Chelsea’s Women’s Super League clash with Arsenal was delayed by 30 minutes because of a clash of socks.

The Gunners arrived to Stamford Bridge with the same colour white socks as the hosts, causing referee Rebecca Welch to delay the match until a solution was found.

Arsenal sported black socks from Chelsea’s megastore in order for the match to go ahead. Blue tape was used in a makeshift attempt to hide the Chelsea logo on the socks.

As the scheduled kick-off time approached, a crowd of more than 30,000 in west London were instead treated to loud music.

Former Arsenal men’s striker Ian Wright, a keen supporter of the women’s game, posted on social media site X: “Embarrassing this. Ridiculous.”

Things did not improve for Arsenal once the match began, as a Lauren James goal and two from Sjoeke Nusken gave Chelsea a 3-0 half-time lead.