Aston Villa have been very competent under manager Natalia Arroyo, who lifted them up to a sixth-place finish in the Women’s Super League after taking them over in January. Playing at the big stage of Villa Park, they wanted to show to a big crowd of home supporters they have what it takes to at least challenge Chelsea in these occasions, something they haven’t been able to do over the last few years.
They put on a good fight and got a few shouts in front of our area, with Ebony Salmon ever the main
culprit in these situations. Still it was Catarina Macario’s magic combine with Aggie Beever-Jones’ opportunism that got the opening goal instead.
Aston Villa wouldn’t give up so easily, especially Salmon who was always finding herself with some space to punch in a dangerous shot from close or long range. On the latter she got the home side the equaliser in the first half after Chasity Grant easily beat the entire Chelsea backline on a marauding run down the left flank.
An extremely fragile Blues defence and midfield tried their best to give Villa the advantage before the end of the first half. Hampton, having to make up for the goal given up against Salmon, made sure that wouldn’t happen despite the Aston Villa attacker’s (and ours’) best efforts.
A triple substitution at half-time was a sign Bompastor had enough of whatever she decided to muster with her starting eleven choices. Early impressions were very positive in comparison to whatever those last 15 minutes of the first half were.
The turnaround didn’t take long to happen. A corner kick in Aston Villa’s area fell on Keira Walsh’s feet at the edge of the box and the midfielder took her chances from there. Missy Bo Kearns tried to clear it out, but ended up giving it the deflection it needed to beat Ellie Roebuck for our second goal of the day.
Villa tried to find answers to us getting back in front. However with Salmon increasingly tired from carrying the team on her back and Chelsea finally having what we could call a central midfield with Erin Cuthbert in place of Wieke Kaptein, there was little to no room of opportunity for the hosts on the other side of the pitch.
Chelsea themselves could have gotten plenty of goals with better finishing and luck. At the end of the day they just got one more with Sam Kerr getting back to doing what she does best.
Carefree!
- Keira Walsh and Wieke Kaptein start in midfield, while Guro Reiten and Catarina Macario lead our attack from the get-go.
- Back to back goals from Aggie Beever-Jones.
- You have to wonder why Sonia Bompastor would choose such a weak midfield to start away against a side that won five consecutive matches before the end of the season.
- Promising stuff from Alyssa Thompson in her Chelsea debut. She’s in search of footing in a new team, but her individual plays alone were a sight for sore eyes.
- 100 Chelsea goals. What a mark from Sam Kerr!
- Next up: Leicester at home in the Women’s Super League.
- KTBFFH!
