England and Kerr fire Chelsea to win over Tottenham to stretch WSL lead

Sam Kerr’s reply 72 seconds after Kerys Harrop’s improbable equaliser ensured Chelsea remain on course to retain the league title after navigating tricky back-to-back games against Tottenham.

Kerr’s goal just before half-time to restore the lead, after Harrop cancelled out Beth England’s header, earned Chelsea victory in a second gritty encounter with Spurs.

The win means the Blues have moved four points clear of Arsenal, albeit having played a game more, with two games left to play – against Birmingham then at home to Manchester United.

Spurs’ early lead and the sending off of the goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger had hinted at Chelsea’s fallibility on Sunday. Then, a gruelling and passion-fuelled comeback at the Hive to earn a 3-1 win underlined their resilience.

“In crisis I think my team do really well,” Emma Hayes had said. “There’s rarely times in the last few years, in crisis we go under. I thought that was amazing, amazing display of courage, confidence, conviction, togetherness, camaraderie. You cannot understate it”.

In the reverse fixture at a floodlit Kingsmeadow, just four days after that not-so-close call, there was little doubt that Chelsea would release the pressure they had applied to the neck of their London rivals after they had gone down to 10 in the preceding game.

On home turf Chelsea were brutally efficient, harrying and pressing with an intensity that had been missing from the first half in north London.

Hayes made four changes to the starting XI for this game. With Berger suspended, the Swedish goalkeeper Zecira Musovic came in, while the captain Magda Eriksson, the Danish striker Pernille Harder and the full-back Jonna Andersson, who all came off the bench as Chelsea swung the game around on Sunday,