Chelsea beat Manchester United 1-0 at Kingsmeadow on Sunday with a penalty by Guro Reiten, putting them five points ahead in the Women’s Super League (WSL) table.
The Blues kept their 100% win record in all competitions and head into the second international break of the season with a five point lead over Manchester City.
Manchester United struggled to create chances resulting in their first defeat of the season and are now nine points behind the top.
The match, which took place under windy conditions, was originally scheduled for 6 October but it was postponed due to Chelsea’s European fixtures.
Chelsea managed to win a penalty on the 16th minute as Mayra Ramirez was brought down in the box by Phallon Tullis Joyce and the referee pointed to the spot and booked the United goalkeeper.
Reiten stepped up and converted the penalty into the bottom left corner to score the only goal of the encounter and her sixth of the WSL season.
“We are in a great place as a team, we have been dominating so far but ultimately we still have work to do and there are still a lot of games from now until the end of the season, so in all honesty we are just going block by block,” Chelsea Captain Millie Bright said to The River after the match.
“I never think you can look too far ahead because the league can change so quickly,” she added.
Sonia Bompastor’s team found it difficult to create chances and put the game to bed under the windy weather at Kingsmeadow.
The visitors missed a huge chance to equalise on the 90th minute when Melvine Malard’s shot hit the crossbar and despite their pressure in added time, they were not able to score and avoid defeat.
“The reality is that even though we beat Man City, Arsenal and Man United we did not win [the league] anything yet so we need to keep the good balance between finding the confidence from getting these good results against the best teams in the league but also making sure we keep our mentality to work hard,” Bompastor said to The River in the post-match press conference.
Chelsea now have 24 points after winning all eight of their WSL matches this season and sit comfortably at the top of the table while United remain fifth with 15 points in their tally.
After the international break, Chelsea will return to Kingsmeadow to host Brighton on 8 December, while Manchester United will host Liverpool on the same day.
Balsam Maki
James Woodham
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