Persistence pays off as Chelsea top West Ham: lessons learned

In a match that began with an uncharacteristic mistake just three minutes in, Chelsea found a way to suffocate West Ham United with constant pressure in the attack that eventually paid its dividends. When the final whistle blew at Kingsmeadow this past Sunday evening, Emma Hayes and the Blues looked to have turned a corner, putting together a sensational second half of football against Manchester City.

While back-to-back clean sheets was not accomplished, Hayes learned a lot about her team. To be able to respond to adversity with two of the new summer acquisitions on the pitch shows a whole lot about what this club is made of. A miscommunication in the back between Sam Kerr, and Kadeisha Buchanan sent shock waves around Kingsmeadow. Still, Kerr and Reiten’s immediate response with near misses confirmed that CFCW knew they had to take care of business before the international break.

Following the performance out on the pitch, Hayes expressed her thoughts on the performance:

"“The side showed a great reaction to conceding an early goal, and the scoreline could have been bigger. I feel we’re improving and progressed from the Man City game – we grew in confidence.” She continued, “It’s so tough for new signings to learn quickly but I’m really happy for Svitkova and Perisset who made their full debuts tonight…I can’t fault the application of players – it’s such a nice dressing room that’s growing in confidence. The team are where they should be after three games but there’s still some rust.”"

For the third consecutive contest, the “Super” Fran Kirby has found the back of the net, and the past two times lifted the weight off of the Blues’ shoulders following two straight tough starts to matches. The English international has been through one tumultuous year that saw her miss the majority of last season, but after an event-filled summer, Kirby has carried her momentum right into the Women’s Super League season. In her last 33 starts for the club, Kirby has collected a whopping 31 goals to go along with 19 assists.

Pernille Harder has not even had the chance to see the pitch yet, and with Kirby’s creativity, and finishing ability playing behind Kerr, and Harder, this Chelsea attack is going elevate to a whole new stratosphere. If it was not for that mishap on a set-piece, Chelsea pieced together a quality performance filled with phenomenal build-up play that did not always receive the finish that it rightly deserved.

Erin Cuthbert continued to show how valuable she is as a holding midfielder, while Katerina Svitkova and Eve Perisset owned the right flank in their first appearances for the Blues in the starting IX. Even early in the season, this seems like the building blocks of something special, and while the finishing product is not quite there, the quality shows at every level on the pitch. Out of a rocky start came a much more fluid brand of football, here are the lessons from Chelsea’s resounding win over the Irons.