Hayes’ train keeps rolling: lessons from Chelsea Women’s win over Spurs

Losing Pernille Harder once again is not a problem too big for this team

In the morning following the result in west London, Harder, the Danish superstar attacker was announced to have had surgery and will be out of action for a lengthy period of time. Following the result against Liverpool when Harder was injured in the warm-up to the game, there was no question many concerns about how long this attack is going to take to get up and running. The question of if the attack is going to decrease its production has been answered in an emphatic fashion against Tottenham.

There are of course areas of improvement with Harder out, shown in many of the contests at the beginning of the season, but with players like a rising Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, Fran Kirby coming back from her injury, and many other pieces that came off the bench against Spurs, this team should be perfectly equipped to overcome yet another obstacle like this. Harder’s pace and creativity in front of the net inject the Chelsea attack with something that few players around the world can replicate. Ultimately, it is not ideal to have arguably the best forward player missing during a critical stretch of games before the break, but the fact that she is not absent for games in the later stages of the Champions League is a positive in itself.

Jelena Cankovic is slowly coming back from her injury, and with all the hype around the club about this Serbian international, she could consistently feature for Chelsea as soon as her health gets sorted out. Whether it was missing Hayes on the touchline or Kirby in the attack, the Blues have encountered many obstacles that the top teams in the English top flight have simply not endured. James and Kerr clearly are developing a partnership up top, and while it would be nice to see a healthy Harder consistently alongside both of them, this is why Hayes brought in this much talent to the team this past summer.