After six consecutive years on the throne, Chelsea’s reign as English women’s football’s top team is over. It was a chastening afternoon for Sonia Bompastor’s side at the Etihad Stadium where Manchester City dismantled the champions to open up a surely unassailable lead at the top of the Women’s Super League.
In an emphatic victory symbolic of the ongoing changing of the guard, Kerolin scored a hat-trick as the runaway leaders won 5-1 and their jubilant fans were taunting Chelsea with chants of “easy, easy, easy” before the end. City are coasting towards clinching their first title since 2016 and this latest victory almost left their head coach lost for words.
“In the circle afterwards, that was the first time I said to the players ‘actually I don’t know what to say’, because I am [so] proud of the performance,” said Andrée Jeglertz, who felt his team were handling the pressure “marvellously”, adding: “A lot of people were expecting us to perform and they managed it. It’s amazing.”
Jeglertz’s supremely confident-looking side now have a 12-point advantage over Chelsea, who slipped to third, and an 11-point lead over second-placed Manchester United, with eight games remaining. Even with trips to the Emirates Stadium and Old Trafford to come, none of City’s rivals will realistically harbour any hope of catching them.
The star of the show was Brazil’s Kerolin, who opened the scoring with a deflected strike after Chelsea failed to clear a set piece. What followed was an impressive spell of Chelsea pressure but, when the visitors failed to score while they were on top, City punished them when Khadija Shaw ran on to Vivianne Miedema’s through ball, outmuscled Naomi Girma and finished past Hannah Hampton to make it 2-0 and put Jeglertz’s team in full control.
Chelsea’s day worsened after half-time when they conceded possession in Manchester City’s half and found themselves exposed at the back. Kerolin raced away with such speed that no one could catch her, and she chipped Hampton in cool style.
After slotting in another from Lauren Hemp’s pass, Kerolin was withdrawn to a standing ovation, on a day where her skill and lethal acceleration proved unstoppable. Their captain, Millie Bright, summoned her teammates into a huddle at 4-0 for a short, crisis team talk, and they did get a goal back through Alyssa Thompson’s classy finish. But Miedema was soon heading in from a corner to restore the four-goal cushion as the visitors’ poor defending continued and their body language stooped to new, low levels.
Chelsea’s defensive collapse on Sunday afternoon summed up the rapid collapse of their title challenge since December. Having previously been unbeaten in the WSL since 1 May 2024 and yet to suffer a domestic loss under Bompastor, this latest defeat was their third in their past five WSL matches since December’s surprise loss to Everton. They have now lost back-to-back WSL games for the first time since July 2015, and Bompastor – seemingly invincible scarcely two months ago – suddenly found herself being asked after the game whether she was confident of keeping her job.
Manchester United boosted their chances of Women’s Champions League qualification as they climbed to second with a victory that left their opponents Liverpool rooted to the bottom. Lisa Naalsund's double, either side of an Alice Bergström equaliser for the Merseyside club, was followed by a late strike from Fridolina Rolfö that gave Marc Skinner's side a deserved victory that moved them above Chelsea.
Liverpool remain a point adrift of West Ham, who also lost on Sunday, with fifth-placed Tottenham boosting their own European hopes by fighting back from a goal down to win 2-1, with Olivia Holdt's scorching strike from just outside the box settling it, before Tottenham saw Drew Spence sent off for a bad challenge in the closing stages.
There was finally a home league victory for Everton, for the first time this season, to significantly ease their relegation concerns and move them four points above Liverpool. Martina Fernández's two headers saw them fight back to beat Aston Villa 2-1, with the Spain youth international defender's winning goal coming in the 89th minute.
London City Lionesses recorded their first league win under the head coach, Eder Maestre, as they also came from behind to win 2-1, away at Brighton, to leapfrog the Sussex club in the table and climb to sixth spot. Brighton had led through Kiko Seike shot that went in off the post, before Moeka Minami's own goal was followed by a fine finish from Freya Godfrey, who scored for the second time in as many games. Tom Garry
“Really confident. I’m really honest. In the club, if people think I’m not the right person to stay in this job, then I’ll be happy to go if they think that’s the right thing. But I will never give up,” Bompastor replied. “In football, I know sometimes it happens. I will always fight but the institution at Chelsea is a lot more important than myself.”
Asked what had gone wrong this season, the Frenchwoman added: “A lot of things could be said. I like to keep that more private with the board, players and the staff but obviously, as you can see, the squad is not the same as last season. A lot of people talk about Chelsea being an example of having depth in the squad – right now, I don’t think we are probably in that place. I’m not saying that explains everything, but being in that position probably doesn’t help.”
Chelsea will now travel to Tottenham next Sunday in the sobering situation of needing to win to avoid slipping out of the Champions League places, so far have they fallen in such a short space of time.
