After nearly two months of build-up for Chelsea Women’s first match at Stamford Bridge this season, the Blues put on a show to remember in front of a record crowd of fans. Behind three first-half goals, the Blues put away their London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur early to take advantage of Arsenal’s blunder against Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium the day before. Sam Kerr kicked the festivities off, staying cool, calm, and collected, netting a goal in her fourth straight match in all competitions.
Even with former Blues legend on the other side of the pitch at the Bridge this time, Spurs was unable to create any sort of significant opportunity on goal with Ann-Katrin Berger commanding her box with purpose through 90 minutes. With Pernille Harder out for a significant amount of time once again, Hayes didn’t flinch and turned to Jessie Fleming to help fill the role with Kerr, Lauren James, and Guro Reiten in specular form flying toward the Spurs’ net.
Reiten added to her career season, converting a penalty with power and precision, and assisting Erin Cuthbert’s goal of the season to double CFC’s lead in the first half. It is the Norwegian’s eighth assist in all competitions, as she is slowly becoming one of the best creators in all the WSL. Not only did Cuthbert catch the goalkeeper off guard with her swerving volley, but she led the team in total tackles with four, winning possession on three of them to lead the team to frustrate a Spurs’ attack that lacked any sort of answers to piece together any sort of consistent concerning threat towards Berger between the sticks.
Following the confirmation of the three points, Emma Hayes expressed her joy of being back on the sideline for the first time since the West Ham match back in September
"“It just felt like I was going back out to my family and I felt like a spectator, for the most part, I just gave little bits of information as and when necessary I really enjoyed it. I felt like I hadn’t been away…I feel like a bit of a mother hen, coming back. Everyone is still operating and doing what they were doing while I’m away.”"
It was a dominant outing on Sunday afternoon for the Blues as the margin of victory could have been quite larger, but in the end, the second half was filled with a plethora of close opportunities for Chelsea. Spurs was constantly on the back foot, mounting 17 clearances compared to the Blues’ five on the day. Tottenham was only able to muster seven total touches in the Chelsea penalty area while the Blues totaled 26 through 90 minutes of play.
Reiten, herself collected more touches inside the penalty area of the opposition than the entire Spurs team could manage combined. Despite Spurs coming off one of their most resounding of victories in club history against Brighton, it is clear that Rehanne Skinner and her club have a lot of work to do in order to compete with the best of the best in the WSL. Even without Harder, James, and at times, Eve Perisset made a mockery of the Tottenham backline. With the seventh straight league win now in the books, here are the lessons from a historic afternoon in west London:
Chelsea are pioneers in the continued growth of women’s football
Behind the presence of over 24,000 people at Stamford Bridge, which significantly passed the previous record for the Chelsea Women at the Bridge, the Blues put together a complete performance with their leader back where she belongs, back on the sideline coaching. With the help of Arsenal and other top clubs around the league, women’s football is slowly beginning to be recognized as something that is too large for the stadiums it used to reside in.
The largest crowd at a WSL game was at the Emirates Stadium early this season when Arsenal took on Tottenham when 47,367 showed up in a sport that continues to take steps in the right direction. Despite the Blues having an attendance far fewer than the record, it demonstrates that the appetite for women’s football is moving in the right direction. Arsenal, Chelsea, and maybe now Manchester United are quite possibly the only three teams currently in the league that could have that many fans turn out for a league game.
In just a few short weeks, the Blues are back under the lights of Stamford Bridge to take on PSG in the Champions League. It will be the first time Chelsea has played at the Bridge twice in a single season since Hayes’ arrival. Back in 2013, the average attendance for a Blues’ home match was 564, and just nine years later, this club is nearly breaking 40,000 in a single game. Events like these with a memorable atmosphere inside, and outside the stadium not only help take the club’s fanbase to new heights but the sport as a whole.
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.
Blues show growth, and the ability to shine once again within a pressure-filled atmosphere
The Women’s Super League may not be Chelsea’s No. 1 priority this season, but after a day where its rivals failed to perform in front of over 40,000 fans in the league, the Blues demonstrated, just like in Paris a few weeks ago, the stage or number of people watching on gives them even more of a drive to take their game to the next level. Other than Harder being forced to the sideline due to an injury during the international break, everything was beginning to go back to normal for Chelsea.
There is no doubt Hayes being back on the touchline added more comfort to the performance as a whole, but to piece together that brilliant of an outing in front of the most home fans in Chelsea Women’s history is something that is worth recognizing. There was so much build-up to this match at the Bridge. The passing of Her Majesty the Queen at the beginning of the season forced the Blues to move the fixture back over two months. Hayes’ team did not collapse in the final minutes in front of a record WSL crowd like the Gunners did the day before, the Blues simply left Stamford Bridge with another three points added to the season total as the confidence continues to grow game by game.
Having known that Arsenal dropped all three points at home could have placed a whole lot of stress on the minds of the players, especially in front of a historical amount of fans for the Chelsea Women, but just like they have all season, and towards the end of last season, the composure of this team when it needs a result the most is at its highest point.
Real Madrid under the London night sky this Wednesday in the Champions League awaits Chelsea. Against a top team in Europe like Real Madrid, the atmosphere is bound to be spectacular, but with the number of professional performances the Blues have put together with the pressure to keep up with Arsenal at the top of the table, this should be just another game for a team with ambitions of fighting for the continent’s top honor.