Chloe Kelly betrays a hint of sympathy for the trials of Everton’s Merseyside rivals. “I don’t think it matters how Liverpool are doing,” she says. “We know exactly what it’s like down there – it’s tough.”
Liverpool are struggling, with a single league point and are rock bottom of the Women’s Super League. Everton are preparing to pounce on their vulnerable neighbours in the first WSL game to be played at Anfield. “Three points at Southport or Anfield, it doesn’t really matter where it is, three points against Liverpool is always great for the club,” says Kelly.
While Everton are this season’s surprise package, having matched their three wins of last term in five games instead of 20, Kelly is not quite ready to lord their turnaround over Liverpool on Women’s Football Weekend. “We’ll do our work on the pitch. We definitely we want to go to Anfield and cause an upset but that’s got to come from us being good, not how Liverpool play.”
No one encapsulates the turnaround at Everton more than Kelly. The 21-year-old forward spent the second half of last season on the sidelines after having ankle surgery. Now, though, she is flying and picked up the first Barclays player of the month award, for September, and was shortlisted for October’s. “It was definitely a difficult time for me,” she says of her spell off the pitch. “But it was a time for me to work on areas that I wasn’t strong in. I wasn’t ever the best in the gym and I knew that. But it gave me an opportunity to focus on getting my body strong.
“It was a difficult time and seeing the team low, the lowest, was quite difficult. When you can’t really impact on the pitch it’s hard but it was just about being positive around the team.”
Time out working on her game has led to her going one goal ahead of Arsenal’s Danielle van de Donk as league top-scorer with four goals – the total she managed across the last two seasons – in five games. “When I was first back on the pitch I was rusty and I was getting frustrated,” she recalls. “It’s just about getting your feet right and just slowly gradually getting back into things.”
⚽️ | From playing against five older brother on an estate in west London to the @BarclaysFAWSL stage...
— Everton Women (@EvertonWomen) October 23, 2019
"My message to young girls would be don't shy away from hard work - just do it." - @Chloe_Kelly98 👏💙 #COYB @Lil_Lets pic.twitter.com/XjFOVvUpN0
It is a reward for the patience Everton have afforded her. After two loan spells she joined permanently at the start of 2018. “I just wanted to settle down and play my football somewhere. Everton was the place for me and I settled in nicely and the club welcomed me very well. When you’re on loan and you’re going back and forth it’s hard to settle.”
It was in Everton’s second game of the season that Kelly stole the show. A weaving first goal was followed by a screaming long-distance effort that went viral. “I had confidence from the first one really. Then the second one came to me and I took one step and hit it. It was from a standing start really, which is difficult, but I got a lot of power in it.
“Previously, you might not have taken that shot, but just because you’re confident in that moment you hit it and soon as it leaves your boot you know that it is going in.”
It was enough to secure the September award. “I’m absolutely buzzing with the start I’ve had to the season. But it’s the team that allows me to go and express myself. I could be playing well, but the team might not and you won’t hear as much about it, but it’s because the team is doing so well that you hear my name a bit more.”
It also earned her a call-up to train with Phil Neville’s Lionesses during the international break. “I’m at my happiest really. I feel like there’s no pressure on me. I’m just being free. Willie Kirk [the Everton manager] has been great with me for that,” she says. “Willie said to me I’m still playing at 70%. At the moment I’m doing well, but there’s more to come.”
Kelly credits clever recruitment and the togetherness of the team as key components in Everton’s change in fortunes. “The balance of the team is great. The staff did a great job in recruiting not just good players, but great people to be around and that helps the team dynamics. There’s a more competitive side to us this year, every day you know that if you’re not performing, someone else is and they’ll take your shirt straight off you.”
They are full of confidence, and resilient after rebounding from back-to-back league defeats with victory against Brighton, but there is no room for complacency in an increasingly tough league. “We can’t ever slip off,” Kelly says.
“The league is competitive and anyone can get the three points any weekend so it’s just about performing. There’s no game that you go in thinking that’s an easy three points, but that’s the way it should be and it helps women football grow. It’s an exciting time, the WSL is pushing on.”
