Manchester United are set to face Chelsea in a fight for the top-spot Women’s Super League table as the title race continues at Kingsmeadow on Sunday.
The Reds currently sit above the Blues by a point, but Chelsea have a game in hand with both sides having won 11 of their league games to date with United drawing two and losing one - their previous tie with Emma Hayes’ side.
United have also been impressive in front of goal with 28 goals and only eight conceded, so far this season. The hosts have drawn one and lost one game of their 2022/23 campaign, they have also scored 38 goals but have conceded four more than their weekend’s rivals.
Manager Marc Skinner told MUTV: “They’ve just come off a loss in the cup which will hurt them and we’ve danced this rodeo far too many times. We will see a reaction, so we need to be ready for that fierce reaction from them.
“But what we must do is play with no fear,” he continued. “The last game we played against them where I felt that we didn't do ourselves anywhere near enough justice.
“When we go into this game we will be ready, we will be high energy and looking to impose ourselves on the game as much as we possibly can.”
The last time these two sides met was at the start of November when United were played off the park in a 3-1 defeat. Sam Kerr opened the scoring and Lauren James doubled the lead four minutes later. Alessia Russo scored the Reds' only goal of the game with 20 minutes left on the clock but that was cancelled out by Erin Cuthbert, who sealed three points with a stoppage-time goal.
Skinner said: “There's a huge difference [since their last meet], there was nothing really in it in the first half, and then we didn't really pose ourselves in the second half like we should’ve done - like we will do [at the weekend]. They went two [goals] ahead and then we woke up and so that was a warning sign for us and from that point, we’ve grown immensely.”
United held Chelsea to a 1-1 tie back in 2020 which was their best result against the current WSL champions but have lost the subsequent five fixtures.
Nevertheless, the Reds have built incredible momentum heading into this game with a 5-1 win over bottom-of-the-table Leicester City, and a 5-0 pummeling of second-tier side Durham in the FA Cup in the previous two weeks.
Chelsea come into the game from a 3-1 win over second-from-bottom Brighton and a 3-1 League Cup final defeat to Arsenal after beating the Gunners 2-0 the weekend before in the FA Cup.
Chelsea host Manchester United at Kingsmeadow for a 12:30 kick-off on Sunday, March 12th, available to watch via BBC.
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