Chelsea are now one point behind leaders Manchester United, but still have a crucial game in hand. Amid Chelsea’s first-half dominance, Jelena Cankovic and Guro Reiten both scored from close range, before Sam Kerr’s 50th goal in the WSL completed the after-half victory. Kerr stepped into her marker and hit a powerful swing into the corner, befitting her style in reaching that half-century.
After Kerr’s goal, the traveling Chelsea fans chanted “that’s why we are champions”. Their team showed why all night long.
Villa had won their previous four WSL matches in a row. They will host Chelsea again next time in the cup semi-finals. Their manager Carla Ward described Chelsea as “monsters of mentality” after the game, adding to Telegraph Sport: “They’re champions for a reason and they showed it tonight. They’re an incredible side.
“It’s a missed opportunity to be honest, behind their backs [Chelsea’s] week I felt we could have given a little more. But look, my players have been absolutely brilliant all season, but they will learn a lot from this, they will accept the pain and hopefully that will help them go through to the semi-finals.”
Arsenal score another screamer to cap off a memorable week
By Tom Garry, women’s football reporter
Arsenal’s memorable week continued as a stunning strike from Katie McCabe completed a thrilling return fight as they beat title rivals Manchester City.
Just four days after knocking out Bayern Munich to reach the semi-finals of the Women’s Champions League, Arsenal now have their sights set on the Women’s Super League title. They are three points behind league leaders Manchester United with one game to play and still have important games to go against both Chelsea and Manchester United.
Arsenal had fallen behind with a superb header from the WSL’s top scorer Bunny Shaw, but hit back through Frida Maanum and Ireland’s McCabe, who was harassed in the technical room as she celebrated her winner with 16 minutes remaining.
Making her contribution even more impressive was that McCabe had left the field at the Emirates on Wednesday night wearing a protective boot and stumbling on two crutches, but she was passed fit enough to start against City, who now need several more results. their way if they want to win their first league title since 2016.