Chelsea blank Man.city, United see off West Ham

LONDON: Chelsea bounced back from their opening-day defeat with 2-0 victory over rivals Manchester City, who remain winless this season.

Fran Kirby poked home Guro Reiten’s low cross ater a pacey Chelsea counter-atack to open the scoring, much to the delight of a packed Kingsmeadow.

City had the beter of the defending champions for large spells but some sloppy defending let them down.

Maren Mjelde’s powerful spot-kick ater a handball delivered the final blow.

England midfielder Kirby has been involved in 34 goals in her past 20 Women’s Super League (WSL) appearances, scoring 21 goals and providing 13 assists. Fan favourite Kirby will surely have again impressed England manager Sarina Wiegman, who was watching on from the stands, but fellow Lionesses Lauren Hemp and Chloe Kelly struggled to assert themselves with many of City’s opportunities coming through Khadija Shaw.

Striker Shaw was lively, shooting from long range and asserting her dominance in the air, while Chelsea goalkeeper Ann-katrin Berger, making her first appearance since having treatment for a recurrence of thyroid cancer, was kept busy by Laura Coombs.

Chelsea’s Lauren James could well have caught the eye of Wiegman, too, puting on an impressive display ater many predicted she would be the breakout star of the season.

City were dominant for much of the first half but some messy defending allowed Kirby to score the opener with the timing of the goal, shortly before the break, hurting the visitors.

In the second half it was Chelsea who were in the ascendancy - James drove into the box from just beyond the halfway line and saw her shot well saved by Ellie Roebuck while Kirby had a similar chance to double the lead but shot over the bar.

Leila Ouahabi’s handball, which led to the penalty, might have been sot but was a just reward for Chelsea’s second-half dominance.

The hosts, who were beaten by Liverpool on the opening weekend of the season, have now not lost to City in 11 WSL matches, winning five and drawing six.

Meanwhile, Lucia Garcia and Hannah Blundell scored their first goals for the club as Manchester United kept up their winning start to the season at West Ham United. Garcia, a summer signing from Athletic Bilbao, latched on to a through ball to open the scoring on 50 minutes.

Blundell made it 2-0 five minutes later as the visitors built on their opening win against Reading.