Yahoo Finance Fran Kirby hits winner as Chelsea beat Manchester United to go top of WSL
Manchester United had no answer to Fran Kirby as Chelsea reminded Casey Stoney’s players they are not about to surrender their title lightly. The England forward is in the sort of form that keeps Women’s Super League defenders awake at night and her winner restored Emma Hayes’s defending champions to the top of the table.
Related: Chelsea 2-1 Manchester United: Women's Super League – as it happened
Chelsea are only ahead of United on goal difference but hold a game in hand and Hayes appeared cautiously content afterwards. “We should have been out of sight at half time,” she said, partly thanks to another stellar defensive performance from Magdalena Eriksson, her side extended their record unbeaten WSL run to 31 games. “Manchester United have exceptional players that can hurt you - they’re a tough side, the best we’ve played this year - but Fran came into her own in the last 30 minutes and scored a wonderful winner.”
Midway through the first half, the expression on Stoney’s face matched her surname. Chelsea were not so much dominant as omnipotent with Sam Kerr’s wonderful movement stretching their guests to the limit. Had Kerr been wearing her shooting boots, Hayes’s team would surely have secured victory well before the interval. Instead, the Australia forward spurned a litany of chances and they settled for a single-goal half-time lead secured by Pernille Harder’s close-range shot.
Harder pounced on a rebound during a bout of goalmouth bagatelle following a corner. Millie Bright’s header was cleared off the line and Kirby’s follow-up shot ricocheted off a post before the Denmark international squeezed the ball over the line with Mary Earps wrong footed. Socially distanced, the celebration involved Hayes’s players congregating in a circle to clap Harder.
Stoney’s unusually nervous looking team started tentatively, snatching at the ball and miscueing final passes. It left Ann-Katrin Berger with little to do in the home goal until Harder’s goal saw United belatedly begin pulling themselves together.
“We were fortunate to be only one down at half time but the second half was about fine margins,” said Stoney, having suffered her first WSL defeat of the season. “We’re very disappointed to lose.”
A promising visiting move involving Ella Toone and the increasingly influential Christen Press prefaced Kirsty Hanson rounding Berger before depositing the ball into the empty net but she was, very, narrowly offside and United’s “equaliser” duly disallowed.
Significantly, Press - who had earlier sent a half volley fizzing fractionally wide - did not, as expected, play alongside her fellow United States World Cup winner, Tobin Heath. In a blow for Stoney, one of United’s outstanding players in recent weeks nursed a knock on the bench and did not even got kitted up.
If Heath’s absence was keenly felt, they also lost Press to post-viral (non-Covid) fatigue early in the second half. It appeared another United setback but shortly after stepping off the bench, Press’s replacement, Lauren James, assumed the central striking position and scored an exquisite equaliser.
After exchanging passes with Toone and turning Ji So-yun inside out, the 19-year-old underlined her immense potential by expertly sending a shot curving into the bottom corner from just outside the area.
Unwilling to be eclipsed, Kirby raised her own imperious game and restored Chelsea’s lead within four minutes. Having met Berger’s long clearance she brushed aside Stoney’s centre halves, Amy Turner and Millie Turner, before guiding an assured shot beyond Earps.
