Kirby kickstarts Chelsea’s WSL title defence with Manchester City win

Chelsea kickstarted their title defence with a comfortable but not altogether convincing 2-0 defeat of Manchester City to heap pressure on the City manager, Gareth Taylor.

It’s rare that there is much riding on the second game of the season, but with both Chelsea and City having suffered shock defeats on the first weekend, to newly promoted Liverpool and Aston Villa respectively, suddenly this result mattered more.

The matches between the traditional top three of Arsenal, Chelsea and City have played an important role in determining the outcome of the league. In a 12-team league and 22-game season every point is critical. Last season, Arsenal lost the title by one point, having lost one game all season. Increasingly though, there are no predictable results in the Women’s Super League.

At a sold-out Kingsmeadow the champions of the past three years began brighter, but they were far from the swaggering side of recent years. This was an open encounter, with neither team able to maintain possession in the way they both like.

The home team should have been ahead within a minute, but Kirby’s return of Sam Kerr’s cutback was a little behind the Australian forward who put her effort wide as a result.

With 12 minutes played, they combined again, with Kerr leaping on City captain Steph Houghton’s underhit backpass before squaring to Kirby when through one-on-one. Her pass was behind her teammate and Kirby could only get the weakest of shots away, which was blocked.

Making her second consecutive start for Chelsea, after joining from Manchester United in July 2021, Lauren James was electric as part of the home team’s front three, having played as a wing-back against Liverpool.

But a lack of cutting edge up top, with Kerr and Kirby