WSL Briefing: Chelsea take charge of the title race and refereeing in the spotlight again
Manchester City let their early lead in the Women's Super League title race slip away as they lost 2-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening.
Two quickfire goals from Mayra Ramirez and Guro Reiten in the 75th and 79th minute put the game beyond a rather lacklustre Manchester City, who were missing a couple of key names. Lauren Hemp was an injury doubt before the match and did not make the squad, while Spain centre-back Laia Aleixandri has been a longer-term absentee.
Both players are decisive in how City want to play. Hemp has arguably been the best player in the league so far, with her two goals and five assists having helped City to what was a seven-match unbeaten start to the season. Her connection with Khadija 'Bunny' Shaw has made them one of the most effective attacking duos since Sam Kerr and Fran Kirby were terrorising defences at Chelsea in 2021. City looked forlorn without her.
"We were hoping she'd be available for this game," said City manager Gareth Taylor after the match. "That was taken away quickly from us yesterday (on Friday). Losing a player like Lauren for these types of games is tough."
Mary Fowler started on the left in place of Hemp, with Aoba Fujino playing off the right. Hemp's absence meant there was no anticipated match-up with her former team-mate Lucy Bronze, who kept Australia international Fowler anonymous.
Hemp's 15.2 progressive passes received per 90 is the most in the WSL of players with over 500 minutes. For a sense of just how much of City's play goes through Hemp, Fujino is the next highest City player with 9.2 progressive passes received per 90. When you add a team-high 1.9 shots on target per 90, you can see just how much they missed her.
This pass network from City's 4-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur demonstrates how her ability to receive passes helped bring Jill Roord and Leila Ouahabi into the game.
By way of comparison, against Chelsea on Saturday, Fowler found it difficult to be that outlet and left Roord slightly isolated in her creative role. Roord managed nine touches in the attacking third against Chelsea, her lowest tally since joining City — before the weekend, she was averaging 28.2 per 90 in the WSL.
But City were not just left pining for Hemp. Without Aleixandri, Taylor's side are forced to rely more on centre-back Alex Greenwood and midfielder Yui Hasegawa as their ball progressors. Chelsea capitalised on this through the smart pressing of 20-year-old Maika Hamano.
"I always say if Yui can't get on the ball, that means one of our centre-backs is free," said City head coach Taylor. "If they come and jump our centre-backs, it means that maybe Yui is free again or one of our midfielders.
"You could see that Chelsea paid the ultimate compliment in trying to stop Hasegawa. That's normal — we have that in many games and we can cope with it."
But Taylor's comments don't take into context who their centre-backs were. Alanna Kennedy makes about half as many progressive passes per 90 as Aleixandri (6.8 to 11.2). City might still have been able to recycle possession well but, with Hasegawa well-marshaled, they were unthreatening.
Most teams struggle if they lose two of their best players, but Saturday's defeat will also raise wider questions about City's squad-building. Taylor is notorious for not making many substitutes and City's bench had four academy players on it. Games will continue to rack up as the season progresses and if his team are to seriously challenge on four fronts, you would think they need to bring in greater depth in January.
Taylor was bullish about what the result might mean for the title race, with Chelsea able to go five points clear next weekend when they play their game in hand against Manchester United.
"Are we going to talk about fantasy here or are we going to talk about the game?" said Taylor. "I can't control what Chelsea do in their next game. I can't tell you what they are going to do with their game in hand. We are still up and around the top of the league."
City took four points from their four matches against top-three opposition last season, which felt too little. This season, they have taken one point from their two away matches against Arsenal and Chelsea. The reverse fixtures will be highly pressured.
Everton maintained their impressive run in Merseyside derbies , beating Liverpool 1-0, but the result was contentious given how they scored.
When Liverpool midfielder Fuka Nagano tripped her Japan team-mate Honoka Hayashi, a penalty was given despite the foul taking place outside the box. Up stepped Katja Snoejis to put the penalty away and send Everton towards a precious three points.
Liverpool head coach Matt Beard did not hold back in his comments following the game.
"It's not a penalty," he said. "You've got the referee, the linesman and the fourth official all with unblocked views. Even I saw the contact was about a yard outside the box.
"I give up to be honest because it happens every week, not just with us. We've been let down by the officials. Decisions have cost us either a point or potentially three points today."
The standard of refereeing in the WSL is a perennial cause for concern. Despite being a professional league, the referees are themselves not full-time. There is also no VAR system or goal-line technology. It means wrong decisions are made on a fairly regular basis.
The penalty gave Everton something to hold onto, with Brian Sorensen's side well-versed in sitting deep to defend, but Liverpool had close to an hour to find an equaliser or even a winner.
Like many things in life, what goes around comes around. Brian Sorensen was sent off at Kingsmeadow last year for protesting about two soft penalties awarded to Chelsea. Liverpool beat Tottenham earlier in the season thanks to a 95th-minute penalty that was relatively soft. Those decisions are a lot harder to come back from.
A failure to make referees professional opens the league up to comments like Beard's, but anyone who watches any football will know that topics like the quality of refereeing or usage of VARs come up at any level.
The WSL should be looking to improve on this — although perhaps the league being a small island of football free from video refereeing may be no bad thing — but it seems unlikely that that would end refereeing discourse.
Mistakes like these feel more egregious because we live in the age of VARs, but at the end of the day, teams do need to overcome such setbacks.
(Additional reporting: Thom Harris)
(Top photo: Alex Broadway/)
