Chelsea 1-0 Aston Villa, Women's Super League: Post-match reaction

Yesterday at 03:53 PM

We'll take it!

It didn't take long for Chelsea to show they'd remain the side to dictate how (most of) their matches would go under new head coach Sonia Bompastor. Guro Reiten got very close to a two-minute goal, and the Blues kept Aston Villa with their backs against the wall for the initial 10 minutes.

But this being the start of the season, the Blues were a bit more sluggish than the norm. Villa tried to make something out of this and impose themselves upfront, and couldn't do so as our backline held strong against the likes of Chasity Grant and Rachel Daly.

After resisting Villa's pressure, Chelsea got themselves back in attack. In one of their forays, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd got the ball at the edge of the box and did it all herself to get us the first goal of the season.

Kaneryd's goal dampened Villa's spirit, while igniting Chelsea's. The Blues felt they could go back to the dressing room up two goals instead of just one, and they kept trying until the half-time whistle blew.

Coming out of the tunnels again, Chelsea wanted to keep going but saw the opposition stepping up instead. Daly hit a good shot against Hannah Hampton's goal that fortunately hit the post instead, right after two attempts from the Villans in less than one minute of play.

Again Chelsea weathered the storm. However the Blues were having a lot of difficulty upfront, while Villa still managed some breakthroughs near Hampton's dominion every now and then. Speaking of the shot-stopper, she was called to intervene twice at the end of the match with some clutch saves to keep us ahead.

Of course Chelsea don't need to be perfect to come out as winners in a match, and we were very far from perfection at Kingsmeadow. A win is still a win, and we managed just that tonight.

Carefree!

• Mayra Ramírez starting at no.9.
• Fully packed Kingsmeadow to watch the girls back in action!
• Kaneryd goal can be a good sign of change for the Swedish attacker, who's often been a bit goal-shy in the past.
• Even taking Kaneryd's score in consideration, it wasn't a very good night for Chelsea upfront. Definitely an area to keep an eye on.
• Next up: Crystal Palace away in the Women's Super League.
• KTBFFH!