Sam Kerr’s reply 72 seconds after Kerys Harrop’s improbable equaliser ensured Chelsea remain on course to retain the league title after navigating tricky back-to-back games against Tottenham.
Kerr’s goal just before half-time to restore the lead, after Harrop cancelled out Beth England’s header, earned Chelsea victory in a second gritty encounter with Spurs. The win means the Blues have moved four points clear of Arsenal, albeit having played a game more, with two games left to play – at Birmingham then at home to Manchester United.
“I think the game was comfortable, but because we didn’t get the third goal they were always in it,” said Chelsea’s manager Emma Hayes. “Right now it’s just getting the three points and on to the next one.”
Spurs’ early lead and the sending off of the goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger had hinted at Chelsea’s fallibility on Sunday. Then, a gruelling and passion-fuelled comeback at the Hive to earn a 3-1 win underlined their resilience.
Back on home turf Chelsea were brutally efficient, harrying and pressing with an intensity that had been missing from the first half in north London.
Hayes made four changes to the starting XI for this game. With Berger suspended, the Swedish goalkeeper Zecira Musovic came in, while the captain Magda Eriksson, the Danish striker Pernille Harder and the full-back Jonna Andersson, who all came off the bench as Chelsea swung the game around four days earlier, were also called back in.
For Tottenham, there was an enforced change too, with the influential Ash Neville suspended after picking up her fifth yellow of the season and young Asmita Ale favoured in her absence at right-back.
With close to 20 minutes played Chelsea took a deserved lead when a short corner to Andersson, who provided the assist for Kerr’s goal on Sunday straight after coming on, was swung into the middle for England to nod down and in.
Despite the superiority of Hayes’s side, Tottenham would stun the hosts with one minute left of the half when a free-kick from the Australian forward Kyah Simon was turned in by the head of Harrop.
There is something about the character of these Chelsea players that means they always bite back harder, and Spurs had just poked the bear. From the restart, Sophie Ingle sent the ball wide to Harder who delicately flicked it and turned past Harrop before sending a cross that Kerr would rise to meet and put Chelsea ahead against Tottenham for the second time in less than a week.
If the Tottenham manager, Rehanne Skinner, had been able to legitimately lament defeat on Sunday, there could be no such reflection on this encounter on the far slicker and more comfortable grass of Kingsmeadow.
With just over one minute between Harrop’s header and Kerr’s reply, Spurs’ fightback was over as quickly as it had begun. Central to Chelsea’s dominance was Harder who, playing wide but operating fluidly in combination with Kerr and England, pulled the strings, creating space and tracking back in equal measure.
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Spurs would go close once more, as Rosella Ayane curled the ball in from the edge of the box but Musovic read the flight of the ball and tipped it over.
Chelsea would almost score, with Erin Cuthbert driving forward before rattling a powerful shot off the base of the post. Then Kerr collected Cuthbert’s looped pass and squeezed the ball between Tinja-Riikka Korpela and the near post only to be incorrectly flagged offside.
“I was onside? Dang, should have 19 [in the league this season] then eh,” said Kerr with a grin. “It is what it is, no one cares who scores in this team, it’s about getting the job done, the defenders do what they do and I do what I do.”
She was right, it mattered little, two games, two wins and Chelsea will secure the title. There is no added pressure though. “You know what, we were talking about it before the game, it’s the same as last year, we were two points off City,” said Kerr. “One point, two points, it’s just one game, we’re in exactly the same position – and we play for Chelsea, we love this stuff.”
