Chelsea opened their sixth consecutive WSL title defence with a narrow win over Aston Villa in front of a sellout crowd at Kingsmeadow Stadium.
Sonia Bompastor may have wanted to open her Chelsea tenure with a more dramatic scoreline, though, with a first-half curling effort from Johanna Rytting Kaneryd eventually deciding the tie. After performing impressively in preseason, most recently dismantling Feyenoord 9-0, to score just once in a league debut can only be read as underwhelming. The point will be made that her squad are still adjusting to a new system after playing under Emma Hayes for over a decade, and the new boss will have to right the ship in short order if she is to defend Chelsea’s legacy of domestic dominance.
Embed from Getty ImagesOne may argue that Robert de Pauw, also making his managerial WSL debut, had a much better evening in southwest London. His Aston Villa team arguably played above their level, asking plenty of questions of a solid if substandard Chelsea team, firm at the back and bolstered by a standout performance from Sabrina D’Angelo in goal, who commanded her area with aplomb in the face of one of the WSL’s most valuable forward lines.
While they had the requisite chances to score, Villa were totally confounded by Millie Bright and Kadeisha Buchanan, who barely put a foot wrong all evening. A comfortable league debut from Sandy Baltimore ensured plenty of vigour in Chelsea’s front line, combining well with the likes of Guro Reiten and Kaneryd.
As the saying goes, the true mark of a champion is the ability to win ugly, and the hosts tonight took home the three points despite failing to stamp their authority on the match for long stretches.
The Bompastor era is only just beginning: there is plenty more to come from this Chelsea team.
As it happened
It was Chelsea who were quickest out of the gate, with Guro Reiten going through on goal barely a minute in but putting her shot just wide. That would set the trend for the opening stages of the match, as the hosts forced a corner moments later and continued to pile pressure onto Villa.
The results were tangible too, as Lucy Staniforth was shown a yellow card for a reckless challenge on Kaneryd, but the resulting free-kick again failed to find the back of the net. Reiten went close again with less than ten minutes played, working a tidy angle before again firing wide.
That is not to say that Aston Villa were entirely toothless off the bat as the match quickly turned into an end-to-end affair. For every Aston Villa chance, though, Chelsea answered back with two. With 20 minutes on the clock, there was little to separate the two sides beyond the number of squandered chances.
Hampton, having received the nod over Zećira Mušović, established herself well in the first half, dealing comfortably with various Villa forays and calmly batting down a speculative long shot from Jordan Nobbs just before the half hour mark.
All it was going to take was a moment of magic from one player, and who else would that prove to be than Johanna Rytting Kaneryd? The Swede picked up the ball on the edge of the 18-yard box and, with nowhere to go, battled to drop Paula Tomas’ mark before turning back and curling the ball just beyond the reaches of Sabrina D’Angelo before nestling in the top right corner. The first goal of the 2024/25 WSL season could not have been much sweeter.
Embed from Getty ImagesVilla forced two good saves from Hampton early in the second period, one low to her right and the other tipped over the bar. Chelsea remained dangerous around the box, though. The Villans‘ defence sat high in possession, allowing the host’s plenty of space in behind to exploit by way of Reiten and Kaneryd’s pace. At the opposite end, Chelsea remained stoic, Kadeisha Buchanan and Bright combining to keep Villa quiet up top.
Bompastor would not shuffle her deck until the 66th minute when she looked to refresh her attack with the additions of Aggie Beever-Jones and Maika Hamano, a move which seemed to coincide with the match descending into a rather scrappy affair.
Chances began to flow thick and fast, both sides reinvigorated by their changes, though both continuously failed to find the back of the net.
Chelsea hardly looked champions in the closing stages, allowing Villa the vast majority of the possession in the last ten minutes, but the hosts dug in, with Hampton making two spectacular saves in injury time to keep the hosts in front and start Chelsea’s title defence with three points.
The lineups
CHE: Hampton, Bright, Nusken, Ramirez, Cuthbert, Reiten, Lawrence, Baltimore, Rytting Kaneryd, Bronze, Buchanan
AVL: D’Angelo, Tomas, Patten, Staniforth, Kearns, Nobbs, Daly, Dali, Parker, Maritz, Grant
