Chelsea Ladies continued their 100% winning start to the new season by defeating Liverpool Ladies 1-0 at Kingsmeadow. A much changed Chelsea side from the midweek line-up that beat Bayern Munich in the Champion’s League were still able to dominate proceedings in a game they could and should have won by more.
After the gruelling first leg battle on Wednesday evening, as expected, Emma Hayes rotated the majority of that starting eleven by making six changes to the side to freshen things up. In goal came Becky Spencer for her first start of the season, the wing backs were changed with Gemma Davison and Crystal Dunn coming in and finally there was a new front three with Erin Cuthbert being supported by Ji So-Yun and Karen Carney.
Liverpool Ladies started in a compact 4-3-3 system, with Jess Clarke down the middle for them. Liverpool’s game plan was to try and frustrate the Blues and shut down the passing lanes down the wings. Chelsea however were outnumbering the Liverpool players on the left and that dominance led to the only goal of the game in the 14th minute as Gemma Davison’s deflected cross made its way to Maren Mjelde who calmly struck the ball into the bottom corner.
The Merseyside team were determined to not concede again to ensure they were still in with a chance of gaining something from the game, unfortunately for them they couldn’t muster many openings for themselves. The only half chance they created was gone as quickly as it appeared as Jess Clarke miscontrolled when she could have gone through one on one. Chelsea eventually finished the game with 71% possession and Becky Spencer not having a save to make for the whole match. Clear cut chances were few and far between for the Blues who used the rest of the match to just go through the motions and keep themselves fresh for the upcoming second leg of their Champion’s League tie.
With that victory, Chelsea have now won 4 games in a row without conceding a single goal. Emma Hayes team have begun the season in stunning form and are showing no signs of slowing down.
Player of the Match: Maren Mjelde (Chelsea) – Chelsea’s current top scorer with her third goal here clinched victory, while also commanding the centre of the field.