Kerr and James ruin United’s perfect record

IF THIS was a test of Manchester United’s title credentials, they fell short — but only just.

Chelsea edged a game dominated by mistakes, but it was the quality of Sam Kerr and Lauren James that made the difference.

They scored two goals in four second-half minutes before Alessia Russo’s strike gave United a glimmer of hope with 20 minutes to go.

But as the hosts pushed forward for an equaliser, they left themselves exposed and Erin Cuthbert wrapped up the points with a deflected strike in stoppage time. The difference between these two sides is depth and experience. Chelsea, Women’s Super League champions three years running, have it in abundance. United are catching up, but are not there — yet. ‘We lost the game on speed of thought and concentration,’ boss Marc Skinner said. ‘It’s those second-half focus points that we need to be better at. We acquitted ourselves much, much better than we did last year. There are things we’ll definitely learn and it will only feed our hunger for the next fixtures coming up.’

Only United and Arsenal had won every game before this weekend’s round of fixtures and the Gunners, who beat bottom-of-the-table Leicester 4-0, have been by far the best team in the league to date. Chelsea are yet to hit top form but are still winning and will have boss Emma Hayes back after the international break. ‘I think we deserved it,’ said general manager Paul Green. ‘We knew we had the weapons in our squad that could hurt them and coming here and scoring three tells that story. We’ve got a lot of momentum behind us in this period and I think we are getting back to our best.’ It was United who had the first real chance of a quiet first half as Russo nearly carved out an early goal. The forward cut the ball back to Ella Toone inside the box and her deflected shot was parried by Ann-Katrin Berger before Nikita Parris sent the rebound into the side netting. Chelsea could have had a penalty when Maya Le Tissier tangled with Guro Reiten, but referee Cheryl Foster was unmoved. Niamh Charles then forced Mary Earps into a fine save before Pernille Harder headed a Kerr cross wide.

The Blues almost gifted the hosts a goal just before half-time as Millie Bright’s pass across her box was intercepted by Toone, but the defender got back well to block the forward’s effort.

Instead, it was a defensive lapse from United that broke the deadlock in the 60th minute.

Millie Turner’s pass was cut out by Sophie Ingle and the midfielder played through Kerr, who held off Le Tissier to finish. Chelsea had found their groove and four minutes later had a second. Kerr raced on to a ball over the top and fed James, who fired low into the bottom right corner. United stayed in the game and pulled one back in the 71st minute. Toone pounced on a mistake from Cuthbert and played through Russo, who slotted past Berger. United pushed for an equaliser but left gaps in their defence and Chelsea exploited them, Cuthbert firing in a deflected strike in added time.