Even though Chelsea Women have come to today’s match at Stamford Bridge unbeaten, this record doesn’t mean they’re in their best moment. Outside of a few matches where they managed to overwhelm the opposition
very early on, the Blues haven’t been as dominant as they were even in comparison to last season when this team in Sonia Bompastor’s first season already looked more pragmatic and conservative than in the times when Emma Hayes led the group.
The team aren’t solely to blame for this. There has been a lot of investment coming in for Women’s Super League teams and today’s opposition, London City Lionesses, are perhaps the best example of it. Once the team got their promotion from the Championship, team owner Michele Kang — who also has the NSWL’s Washington Spirit and OL Lyonnes under her umbrella — opened the war chest for an almost complete squad overhaul in preparations for top tier football.
Therefore this wouldn’t be the typical match against a recently promoted Championship outfit in which Chelsea would just come in and score multiple goals in quick succession. Although they could have done so if they had a bit more luck in front of goal.
At least Ellie Carpenter’s chance went in very early on, with Sandy Baltimore running to the left flank and crossing low to the fellow wing-back at the far post to open the scoring for the hosts at the Bridge.
On the opposite side we had a London City team playing well, but not to their full potential as the team has a lot of new and talented names who have yet to gel together. Some chances did go through for them when they won the several battles for possession between the two sides. But nothing fruitful came out of them.
In the second half both teams returned with a predisposition to make the scoreline move further to either side. Neither were able to do so, with good chances going begging on both sides… up until Sam Kerr’s amazing goal with plenty of help from London City’s defence to definitively seal the deal in our favour.
Carefree!
- The 5-3-2 on paper becomes a 4-2-3-1 in practice, with Ellie Carpenter playing high up the pitch to join Aggie Beever-Jones and Guro Reiten in attack.
- And speaking of Ellie, she gets her first ever Chelsea goal today. Hooray!
- Try as they might, this team has no luck in front of the goal.
- …unless you have a Sam Kerr! What a goal!
- Next up: Arsenal away in the Women’s Super League.
- KTBFFH!
