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Emily Keogh
LONDON — Chelsea finally showed their best after a string of lackluster performances with a 4-0 victory over Paris FC to boost their confidence ahead of the international break.
It is a result that has come at the best time for Chelsea. It is funny to say, but things looked rather bleak heading into the UEFA Women’s Champions League clash with Paris FC, given they had points on the table in the competition — only one following a 1-1 draw with Twente — and comfortably at the top of the Women’s Super League table by a point. But it was their performances and low scoring that were puzzling fans.
Several poor results — a 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur, 1-1 draw with Manchester United and 1-0 win over Leicester City — has plagued them this season despite boasting one of the best attacks in Europe.
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The team were in a rut, failing to convert their chances and looking complacent in the final third. Against Spurs, they failed to convert 24 of their 25 chances and even broke the league record for touches in an opposition box, yet fell short of adding to the score line.
Manager Sonia Bompastor admitted she was strong with her players after a run of performances that she deemed were not up to their normal standard. Though she says she is with them and will back them, she also knows when to demand more.
“I’m someone who is quite direct and honest and open with my players, so I will always protect them here in this room, but when I have to analyze the game and I think maybe we don’t perform at our role, I’m quite direct and honest with them,” she said, asking what caused the turnaround.
“I’m really pleased with the reaction we showed on the pitch from, as I said, the last two games. I think in both games, we were a better team. We created a lot. We couldn’t score more than one goal at the weekend, but at least we created a lot of chances, and I think if we stay at that level, we’ll be the better place in the future.
“The only thing we can do is keep working hard, but our mentality, as you could see tonight, it was better in a better way.”
Before breaking the deadlock against Paris FC, Chelsea squandered six chances. It looked at one point that it was going to be another game in which the Blues misfired in the final third.
Credit to the Paris goalkeeper Mylene Chavas, who pulled off several exceptional saves to keep Chelsea at bay, but had it not been for a contested penalty on Sjoeke Nüsken, which Sandy Baltimore converted with precision, the hosts could have been looking at another poor evening.
The penalty broke the deadlock and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd netted a header, which did not look like she meant for it to end up goalward, before Alyssa Thompson — her first goal since signing for the club in the summer — and Sam Kerr — whose last Champions League goal, a hat-trick no less, came against Paris FC two years — to add to the comfortable performance.
It feels like Chelsea’s players are hitting their stride at the right time, too. Kerr endured a 22-month absence while recovering from an ACL injury and related setbacks. Though she will have a consistent, phased return in order to build her fitness and minutes, scoring her second goal after returning to action — her first came in her first game back against Aston Villa — could not have come at a better time for a tired squad, who face four more crucial Champions League matches before the knockout phase at the start of next year. Here reintroduction has felt like a bonus new signing.
Having carved space in a stacked team to start six games since her club record signing, Thompson also netted her first goal, vindicating why the Blues worked so hard to secure her signature.
With 26 shots and nine chances on target, a four-goal performance is more consistent with the Chelsea side that cruised to a domestic treble last season, despite missing key figures like Ellie Carpenter, who was rested following the tight turnaround from Sunday’s league game, Lucy Bronze, who has begun a phased return to play, Mayra Ramírez and Naomi Girma.
It is a mark of a champion that even when they weren’t at their best or racking up big scores, Chelsea were able to secure points and grind out wins. Bompastor admitted that staying at the top, especially after reaching new heights last season, is far harder when balancing minutes following a strenuous summer tournament.
“If you drop five, 10% of your energy, your mentality, you will be in trouble,” Bompastor said. “So I think that’s the most difficult thing in football sometimes, to stay at that level. Especially when you are coming from the summer, where a lot of players were really busy. So mentally, physically, when you come back to the club, it doesn’t go just like this.
“You also need time for them to recover from that tournament. We had some big injuries with some big players in the squad, also. I think when we analyzed that block one [September until October], I think in terms of results, especially, it was a really good block and finishing with these two games was a perfect way to finish that.”
Chelsea’s broader bounce-back has come at a key time. While the break will arguably stall this momentum a little, it will allow the players to rest before returning to a cohesive, more confident side off the back of the comfortable win. When they return to league action, they will host newcomers London City Lionesses, who have picked up form at crucial times, before facing Arsenal at home, who, despite winning the competition, have lacked form and cohesion.
Reflecting on this block of games, Bompastor said she is “really pleased” with how her team looks. Time will tell if this new-found form is going to stick.
