‘It’s not over,’ says Hayes as romp puts race on a knife-edge
Chelsea 8
Reiten 6 56 70 77, Nüsken 23, Beever-Jones 52 88, Charles 74
Bristol City 0
Guro Reiten helped herself to four goals as Chelsea turned up the heat on the Women’s Super League leaders, Manchester City, with an eight-goal thrashing of Bristol City on a day when the title race was blown open.
A midweek loss for Chelsea at Liverpool put Manchester City in the driving seat, with Emma Hayes saying she thought her side’s challenge was over. But Chelsea took full advantage of their rivals’ last-gasp defeat in the earlier kick-off yesterday by pummelling an already-relegated Bristol City in Hayes’s final fixture at Kingsmeadow.
Chelsea’s emphatic win means they now trail City by three points with a game in hand at Tottenham to come. But, perhaps crucially, the defending champions’ goal difference is now one ahead of their title rivals going into the last fortnight of the season.
Hayes was in buoyant mood after yesterday’s romp, saying: “Let me be clear, it’s not fucking over. There is no time for sentimentality. All work drinks are cancelled. There’s a title to be won.
“That group of players, I’ve been here 12 years, no matter what, with a group of people driving standards. This group taught me something so special this week that you never, ever give up. This is Chelsea.”
Reiten opened the scoring for Chelsea with a sixth-minute penalty before Sjoeke Nüsken forced home a second midway through the first half. Aggie Beever-Jones made it 3-0 in the 52nd minute with a slick finish before Reiten rifled home another as the floodgates opened.
It was 5-0 when Reiten smashed in at the near post for her hat-trick after 70 minutes. This sparked a spree of three goals in seven minutes as the Norway forward grabbed her fourth, not long after Niamh Charles had poked in at the back post.
Beever-Jones produced the cherry on top when she stooped low to nod in Reiten’s cross with two minutes remaining.