Guro Reiten’s first-half penalty kept up Chelsea’s perfect start to the season and secured a 12th successive victory for Sonia Bompastor with a 1-0 win over Man Utd.
The Blues opened up a five-point gap at the top of the WSL in the only game of the weekend without getting out of second gear at Kingsmeadow, and never looked in danger of losing their lead once they went ahead after 17 minutes.
The goal which ended Man Utd’s own unbeaten start came after Simi Awujo was caught in possession in her own half by Erin Cuthbert, and after feeding Mayra Ramirez, a one-two with Maika Hamano set her into the box, where she was brought down by Phallon Tullis-Joyce.
Reiten, who had already scored in each of her previous three WSL games, made it four in a row from 12 yards with a perfect penalty, despite the Man Utd goalkeeper guessing the right way.
Man Utd came into the weekend with the league’s meanest defence but the hosts looked the most watertight in South London for most of the game. The visitors registered only a single shot until the last minute of normal time, when Melvine Malard crashed an effort against the crossbar out of nothing.
Chelsea should have already added to their lead by that point, with Johanna Rytting Kaneryd guilty of failing to square for a Ramirez tap-in after half-time, while Cuthbert also pulled a fingertip stop out of Tullis-Joyce.
Shortly before Malard’s near miss, Ramirez should have complemented her first-half penalty win with a goal of her own, but fired straight at Tullis-Joyce from Kaneryd’s pull-back.
More to follow…
