Lauren James’ double helps carry Chelsea to victory in seven goal thriller over Leicester City

Chelsea took the lead early on in a 5-2 victory over Leicester City with a strike from Lauren James. The win means Chelsea go into the international break top of the Women’s Super League (WSL) table with 22 points.

Continuing in fine form, James put Chelsea ahead in the 2^nd minute after breaking free from defenders, allowing the England international a right footed shot from the centre of the box to find the back of the next. 

Things got worse for The Foxes as an own goal from Leicester City’s Courtney Nevin doubled The Blues’ lead in the 5^th minute. Nevin’s attempt to clear James’ shot resulted in the ball ricocheting into her own net. 

Sam Kerr made it three for Chelsea in the 40^th minute, when Niamh Charles played in to the Australian allowing her to fire home for The Blues, who now has three WSL goals to her name this season.

James got her second of the game after a powerful run in the 58^th minute saw her break from defenders once more. Fran Kirby’s cross to James allowed the 22-year-old to deliver an expert slot into the bottom left-hand corner.

Substitute Aggie Beever-Jones bagged the fifth for Chelsea, as she continued her goal scoring streak. The super-sub found the ball from Eve Perisset and headed into the bottom right corner. 

“She’s a very good option to have on the bench, especially when an opponent starts tiring. 

“She’s so clinical. I think that’s eight chances all year and five goals. She’s a natural goal scorer, she really is,” said Chelsea manager Emma Hayes about Beever-Jones, a product of Chelsea’s academy. 

Leicester City got one back in the 26th minute, when Lena Petermann’s ball found the left boot of Jutta Rantala who put it away for The Foxes, scoring their first goal against Chelsea in their history. Sam Tierney got their second from a corner on the brink of half time. 

“We’ve pressed every team this year, I think we’re the most progressive team in the league… Every week we’re doing something that’s never been done before, we’d never scored against Chelsea before, today we scored two. We’d never scored against Arsenal before, then we scored two. 

“Our highest finish was tenth place, we will finish above that this year. So we just need to keep creating new history,” said Leicester City manager Willie Kirk about his team’s historic moment at Kingsmeadow. 

This fixture closes the end of a busy November for The Blues, which has seen Chelsea play six games across all competitions. They next face rivals Arsenal at The Emirates in the London derby on December 10th.