(Football news) The Chelsea Women’s team overtook Arsenal at the top of the Women’s Super League table with a 9-0 win over Leicester City at the King Power Stadium. Arsenal’s fixture against arch rivals Tottenham Hotspur was postponed due to COVID-19 and the Blues had the opportunity to claim the top spot with a win and it’s fair to say that they did it emphatically. It was Chelsea Women’s biggest win of the season as Guro Reiten, Beth England and Sam Kerr scored two goals each while Aniek Nouwen, Lauren James and Jessie Fleming scored a goal each.
The result meant that Emma Hayes’ side moved onto 41 points from their 17 league games, one above Arsenal while Leicester remained second last on the Women’s Super League table. With just three minutes on the clock, Guro Reiten opened the scoring with a brilliant freekick, which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the match. Sam Kerr doubled the advantage by converting her second opportunity after her initial shot was blocked by goalkeeper Demi Lambourne. With just seven minutes gone, Chelsea scored their third goal when Kerr's square ball was found by Beth England who put the ball into the back of the net and the fourth goal was scored by Aniek Nouwen soon afterwards.
Chelsea’s tempo dropped after a brilliant start to the match and Leicester found an opening when the Blues gave away possession but Freya Gregory couldn’t find the target. Having already scored a goal, Reiten created Chelsea’s fifth with a perfect ball to the far post which was headed home by Beth England. Reiten then went on to double her tally in first-half stoppage time when a mis-hit cross went over the line. Sam Kerr scored Chelsea’s seventh in the bottom right corner in the second half while Lauren James scored her first goal for the Blues from a Niamh Charles pull-back and Jessie Fleming scored the ninth and final goal in stoppage time to wrap up a successful evening.
Speaking after the match, Chelsea manager Emma Hayes said “I could see this result coming for us. I've seen the way we trained the last three days and I feel like we're in the final stretch of the season. We know what this is about and I want to keep improving on performances. We were doing some different things in training to create overloads and I saw it done in abundance today. The team just has so much flexibility and I can do so many different things with them because they are intelligent and they know how to win games with the same relentlessness that I demand.
"We're used to being in this position, however, everybody knows the type of games we've got coming up. I just personally enjoy good performances; I'm not really bothered about the result, in the first instance. Of course it is about winning, but I want to see us improving, that's what motivates me as a coach. The team was incredible today. It wasn't just about having fun, we were so clinical and so ruthless. But you see the difference with our squad depth now; with so many players back it's driving the standards at training and that's where the magic happens."
Also read: Fernandes set to sign a new five year contract with Manchester United
