WSL: Chelsea unbeatable no more, so is the title Man City’s to lose?
Five hundred eighty-five days. 34 Women’s Super League matches. Finally, Chelsea’s unbeaten streak in the domestic league has come to an end.
On a day when Manchester City struggled to find a way to win, Chelsea could not do the same.
As a result, City are now six points clear at the top of the WSL and suddenly look set to lose their first league title since 2016.
Of course, it would be foolish to make the final decision now. City fans will be startled to remember the end of the 2023-24 season, when a late defeat at home to Arsenal saw the title slip to Chelsea.
This defeat came after the Blues lost their grip on the cup with a dramatic 4-3 defeat to Liverpool. This was their last defeat in the WSL until Sunday.
That’s when Merseyside’s other team, Everton, complete their smash and grab against Kingsmeadow on 1 May 2024; This match, on May 1, 2024, lacked the goals of the match but was equally lacking in drama.
Sonia Bompastor’s first WSL defeat came in Chelsea’s match where she had 30 shots, 18 corners and 61 touches in the Everton penalty area.
“You could see that frustration and maybe a little bit of self-doubt and with that they started to take opportunities and we saw a little bit of that in the second half and late in the game,” former England international Fara Williams told BBC Sport. “In the second half you could see the confidence in the Chelsea team was breaking down.
“We created opportunities to win the game, so this was a really disappointing result,” Bompastor told the BBC. “That’s what happens in football sometimes, it wasn’t a bad performance but today we couldn’t score and win the match.
“If you look at the statistics in terms of possession, opportunities created and other statistics, you will see that we were in complete control of the game. The only problem was that we could not score.”
In the final stages it looked like they would play on until Chelsea scored, with the game set to continue beyond the allotted extra time as Toffee boss Brian Sorensen waved and roared in frustration from the sidelines.
But with the crossbar still shaking from Sandy Baltimore’s free kick in the 98th minute, referee Rebecca Welch blew her whistle and the run was over.
