Last weekend, Chelsea Ladies christened the opening of a new stadium with a 6-0 victory and this weekend the Blues repeated the trick by christening the opening of another new stadium with another resounding 6-0 win. Only this time instead of being the celebrants, Chelsea Ladies were the party poopers as they clinically put Sunderland Ladies to the sword at their new Mariners Park home.
Emma Hayes couldn’t make the trip up to Sunderland due to illness so it was assistant manager Paul Green who took the reins. Sunderland Ladies set up in a 5-3-1-1 to try and contain the free scoring blues while Chelsea were in the 3-4-2-1 formation, there were three changes in personnel from the match against Bristol City Women; Millie Bright, Ji So-Yun and Ramona Bachmann replacing Maria Thorisdottir, Hannah Blundell and Drew Spence.
Chelsea were in control for much of the initial proceedings, holding possession and probing for openings. Sunderland were doing well to limit the Blues who had to resort to long range efforts. It took a moment of class in the 25th minute from Fran Kirby to finally break Sunderland’s resistance. After collecting a pass on the edge of the box from Ramona Bachmann, Kirby quickly adjusted her body to send a wonderful curling effort into the top corner. For the rest of the half however, Sunderland continued to frustrate the Blues with resilient defending and at half time Chelsea only had a 1-0 lead to show for their efforts.
The second half began in much of the same fashion as the first, with Chelsea laying siege to Sunderland’s penalty area but only being able to muster half chances. Again it had to be something special to beat Sunderland’s keeper Anke Preuss. Eleven minutes into the second half, Gemma Davison collected the ball on the left hand side of the pitch and managed to evade two Sunderland players before arrowing a low shot into the net from just outside of the penalty box. This goal was the beginning of a goal glut as the Sunderland players began to tire. Davison quickly grabbed her second of the game before Ji So-Yun scored the goal of the match with a stunning 20 yard strike which clipped the underside of the bar. Chelsea emphasised their strength in depth by being able to bring on Eni Aluko, Erin Cuthbert and last week’s goal scorer Drew Spence.
The substitutes added another dimension to Chelsea’s threat and Cuthbert and Aluko both added goals to the scoresheet to complete another dominant 6-0 display for the Blues.
To win the second game on the trot in such convincing fashion can breed nothing but confidence for Chelsea who face a tough week this week, with the first leg of their Champions League tie on Wednesday and an early clash with title challengers Liverpool Ladies next weekend.
Player of the Match: Gemma Davison (Chelsea) – In her new position of Left Wing Back, Davison made the important breakthrough with Chelsea’s second and third goals to clinch the game for the Blues.