“Vive la Révolution,” read the new banner amid faded neighbours behind the Chelsea goal in the first half, with a picture of Sonia Bompastor looking to the sky beneath the words. The Chelsea manager’s reign began with a 1-0 win against an Aston Villa side who likewise had someone new at the helm and top-six ambitions. Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s first-half goal was the difference between the sides, though Villa came close to an equaliser in added time when their goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo came up for a free-kick and her header was tipped on to the bar and over.
Bompastor had said time and again in pre-season that she wants her Chelsea side “to be a dominant team”. They delivered in the summer, but would it translate to competitive play? Would the transition from Emma Hayes, in charge for 12 years, to the French winner of the Champions League (as a player and as a manager) affect their fluidity and dominance?
If the Women’s Super League opener in front of a sold-out crowd of 4,337 is treated as the litmus test for whether Chelsea are at a disadvantage by being in a transition year, then the 11 other top-flight sides should be concerned.
There were six new faces on the field in addition to the two most notable ones in the dugouts, with Robert de Pauw handing debuts to four new Villans and Bompastor handing starts to two summer recruits. D’Angelo, Missy Bo Kearns, Paula Tomás and Chasity Grant were in the starting XI for the visiting team, while Lucy Bronze and Sandy Baltimore made their debuts for the Blues.
There would be no debut for Villa’s deadline day signing Gabi Nunes though, with the Brazilian forward not in the squad yet having only recently joined up with the side.
After the first ball of 2024-25 was kicked, it was clear Chelsea had every intention of continuing to shape the title race from the off. The Blues were vivacious in possession, the fresh energy injected by Bompastor’s arrival that emanated from the camp and players in pre-season, showing on the pitch.
There was profligacy though too, Guro Reiten thrice put shots wide of the goal in the first half, for example. “We should have scored more goals,” said Bompastor, with her seven-year-old son seated beside her in the press conference. “In a high-level game when you are not able to score the second goal it gives more confidence to the opposition. Winning is important. We still have some work to do.”
The opening goal of the league season came in the 36th minute, and it was a fitting tribute to the home team’s stylish start. Rytting Kaneryd raced to the edge of the box from the left before cutting back on herself and sending an unstoppable curving effort into the far corner.
“It was a wonderful strike, especially because we had spoken with Johanna, to make her realise she can come in and shoot with her left foot,” said Bompastor. “She was practising that last week. I’m so happy it worked … She is unpredictable and I think that’s really good for her and the team.”
Unwilling to be passengers on the Chelsea steam train, De Pauw’s side played well in possession and when moving the ball into the final third, Chelsea were just that bit better. However, the Villans began the second half brightly, Rachel Daly’s looping header dropping on to the crossbar an example of their threat. As the clock ticked on with the score still 1-0, they threw on attacking players in search of an equaliser. “If it’s 2-0 or 1-0 it doesn’t matter,” said De Pauw. “We wanted to always give ourselves a chance.”
The visiting team will perhaps feel they could have nicked something, with Hannah Hampton’s save from D’Angelo going on to the bar in the dying seconds, while Chelsea will rue missed chances.
“We will probably ask ourselves for a long time,” said De Pauw of his side’s failure to get anything from the game. “If you can force the champions in this way, it says something about the power we have this season. There is still a lot of growth still possible for this team.”
On D’Angelo’s header, he said: “If she had scored that then I would have carried her off the pitch on my shoulders. She looked at me and asked: ‘Can I go?’ I said: ‘Yes.’ And if she had scored that, we would have gone around the world I think.”
In the end, the single-goal margin was fair, not a complete reflection of Chelsea’s dominance but an accurate one of Villa’s dynamism and resilience under the regular pressure. Relative league ambitions remain intact.
