Another trip to Chelsea, another defeat for Manchester City Women. Friday’s 2-1 loss at Stamford Bridge seemed to have the hallmarks of another loss at the home of the Champions. City have visited Chelsea 22 times in the WSL and have lost 14 times, while winning just six.
It’s a familiar story – City toil, Chelsea take the lead, heads drop and the home side take the points. The only time that hasn’t happened was February 2024, when Bunny Shaw’s solitary strike in the first half claimed teh points for
the Blues.
It was a rare home defeat for the champions and an even rarer victory for City, away to their main WSL rivals. Over the years, City have had no answer to Chelsea’s dominance, apart from the 24/25 season, when the Blues came agonisingly close to ending Chelsea’s claim on the WSL title.
And, after 31 minutes on Friday, it looked like the same old story. Only this time, it wasn’t.
This new look City side have also had a new fight injected into them. Rather than going on the defensive, protecting their goal and reducing the risk of a hammering, City didn’t let their heads drop. Instead, they attacked with venom, putting Chelsea on the ropes, particularly in the second half, when the Blues had chances to level.
Even when the hosts went 2-0 up, City continued to press, feeling like they could get something out of the match. Granted, it was an own goal, scored with Niamh Charles under very little pressure, that gave City hope, but it was a catalyst that showed City will no longer go down without a fight.
It’s the sort of energy against teams like Chelsea, Arsenal and United that has been sadly lacking in recent years under Gareth Taylor, and an injection of determination had not only become necessary, but imperative if City are to once again challenge for the WSL title.
On Friday evening, the Blues fought well, with Yui Hasegawa almost celebrating her new contract with a goal. On a couple of occasions, the Japanese star was denied by Hannah Hampton and also saw a clever flick drift painfully past the far post. But the midfielder typified the fight, the energy and desire to win that finally filled the engine room.
Defensively, City need to be better and moving Alex Greenwood to a full-back position, when she has spent almost her entire City career in the middle of defence, may not have been the best tactic. She was up against Ellie Carpenter, Chelsea’s new signing, and the 25-year-old right-back was given the freedom to charge forward at every opportunity. at 32, Greenwood struggled to keep up with the Australian and it showed on many occasions.
However, being up against one of the best attacking defenders in the WSL won’t happen every week, but it did expose Greenwood as being susceptible to pace on the wing, and new boss Andree Jeglertz will have to rethink his strategy by the time Brighton arrive on Friday.
It was Greenwood’s lack of pace that helped for the second goal, in addition to City leaving Maika Hamano completely unmarked inside the area, another headache for Jeglertz to solve.
But, despite the defeat and obvious defensive frailties, the signs were there for City, and it would be stupid to base the season on just one match against the defending champions. Indeed, there were comments on Friday that Chelsea would ‘walk the league’ again, but, in football, nothing is certain.
The Blues have some work to do and will need some time, not only for the new players to start gelling together, but also to understand what Jeglertz wants from them.
This is a new era for Manchester City Women and if Friday’s performance alone is anything to go by, then we will soon be in for an exciting time at the Joie Stadium.
