8), twice as many as Brighton and Hove Albion (4), despite averaging the same number of shots faced per game as the Seagulls (both 12.1). However, the average xG of the shots the Blues have faced this season is the lowest of any team (0.099), while Brighton rank fifth in that regard (0.111).

Brighton and Hove Albion have lost four of their last five WSL games (W1) and could lose three in a row for the third time under manager Dario Vidosic, which is his longest run of league defeats with the Seagulls.

Chelsea have only trailed in three different WSL games this season, though they are the only team yet to win any points from a losing position. Brighton and Hove Albion have, however, lost the most points from winning positions in 2025-26 (12), losing three of their last four matches despite leading in each.

Madison Haley has assisted three of Brighton and Hove Albion’s last six league goals, assisting in both of her last two outings; the only players to record an assist in three consecutive WSL appearances for the Seagulls are Rachel McLauchlan (March 2025), Maisie Symonds (November 2023) and Katie Robinson (May 2023).

Lauren James has started each of Chelsea’s last three WSL games but hasn’t had a longer run of consecutive starts in the competition since a run of eight ending over two years ago in February 2024. She has three goals against Brighton in the top-flight, only netting more vs Leicester City, Liverpool and Manchester United (all 4).

Match Officials