Chelsea’s longest unbeaten run in Women’s Super League history was broken by the Blues on Sunday, but there was little to be giddy about.
As bottom-placed Liverpool held on for a 1-1 draw despite going 34 games unbeaten, Sonia Bompastor’s side was disappointed.
Chelsea dropped points for the second time in a row, and this was their first league game loss since January 2022.
In the WSL, the six-time defending champions are now three points clear of Manchester City.
On the Women’s Football Weekly podcast, former Scotland and Arsenal defender Jen Beattie said, “A draw isn’t good enough for them, and even when the final whistle went, I was looking at their body language and they were so disappointed.”
In this number of games, “we can talk about records being set and unbeaten, but ultimately, if you’re not winning them, you’re dropping points,” the statement says.
Chelsea now has a 50.84% chance of winning a seventh successive trophy thanks to Opta’s Supercomputer, which saw them win the title in 72.4% of their simulations before the season started.
Despite receiving 21 points and second place in the WSL standings, Chelsea’s high standards would favor an underwhelming start to the season.
In Bompastor’s first season in charge, Chelsea finished last year as champions of the WSL, FA Cup, and League Cup, with only three of those defeats coming in the Champions League.
Bompastor’s Blues haven’t lost any matches this year, but they aren’t quite at the same level as last year.
They have already lost the same number of points (six) as they did the entire previous season.
They have the best record in the league and look strong defensively, with only five goals conceded in their first nine games, four more than any other team.
Despite all of that, Liverpool could have avoided scoring on Sunday. Beata Olsson, who covered the majority of the pitch and converted her one-on-one finish, gave Captain Millie Bright a heads-up at half-time.
“It was disappointing. The outcome, overall performance, and the goal that we conceded were disappointing. Our standards, both on and off the field, are significantly higher than what we currently exhibit,” Bright later told Sky Sports.
Chelsea isn’t sending goals, but they aren’t really scoring as many goals as they did in previous years.
Chelsea had already scored 30 league goals by this point last season. Despite their wide range of attacking options, they have only managed 16 goals this term, with more coming from Arsenal, Manchester City, and Manchester United.
The Blues only once this season, winning 4-0 over West Ham, have scored four or more goals in their first nine games of the 2024-25 campaign.
After the draw with Liverpool, former England international Izzy Christiansen commented on Sky Sports, “It was very un-Chelsea like in terms of the performance.”
Too many adjustments?
Beattie thinks the starting XI made too many changes, which is to blame for Chelsea’s problems.
This season, the Blues have changed their starting lineup by 25 points, more than any other team.
According to Beattie, “they have to keep everyone happy and rotate to a certain extent, but I don’t know, I always thought you need to have some level of consistency in order to maintain that form,” Beattie said on the podcast of Women’s Football Weekly.
Before suffering an injury while playing for England on international duty last month, Aggie Beaver-Jones led Chelsea’s out-and-out striker, leading the line in their opening seven games.
Catarina Macario has also been used as a central striker, but the club’s record signing Alyssa Thompson, who has only started twice in the WSL, has not yet established a regular starting spot in the starting lineup.
Sam Kerr, an Australian forward who has started seven games since coming off the bench, has since recovered from a lengthy absence from the bench. Lauren James also has a new attacking option for Bompastor.
Ellen White, a former England striker, added, “I completely agree with what Jen’s saying about the lack of consistency in that starting XI.”
“They had some injuries, and obviously they are playing three, four days consecutively, and rotation is obviously necessary for both recovery and freshness.”
Man City and others prepared to attack
The difference may be that teams appear prepared to capitalize on any errors made by the current champions this year.
We also need to give credit to the other WSL teams for their continued development and efforts to overthrow Chelsea, White continued, praising Liverpool for their strategy in the face of the reigning champions.
Since their opening-day defeat by Chelsea, Manchester City have won all eight of their WSL games thanks to new coach Andree Jeglertz.
Opta now gives City a 46.47% chance of winning the WSL, up from the 13.6% they had anticipated before the season started.
Other teams didn’t capitalize on it last season, according to former England midfielder Fara Williams, on the BBC’s Women’s Football Show, when Chelsea weren’t at their best and perhaps dropped points in games.
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