A controversial celebration by the Chelsea women football team has become a huge talking point among football fans online.
Social Media is a huge part of people’s life nowadays and football fans have their own online banters nowadays. We have seen a lot of players’ celebrations getting viral through the media and sometimes being misinterpreted. Now again the media has brought about another controversy produced by the fans sitting at home. A celebration from Chelsea women football team midfielder Erin Cuthbert and teammate Johanna Rytting Keneryd has been the new talking point. Cuthbert after scoring in their 5-0 win against Everton during the weekend celebrated with her teammate in a peculiar way. They both raised their hands and stood still. The Social media soon picked it up and caught similarities with Arsenal captain Leah Williamson. The England international was already being mocked for raising her hands asking for offside.
That sort of a narrative emerged as part of the online fan banters arguing that the Chelsea players were mocking the Arsenal captain. The rivalry between the London clubs in English football is not so young. Through the times we have seen the fans of Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, West Ham, Fulham etc battle it out offline and online. And as football fan we all know that football fans won’t waste an opportunity to mock their rivals. A normal celebration has sparked a huge controversy. This also forced the players involved to provide an explanation about a funny celebration they did. Just think how such a funny thing you do without thinking leads to such complications. That is the new world.
The brilliance of the new media I would say. People have the power to generate narratives as per their choice. The repeated sharing of such false narratives later established the false as the truth.
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?
Chelsea took on winless Everton on matchday six of the Women’s Super League season. The Blues are on an unbeaten streak under new manager Sonia Bompastor. They also sit at the top of the league, gunning towards another WSL title. Anyway the match saw the west Londoners demolish Everton 5-0 at the Goodison Park. Chelsea were on the ascendancy throughout the match not even giving their opponents a chance to have a single shot on target and also dominated the possession by 68% against 32%. The visitors opened the scoring just 14 minutes into the match through striker Angie Beever Jones. They had to wait until the final minutes of the first half for the second and third goals.
Scottish midfielder Erin Cuthbert scored the second goal of the day in the 43rd minute. The Chelsea number eight capitalized on a mistake and took the ball off Toffees defender and went on to score the goal. She then ran towards the left corner flag along with her teammate Johanna Keneryd and raised their right hands. That celebration caught the eyes of fans in the social media generating various narratives. Some fans went on to support the narrative while some refrained from spreading these false narratives.
THE EXPLANATION GIVEN BY CHELSEA WOMEN
Post-match Chelsea forward Aggie Beever Jones gave a different explanation for the event.
She told Sky Sports: “In training yesterday we were doing some finishing practices and we had one of the academy keepers train up and she did a save, I’m not going to re-enact it, but she did a save by just sticking her hand up. Erin found it extremely funny and I think she had a bet on doing it today. That was the reasoning behind it.”
A move that was inspired from a reserve keeper then went on to be a controversial one picked up by Arsenal and Chelsea fans alike. This also led Cuthbert to post on Instagram showing the clip from an elevator they all imitate the reserve keeper. Anyway despite providing explanations of all sorts the images are still circulating with false narratives and memes. A win on Monday meant Chelsea women football club remain unbeaten and maintain a 100% record in the league. Only Manchester City are the serious rivals who can deny Chelsea from another WSL title.
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