Chelsea Women 4-1 Paris FC: 3 takeaways from critical UWCL triumph

3. Chelsea Women’s Johanna Rytting Kaneryd when healthy is inching closer to undroppable

It feels like every game we’re talking about the dynamic Swedish winger. Wait, it is. Nobody is getting more out of Guro Reiten’s injury than the for ex-Hacken attacker. Who of James, Reiten, and the Swede is Hayes going to select? She can only pick two. Well, that’s if she keeps the same formation. It’s a problem. Not a bad one. It took 30 Champions League and WSL matches last season for Rytting Kaneryd to reach five goal contributions. The Swede has only required seven in her second campaign in blue.

No. 19, of course should have scored in the first half. Yes, she misfired a clear-cut chance. We’ll move past it though because she made up for it. Her pass had to be perfect to find Kerr just after halftime as the Paris defense was closing the space quickly. Everything about that dime was exquisite. In her last four contests, the right winger has totaled four assists, including three in less than a week.

You get anywhere near the goal now, and No. 19 is going to use her pinpoint radar to pick that pass out. One of her best moves of the contest came creating a chance that No. 20 in blue could not quite finish. The speedster got out of the pressure from two PFC midfielders, and used her acceleration to blow past Margaux Le Mouël on the flank before perfectly finding Kirby in the middle of the park. It shouldn’t matter how many contests in a row this team has. Kaneryd needs to be in the lineup for all of them.

2. Sam Kerr and Lauren James are as lethal of a duo as they come

You’ve probably already watched that first goal on Thursday night up to 10 times already. I know I have. It’s hard not to. With the kind of effortless movements on the ball that James cooks up, it makes the best striker in the world’s job that much more straightforward. Don’t discount the finish. That was top-class anticipation by No. 20, darting just in front of the keeper before poking the ball past her. The goal was the first of what became Kerr’s eighth career hattrick since moving to west London. Poor PFC. There is just nothing you can do when you have that kind of dynamism on the wing and awareness inside the box.

Whenever these two link up for a goal, it’s one for the highlight reel. We all can recall Manchester United at Kingsmeadow last season. That was far and away last campaign’s Goal of the Season.

Kerr set James up with a big chance early on with a clever dummy. The English attacker had to paid it forward. From the minute she got on the ball in the 30′, No. 10 had one thing in mind: find the Australian. The only surprise that came from the sequence was the absence of another note-worthy celebration between the two. Strap in though. This combination is one that we’re going to see more than just this once this season.