Chelsea title defence suffers blow on women’s football weekend
Chelsea’s Women’s Super League title defence suffered a blow today with the Blues losing 2-0 to rivals Manchester City at the Academy Stadium.
Filippa Angeldahl and Lauren Hemp scored in the first half to give Gareth Taylor’s side a 2-0 victory over Emma Hayes’s Chelsea.
The result – combined with Manchester United’s dominant 4-0 victory over West Ham on Saturday – leaves Chelsea third, behind United and City in the WSL table.
Women’s football weekend
The two Manchester clubs each have 38 points but United have a superior goal difference.
Chelsea are a point behind on 37 with Arsenal two points further down the table in fourth – both of the London clubs have a game in hand over the Manchester duo.
“We lost. I was proud of the second-half performance. It’s important now we get all our thoughts into Thursday. It’s a tough loss but well done Manchester City,” Hayes said.
“Absolutely [we looked tired]. But I’m not going to say a negative word about my players. I love them. I know how hard they pushed in the second half. This was one game too many.”
City boss Taylor added: “The situation is the situation. Like I say, it is still Chelsea’s. If they win their game in hand they can go two clear of each of the three teams (City, United and Arsenal).
“There’s goal difference to consider as well, theirs is slightly superior to ours. There’s still going to be twists and turns.”
Elsewhere Aston Villa continued their impressive run of wins with a 5-0 victory over Leicester City at Villa Park – both Rachel Daly and Alisha Lehmann netted a brace while Kenza Dali got the other goal.
Greek footballer Veatriki Sarri netted an early brace to give Brighton a 2-0 lead after 13 minutes but the Seagulls couldn’t hold on against Reading with the hosts clawing back the two-goal deficit through Emma Harries to secure a 2-2 draw.