Chelsea started the day two points clear of Birmingham City and the cameras were out in force here in anticipation of a title celebration. The manager, Emma Hayes, had been reluctant to describe her team as contenders let alone favourites until recently but even she had conceded that it was Chelsea’s title to lose. And in the end it was, as Manchester City won here and Liverpool beat Bristol Academy to claim the Women’s Super League title, despite having started the final day in third place. It could not have been more dramatic.
Hayes’ team had started with an intensity that suggested they were keen to tighten their grip on the trophy early and City barely got out of their own half in the opening minutes.
One of City’s first breaks ended with the ball safely in the goalkeeper’s hands but Marie Hourihan landed painfully on her elbow in leaping to catch it. Afterwards Hayes pointed to previous results as being ultimately decisive in Chelsea’s second-place finish but felt understandably unlucky to have to bring on the substitute keeper Clare Farrow so early.
The manager will inevitably wonder how Hourihan might have dealt with Jill Scott’s low shot that gave City the lead after 24 minutes. Chelsea were opened up by a sequence of neat one-touch passes down their right-hand side before Scott collected the ball just outside the area and struck it firmly inside Farrow’s near post.
There was probably not a lot that either goalkeeper could have done about Toni Duggan’s delightful volley 10 minutes later, however. With Alex Brooks, in goal at the other end, getting the better of one of a series of edge-of-the-box encounters with the Chelsea striker Eni Aluko, City broke forward at speed. Scott, almost at the byline, cut the ball back to Duggan who controlled it on her chest and swivelled to send it arcing over Farrow towards the top corner.
Chelsea pressed hard in the second half but could find no way past Brooks until Gilly Flaherty headed in from close range with just under 20 minutes left. Though City on paper had nothing to play for, their defending suggested otherwise, crowding the area and hoofing the ball off toes when necessary. “If someone’s going to lift the trophy at our stadium, we want it to be us,” the home manager, Nick Cushing, said.
