Chelsea vs. Manchester City, Women's Super League: Preview, team news, how to watch
Today at 07:20 PM
The big one
It hasn't been the smoothest of rides so far, but Sonia Bompastor's Chelsea made it nine wins from nine in all competitions to start the season with Wednesday's 2-1 win over Celtic in the Champions League.
That perfectly sets up tomorrow's massive, potentially season-defining showdown against Manchester City, a team well capable of not only putting a swift end to this winning streak, but jumping ahead of us in the league and taking control of the title race.
(They are technically ahead of us by a point already, but we do have a game in-hand.)
Date / Time: Saturday, November 15, 2024, 17.30 GMT; 12:30pm EST; 11pm IST
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: Mel Burgin
Forecast: Thick clouds and light winds
On TV: Sky Sports (UK); none (USA); elsewhere
Streaming: Sky GO (UK); ESPN+ (USA)
Chelsea team news: Despite winning, the performance against a relatively toothless Celtic left a lot to be desired. But Chelsea did come back to win at the end of the day, and with an almost fully rotated side, which is quite helpful given our ongoing injury issues.
There is some good news in that regard, with defender Niamh Charles back in training and getting closer to making her season debut, but the attacking trio of Sam Kerr, Mia Fishel and Lauren James are still out of contention.
Thankfully, others have stepped up in light of those absences, with Guro Reiten, Aggie Beever-Jones, and the increasingly irrepressible Johanna Rytting Kaneryd all chipping in with at least three goals apiece (JRK had four total last season, for example) through six games played for the league's highest scoring team. Mayra Ramirez has "just" two in five appearances so far; this would be the perfect game for her to take over and dominate. Chelsea won the title on goal difference last season, lest we forget, so these sort of considerations are more important than ever.
Manchester City team news: As ever, City are just as strong and dangerous as Chelsea, especially with the addition of former Arsenal striker/midfielder Vivianne Miedema this summer. And though Miedema hasn't quite made the impact she is well capable of — just one goal in three appearances in the league, and set to miss out through injury once again — City have the luxury of being able to wait for that with Bunny Shaw once again scoring at a goal-per-game pace (including seven in seven to lead the WSL).
Just like Chelsea, City are unbeaten in all competitions this season, and their perfect record is only marred by an opening day draw against pre-collapse Arsenal. And that's despite dealing with some injuries issues all season (again, much like Chelsea): in addition to the aforementioned Miedema, they will be without defender Laia Aleixandri and probably without forward Lauren Hemp as well.
Previously: A superb performance between the posts from Ann-Katrin Berger, and goals from Fran Kirby and Maren Mjelde, helped secure a 2-0 win at Kingsmeadow. None of that trio are with us anymore; who will step up this time?
