With one round of matches to play, Chelsea left the door open for Manchester City in the race for the Women’s Super League title.
Their 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur ensured they will have an advantage when the final games of the season kick off at 3pm UK time on Saturday — but any City player watching will have been heartened by the performance and the scoreline at the full-time whistle.
A stretching finish in the first half from 20-year-old Japan forward Maika Hamano was enough to secure a victory that leaves Chelsea and City level on 52 points. Chelsea have the superior goal difference (47 to 45) and goals scored (65 to 59).
If Emma Hayes’ side beat Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday, their far higher goals scored means City would realistically need to beat Aston Villa by at least four goals to ensure they have a stronger goal difference.
Given the relative strength of each side’s opponents, it’s entirely possible that either side could end up with their hands on the title.
The WSL title race has regularly gone down to the final day of the season, but it has rarely felt like it was genuinely between two teams. In recent years, Chelsea have known that a win alone will seal it. This time around, that might not be enough.
Their failure to not score more than one against Tottenham could come back to haunt them. Despite regularly getting into good areas of the pitch, they struggled with their final ball and barely tested the Tottenham goalkeeper Barbora Votikova. The Chelsea manager Hayes combined Aggie Beever-Jones, fresh from a first senior England call-up, as a No 9 with Catarina Macario as a No 10. Hamano, the matchwinner, was out wide on the right.
Before tonight, those three players had started only nine WSL games between them for Chelsea this season and that unfamiliarity became clear when Beever-Jones and Macario started making similar runs. It took 37 minutes for Hamano to find the space to finish one of the many tantalising crosses and cutbacks coming from the left via winger Guro Reiten and full-back Niamh Charles.
“You’ve got to get the wins, you can’t chase goals,” said Hayes after the game. It was a contradictory attitude to Chelsea’s 8-0 win against Bristol City in their previous game, but Tottenham’s lingering threat and Chelsea’s poor finishing meant this match was cagey.
Realistically, given the position Chelsea were in after their 4-3 loss to Liverpool two weeks ago, they would have bitten your hand off to even have a slim advantage going into the final day.
“When someone gives you a second chance in life, make sure you don’t need a third,” was the motto told to the players by their manager heading into this match.
After the game, Hayes cut a relaxed figure. She was given a friendly push by Macario to appreciate the away fans serenading her, before signing autographs for home fans, too. She even had time to quip with an England supporter that it was a shame they would not be at the Olympics this summer; that is Hayes’ next stop with the USWNT.
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It is her experienced demeanour that has attracted them to her — in combination with the relentless will to win that lies underneath.
“I am enjoying myself, I’m not stressed. I feel like I’ve been here before. It’s not my first rodeo. We take it to the last day no matter what, no matter the outcome.”
With Manchester United on a high from winning the FA Cup last weekend, Hayes will know that her side will face challenges even before any considerations of goal difference. United beat Chelsea for the first time in their history in the semi-finals of the competition and will be feeling more confident than ever. Two years ago, Chelsea hosted United on the final day, also needing a win. On that occasion, Sam Kerr bailed them out with some spectacular finishes, but she won’t be available this weekend.
The same, however, goes for City’s superstar striker, with Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw ruled out with a foot injury. There is no doubt City’s attack is dampened without her, but they have still scored seven goals in three matches. And they know scoring plenty of goals could be very important on Saturday, too.
Hayes has seen the good and the bad of those final-day shootouts in the WSL. She missed out on her first WSL title in 2014 on goal difference. A 2-1 loss for her Chelsea side on the final day against Manchester City allowed Matt Beard’s Liverpool team to leapfrog them and win the league.
“It’s like going in with a gun in your mouth,” Hayes said last night. “How do you want to respond to that? What I love about our team is our ability, no matter that proverb, to keep your cool.”
Hayes’ “mentality monsters” will have one final test of their strength under her on Saturday. Meanwhile, City already know they have pushed Chelsea closer than anyone else over the past five years. Like Liverpool a decade ago, they will try and spoil Hayes’ party.
(Top photo: Harriet Lander – Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
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