Manchester United’s impressive performances this season have seen them enter the Women’s Super League title conversation. However, they were quickly brought back down to earth on Sunday afternoon by a Chelsea side who mercilessly made them pay for their errors of concentration in a 3-1 defeat at Leigh Sports Village. The stats may suggest United have fallen behind as they once again failed to find a way to beat the Blues in the league, but are they any closer to cracking that top three? “They are a different team to 12 months ago and they just have to start believing – that was a big part of tonight, they needed that focus and belief,” former England midfielder Karen Carney told Sky Sports. “I feel they’re getting closer, Chelsea made mistakes but they don’t get punished or they can find a way out. “I think Chelsea were the better team, more experienced and more resilient [United] they are approaching”. The defeat ended United’s perfect record in the league this season and manager Marc Skinner told BBC Radio 5 Sport Extra: “You get experience playing against them and for us, we know where we are, we know where we want to be, we know how much we are hungry as a team. “We know what we need to do to bridge these gaps and that’s why we’re going to work extremely hard – we’re not going to rest until we do.” Manchester United played in front of 6,186 fans against Chelsea – their biggest crowd at Leigh Sports Village United came into the game without conceding a league goal, but Skinner was disappointed with the manner in which his side suffered this defeat. Maria Thorisdottir gave the ball away cheaply for Sam Kerr’s first step and a looping ball over the United defense allowed Lauren James to double Chelsea’s lead. “I felt we were being overtaken by errors in concentration, you let in a minute in these games and Chelsea were punishing you,” Skinner said. Alessia Russo pulled one back for the home side when Chelsea made an individual mistake, but Skinner said his side need to be better in the “big moments” to compete with the WSL’s best sides. United may have five wins this season but they have all come against teams in the mid to bottom half of the league. This was United’s first real test and physically and mentally, it was a tough test. “Those are the moments that matter in big games, I don’t want my team to be afraid of trying to play, but those are the moments when Chelsea had the lead. “The big games can be tight – but our thinking speed and concentration has hurt us in the second half and that for me is the next step for us – it’s that elite-level mentality, being ready to make the right decisions Continuity”. It was a disappointment shared by Carney, who added: “I’m disappointed for them because I’ve really enjoyed their growth over the last six months, but they’ve got to hang in there for the big moments.” United will have to learn quickly as they face another tough test on their return from the international break as they face top flight Arsenal.
Hayes is close to returning for the dynamic Chelsea
For Chelsea, who are going for a fourth straight WSL title, their opening game defeat by Liverpool looks like a distant memory as they recorded their sixth win on the spin. General manager Paul Green said his side were “deserving winners” in front of a record home crowd at Leigh. “We knew we’d have to be patient with them not conceding all season, but we knew we had the weapons to hurt them and to come in and score three goals shows that.” “We are back to our best, good defensive performance, overall the defense was very good and we were solid.” Chelsea head into the international break level on points with Arsenal, who have a game in hand. “There’s definitely more to come as the season goes on, we’re getting better and stronger,” Green said. “We look forward to seeing where this team can go. “It’s the best team we’ve ever had, [we’re] We’re confident about the work we’ve done over the summer, so we’ve got to try and build some momentum into the games after the international break and see where it can take us.” And Green, who coached the team alongside assistant coach Denise Reddy, was optimistic coach Emma Hayes would soon be back on the training pitch with her team after recovering from a hysterectomy. “Denise and I during this time have always tried to make sure that the team will be in a good position when Emma Hayes comes back. “Hopefully that will be done during the international break and he will be back on the pitch with us for the next game if all goes well in the next couple of weeks.”
