Chelsea romped to a fifth straight WSL title in style in Emma Hayes’ last game before leaving English football to imminently take over as the new USWNT coach.
The Blues put six goals past a Manchester United side who many would have expected to compete a lot better off the back of last weekend’s FA Cup success, having also beaten Hayes’ team little over a month ago en-route to that success.
But there was pretty much only one team in this game from the very start as Mayra Ramirez bullied her way to two goals and two assists in the first half alone.
Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Sjoeke Nusken also had their names on the scoresheet before the interval, with Melanie Leupolz adding a fifth shortly after the restart on a jubilant day for anyone connected to Chelsea. Fran Kirby even scored a sixth off the bench, running to the corner of away fans as she prepares to depart the club she has become a legend at.
Manchester United didn’t want to end the season on such a downer, especially after finally getting their hands on a major trophy, and finished the campaign in fifth place – their lowest since promotion to the WSL and closer to the bottom half than the top three.
How the game unfolded
Old Trafford could have been confused with a disco pre-match as the club tried to pump the atmosphere in the Theatre of Dreams. But Chelsea had little time to waste knowing what was at stake and silenced that buzz inside two minutes. Guro Reiten got free down the left and stood the ball up in the middle, where Ramirez had the jump on Millie Turner to head in.
The Blues kept their foot on the pedal and doubled that advantage within a few minutes more, this time Ramirez, with her back to goal, rolling Turner and sliding a ball through to Rytting Kaneryd in the right channel. One-on-one, she dinked over the on-rushing Mary Earps. With Chelsea running riot, only Reiten’s inability to connect with Rytting Kaneryd’s ball across the six-yard box stopped it from being immediately three.
Caught cold by Chelsea’s rapid start, United had managed to stop the bleeding around 20 minutes in and very nearly pulled one back when Maya Le Tissier’s near-post header from a corner clipped the top of the bar and bounced over. The visitors were still asking most of the questions, but the killer passes that had been getting through before started to be cut out.
Chelsea fans, who travelled to Manchester in impressive numbers and made noise all game, were incensed when Ramirez knocked the ball…
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