Chelsea took a huge step towards retaining the title as they produced one of the most comfortable football scores of the weekend in the Women’s Super League. If Man Utd had lost to Man City at home on Sunday evening, Emma Hayes’ team would have won the WSL championship. However, a late 2-1 victory extended the race to the last day. If Chelsea defeats bottom-place Reading on Sunday and Man Utd fails to win at Liverpool and reach a six-goal swing, Chelsea will win the league title by two points over United, and maybe even with a draw.
Midway through the first half, a spirited Chelsea team seized the lead thanks to Guro Reiten, who stretched unopposed to finish Eve Perisset’s driven cross into the bottom corner for her 12th goal of the year. only before halftime, Chelsea increased their advantage thanks to a Reiten free-kick that Sam Kerr headed back across goal for Magdalena Eriksson to score (41), a memorable moment for the captain only days after revealing she would be departing the team at the end of the season. Chelsea attempted to acquire Katie McCabe in January, and she missed a penalty for Arsenal (60), but the Blues played the game out competently and earned three points, their 18th victory in 21 games this season and sixth in a row.
Chelsea can win the WSL for the fourth consecutive year with simply a win against bottom-dwelling Reading, and most likely even a point will be enough. Man Utd must defeat Liverpool on Saturday and hope Chelsea loses at Reading, draws at Reading, or scores six goals against Reading to win. For Chelsea, Manchester United, and Arsenal, the three WCL positions are all but certain. City’s 2-1 loss against Manchester United also makes it doubtful that they will qualify for the Champions League next season. To reach an 11-goal swing, they must defeat Everton in their last game and hope Arsenal loses to Villa at home.
Early on, Chelsea pinned Arsenal back; Kerr scored but was adjudged to be offside; nonetheless, the first real opportunity came to Arsenal on the counterattack; Ann-Katrin Berger stopped Stina Blackstenius, saving Perisset’s face after losing control in midfield. However, Perisset was a part of Chelsea’s opening goal as they grabbed a deserving lead. Reiten, who was unmarked, was discovered by her diagonal to the back post and slipped into the bottom right corner from ten yards out. Frida Maanum’s powerful drive required two tries from Berger to deflect, and Kerr was stopped by Manuela Zinsberger at the other end, but Chelsea’s overwhelming dominance paid off as Eriksson’s close-range goal following an unselfish Kerr header across the face of goal proved decisive.
Even Jonas Eidevall, who was dressed in an army-green tracksuit for the journey to their London adversaries, couldn’t complain about the hosts taking their cushion. At halftime, he switched to Steph Catley in place of Kathrine Kuhl, but this did nothing to stop the tide of goals as Zinsberger wonderfully stopped Pernille Harder early in the second half. Foord’s far-post poke did strike the crossbar for Arsenal, and they were given a penalty after McCabe’s shot struck Ingle’s arm. McCabe took a stride forward but missed the right-hand post with her kick. Jessie Fleming chose to square for Kerr rather than go alone in injury time, and the ball touched Lotte Wubben-Moy before being just blocked on the line by Zinsberger. Chelsea could have had a third goal.
“Although I’m really delighted that we won, I’m also quite sorry that [Eriksson and Harder] are leaving the team,” Chelsea Women boss Emma Hayes said. “Since March, this calendar has been unrelenting. This team, in my opinion, performs admirably in many games. This season, the team has performed superbly. Everyone who looks at the pitch sees 11 players, but I see years of labor, analysis, meetings, difficult moments, and happy times. This squad frequently reaches its peak.”
“The aspect of the game that I’m least pleased with is how we began. We are confident that we can perform it more effectively. The guys’ bravery and fearlessness in the second half was great, and we pushed Chelsea about a bit more,” Arsenal boss Emma Hayes said. “Naturally, this season has been difficult due to injuries. One reason [for not succeeding] is injuries. If you want to succeed, player availability should be one of your key performance indicators. In order to handle those circumstances, we need a deeper squad. As you can see with Chelsea, they were able to make extremely effective use of their personnel.”
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