by Alyce Collett (12/12/25)
Above: Courtney Brosnan was crucial in helping Everton defeat Chelsea and end its undefeated run. Photo: via Everton FC.
Last weekend saw a historic result in the Women’s Super League (WSL) as Everton caused what might just end up being the upset of the season in knocking off Chelsea 1-0 and ending the Blues’ historic run of undefeated matches in a row.
As much as Honoka Hayashi’s 12th minute goal was important in ensuring the result, there was another player that had an even bigger role in helping the Toffees get over the line – their goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan.
Brosnan is a goalkeeper who sometimes gets forgotten about in mainstream media because she does not play for a big club like Arsenal or Manchester City, but has been the absolute bedrock of the Everton side since moving across from West Ham and her performance against Chelsea last weekend was another example of why she should be more talked about as one of the best goal keepers in the competition.
In this analysis piece we take a deeper dive into Brosnan’s efforts against the reigning champions, explain why she was so important to Everton getting the huge result, and try and delve deeper into what this might mean for Everton’s upcoming challenge this weekend.
Courtney Brosnan stats vs Chelsea
Minutes: 90
Shots on Target Against: 6
Goals Against: 0
Chelsea recorded 30 shots against Everton last weekend, and although only six of them were on target, that is still a lot of relentless pressure on the Everton defence. With Brosnan at the heart of the Everton defensive team, she was able to provide the defensive surety that allowed the rest of the defensive group to confidently stand up to the relentless Chelsea attack.
One of the biggest positives of Brosnan’s game and the way she plays as a keeper more broadly Is her strong agility and her strong ability to read the ball through a crowded 6 yard box. In situations where some keepers would get caught off guard, lose the ball in the crowd and have the ball sneak past them into the goal, Brosnan is able to react with precise timing and tap away shots others would have not been able to reach.
A perfect example of this from last weekend’s match was in the sixth minute when Catarina Macario put up a shot that nutmegged through several sets of legs and was looking primed to go into the bottom corner of the back of the net, but Brosnan was able to read the path of the shot perfectly and tap it away and out of bounds.
Brosnan is also a very strong goal keeper, both in a physical sense and in a mental sense.
On the physical side of things, she can strongly mark the ball in a packed box – particularly in corner situations – and it is unlikely that the ball is going to be dislodged from her hands.
On the more mental side of things, Brosnan is not afraid to put her body on the line, and come out to stop shots and even potential shots. There was a prime example of this against Chelsea when she came out wide and perfectly timed a potential Lauren James cross that could have also just as easily been a kick straight to Brosnan’s face.
One other interesting thing to notice when watching Brosnan is her positioning within the 6 and 18 yard boxes.
She does not stay on her line too long – and often only does this when the ball is nowhere near her goal – but she also does not come out too far from her goal either, which stops opposition players being tempted to chip her and catch her off her line, or the need for her to pedal back at some speed for any reason.
During the game against Chelsea, the average distance from goal that Brosnan was while doing any of her defensive actions was 6.6 yards, or just over 6 metres. By contrast, Chelsea goalkeeper Livia Peng‘s average for the same metric was 25.5 yards, or just over 23 metres.
What does this mean for this weekend?
The challenging match ups keep coming for Brosnan and Everton, with the Toffees set to face Arsenal this weekend.
If the Toffees want to keep momentum going and pick up win three of the season, Brosnan is going to need to have another big game.
Despite the results not always going its way so far this season, Arsenal has scored more goals than Chelsea has so far this season, and the Gunners have a higher shots on target percentage so far this season than their London rivals.
Everton has caused some headaches for the Gunners in recent years, and a huge part of that is the confidence Brosnan provides and the assurances that if an opposition forward does get into a position to be able to shoot, Brosnan is going to be able to not only react quickly enough but in the right direction to be able to stop the shot.
Arsenal’s first choice forwards this season – which most of the time is Caitlin Foord, Olivia Smith and Alessia Russo – particularly tend to like to use agility to get past defenders as opposed to brute strength, so Brosnan’s strong reaction times will be put to the test this weekend.
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