\n<\/p>\n
While Walsh is a serial winner, lining up alongside her on Sunday will be another of Chelsea’s statement signings from 2025, Alyssa Thompson.<\/p>\n
Like her experienced team-mate, 21-year-old Thompson also told BBC Sport of her trepidation when first arriving at Kingsmeadow.<\/p>\n
“I had low expectations for myself because I was scared about being in England, away from everyone I knew,” said the USA forward. “I didn’t know if people would like me.<\/p>\n
“It was daunting because of the calibre of players at Chelsea.”<\/p>\n
She has impressed for Bompastor’s side this season, scoring six times in the WSL and providing a threat with her searing place and clever movement.<\/p>\n
However, despite the Blues’ outlay in the past 14 months \u2013 they also briefly broke the women’s transfer world record to acquire centre-back Naomi Girma in January 2025 \u2013 results have taken a downturn.<\/p>\n
Not that Thompson is accepting this.<\/p>\n
“Winning at Chelsea is written in the DNA,” Thompson said. “That’s why people come here and one of the reasons I did. It’s a huge part of our culture.<\/p>\n
“When you put on the Chelsea jersey, you know what you have to bring. No-one has told me that but I feel it from the team.<\/p>\n
“It’s unspoken in the locker room.”<\/p>\n
Thompson has enjoyed her time on international break, named player of the tournament in the SheBelieves Cup where USA won their three games against Argentina, Canada and Colombia.<\/p>\n
Before going away, Chelsea knocked Sunday’s opponents Manchester United out of the FA Cup in extra time and this game will be a rematch of last season’s FA Cup final, also won by Bompastor’s side.<\/p>\n
“I’m so excited,” Thompson added. “I’ve never won a senior trophy!”<\/p>\n
Whether or not the SheBelieves Cup now counts as silverware in her eyes, Thompson will hope to be celebrating again on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Chelsea’s intimidating record of 15 wins and just one defeat in 18 games against Manchester United puts history, at least, on her side.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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While Walsh is a serial winner, lining up alongside her on Sunday will be another of Chelsea’s statement signings from 2025, Alyssa Thompson. Like her experienced team-mate, 21-year-old Thompson also told BBC Sport of her trepidation when first arriving at Kingsmeadow. “I had low expectations for myself because I was scared about being in England,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}