Manchester United Women suffered their first league defeat of the season at the hands of reigning league champions, Chelsea, on Sunday evening. The Reds had come into this game after winning the opening five league games without conceding a goal. With the impressive start, talk had been about us being possible title contenders but questions remained on how well we would do against the top sides. The defeat left us third in the Women’s Super League table three points ahead of Manchester City.
United’s defence held firm in the first half
The match started out evenly but it was United who had the first opportunity to create something when Alessia Russo picked up the ball on the right and forced the save from Chelsea’s Ann-Katrin Berger. Nikita Parris was quick to follow up on the rebound but her effort went wide of the goal.
Our opponents then began to apply pressure of their own to the Reds’ defence with goalkeeper Mary Earps having to gather the ball from consecutive corners. As Chelsea’s dominance grew, there was a claim for a penalty when Maya Le Tissier took the ball off Guro Reiten within the United box but the referee waved it away.
United were forced to defend again moments later when Lauren James won a free kick on the right side of the box. It was cleared away by our defence before Mary Eaprs confidently gathered the ball to stop the attack. As we neared half-time, the Reds’ defence was under pressure as Chelsea searched for the opening goal but we battled away the threat through a number of clearances and headers.
Russo, Toone, and Parris were looking good on the counter-attack, however, Chelsea’s defence was equally up to the test as both teams went into the interval level with each other.
Chelsea punished our defensive lapses
In the second half both teams cancelled each other out as they continued going toe-to-toe. It was clear to see why both sides boasted the first and third-best defensive records in the league before the game kicked off. However, it was United’s defence that would be breached for the first time in the league this season. A misplaced pass by Millie Turner was picked up by Sophie Ingle who played in Sam Kerr, who drove the ball into the bottom corner of the goal to give the visitors the lead.
Just minutes later, it was Kerr again who broke down the left and then put the ball into the middle of the box and Lauren James fired into the bottom corner to give Chelsea a 2-0 lead. The crowd continued to roar on United as we looked to get back into the game. With twenty minutes left Ella Toone pinched the ball in the opposition’s half to put Alessia Russo through on goal and halve the deficit.
The tide of the game began to turn as United exerted more pressure. Manager Marc Skinner brought on more striking options in the form of Rachel Williams and Martha Thomas as we tried to find the equaliser. We threw everything at our visitors but two minutes into injury time Chelsea’s Erin Cuthbert sealed the win with the opposition’s third of the game.
There is now an international break before United return to action on Saturday 19th November with an away trip to league leaders Arsenal.