Chelsea Women 8-0 Bristol City: 3 takeaways, Reiten thrusts Blues back into title race

2. This was the "end of season Chelsea" we've been accustomed to seeing in recent years

In the mid-week, it looked like the extensive list of fixtures had finally caught up to the West London club. The faces of the players told you so. The 90 minutes in Liverpool wasn't CFCW football. It was a shadow of what it has been, particularly compared to what we see when the schedule begins to creep toward its conclusion. Like Hayes said, you can't concede three set-piece goals and expect to win football matches.

Sunday showed an enlivened group, one with a point to prove. It looked like the ruthless group we all witnessed dominate every opponent in the month of May last year. Sunday was in fact almost a year exactly since that Chelsea 7-0 stomping of Everton on the same Kingsmeadow turf. Sure, it was Bristol, but these are still professionals. The job is always there to be done. Chelsea's mentality just wasn't present on the road at Preston Park. Understandably so given the kind of toll that Barcelona defeat must have had on the players mentally. When they needed to find it, they found it. That's Chelsea Women for you.

Reiten put it perfectly in the post-match, stating, "We are never going to give up, from the first kick to the last we fought for every goal."