When Emma Hayes walked out at Kingsmeadow for her final home game in charge of Chelsea, she knew that her team were right back in the hunt to win the Women's Super League. Earlier this week, after a shock defeat to Liverpool, Hayes declared the title race over. Manchester City needed four points from their final two games to seal the trophy and she expected them to get them. But Arsenal's dramatic victory over the Cityzens on Sunday afternoon opened the door for Chelsea again - and they took advantage by thumping Bristol City 8-0.
The Robins gave Man City a tough game last weekend, so much so that it took them until after the hour to break the deadlock. That would not be the case seven days on, not when Niamh Charles won a penalty with just a few minutes played and Guro Reiten confidently slotted it home. That the Norwegian quickly collected the ball out of the back of the net and ran to place it back on the centre spot was a message that Chelsea were out to make up that chunk of goal difference between them and Man City, a factor which it will come down to on the final day if the Blues beat Tottenham in their game in hand in 10 days' time.
They did exactly that, especially in the second half, Reiten ending the day with four goals and Aggie Beever-Jones bagging two while both Sjoeke Nusken and Charles also got their names on the scoresheet.
There were a couple of scares for Chelsea, most notably when Carrie Jones' deflected shot forced Zecira Musovic into a big save at 1-0 and Amalie Thestrup couldn't convert the rebound. But after that, the Blues really ran away with it and have given Hayes every hope of saying goodbye with one more trophy in hand.
GOAL rates Chelsea's players from Kingsmeadow...
