Arsenal women forced to wear Chelsea socks as embarrassing wardrobe error causes kick-off delay

Arsenal women were forced to wear kit belonging to WSL opponents Chelsea in an embarrassing kit mishap.

Kick-off at Stamford Bridge was forced to be delayed by 30 minutes, as the reigning champions ran out 3-1 winners thanks to goals from Lauren James and Sjoeke Nusken.

The Gunners had to make a late dash to Chelsea's megastore in order to buy enough pairs of socks, before taping over the hosts logo with blue tap.

Arsenal had initially arrived at Stamford Bridge with the same colour white socks as their London rivals, prompting referee Rebecca Welch to delay the match until a solution was found.

With Jonas Eidevall's side sponsored by Adidas, the tape was used as a cover up to hide Chelsea's sponsor Nike throughout the contest.

"I only knew it was a clash of colours with the kits and it needed to be resolved," the Swedish coach told Sky Sports following Arsenal's defeat.

"Why that was I have no idea, that's not what I spend my time and energy on.

"Of course we had to deal with it from a mental and a physical perspective, how we can warm up again.

"When you're ready to go out and play then you have to reset.

"Of course we try to have strategies but we were slow in our start today."

Frida Maanum of Arsenal Women shoots during the WSL clash with Chelsea Women.

The Blues extended their gap at the top of the WSL table to three points following the triumph, with second placed Manchester City set to play Brighton and Hove Albion later this weekend.

Chelsea boss Emma Hayes felt criticism shifted the way of Arsenal's kitman was unjust and added how her team attempted to do all they could to help out.

"I'm gutted for their kitman to be honest, it's easy to have a dig," she said.

"If we'd have had a change of socks I'd have put them on for us but these things are done a few weeks in advance.

"It didn't derail us whatsoever and I don't want to throw anyone under the bus. I don't want the game to be delayed 30 minutes."

"He's going to be feeling terrible tonight, it was a mistake. He's a new guy, new into the position so please don’t slaughter him."