Chelsea reinforce title status on a City off-day

IT HAD all the makings of a Wembley spectacle: a controversial sending-off, a stunning long-distance goal and a raucous celebration with a trophy. All it lacked was fans, of course.

Despite Chelsea laying down the gauntlet for the new season and perhaps justifying their controversial title award from last term, the more significant outcome was the plain fact that women’s football is back.

While considerable time, effort and money was invested in finishing the men’s season, women’s football was forced to sit on the sidelines, unable to restart in England until now, with an allnew revived Community Shield, played at Wembley before Arsenal and Liverpool took the field.

While there may be good economic reasons, the fear is that it will stifle progress made by England’s run to the World Cup semi-finals in the summer of 2019.

It also meant that Manchester City, top when the WSL was halted, lost the title to Chelsea on points per game. So this was more than a curtain raiser, more a rematch and a reboot.

‘It’s a great testament to the FA putting this fixture on,’ said Chelsea manager Emma Hayes. ‘It’s just a shame there weren’t fans as the quality showed these are the two outstanding teams and I hope the broadcast figures confirm that. We made it clear we didn’t want the season to end the way it did, but I think we showed why we are champions.’

With the game shown live on BBC, the occasion had greater visibility than ever. This fixture hadn’t even been played since 2008. That last clash was at Moss Rose, Macclesfield, which with all due respect to Cheshire isn’t quite Wembley Stadium.

Given an appropriate stage, it was Chelsea who seized it, even if it was a dismal afternoon for their star signing of last season, Sam Kerr. Put clean through on three minutes, she drove into the sidenetting, a foretaste of how her frustrating afternoon in front of goal would progress.

Broadly, Chelsea were better but City’s brief period of assertion came midway through the first half when Chloe Kelly’s mazy run on 29 minutes took her past three players. Janine Beckie, though, mistimed her run and was offside as she put the ball in the net.

It was Kelly again on 35 minutes who almost forced the breakthrough; Chelsea goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger parried a Georgia Stanway effort and Kelly reacted quickest, shooting smartly but striking a post.

But the 61st-minute sending-off of Jill Scott turned the game. Booked in the first half for a challenge on Ji So-yun, who dictated the tempo of the game for Chelsea, she committed the same offence on the Korean, sliding in late. Amid confusion, with no card seemingly shown, Scott walked off having received a second caution.

Within minutes, the game turned Chelsea’s way.

Where Kerr had failed, centre half Millie Bright succeeded on 66 minutes, hitting a clean strike from 30 yards which bamboozled City goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck.

‘It didn’t surprise me,’ said Hayes. ‘I see it every day.’

That prompted City to bring on their new American signing Sam Mewis, but Chelsea sealed their win in added time when a Steph Houghton clearance fell to Erin Cuthbert, who struck from inside the area.