Chelsea manager Emma Hayes has described her side’s performance against Aston Villa as ‘a six out of 10’.
The Blues won 1-0 at The Banks’s Stadium this afternoon with Jessie Fleming netting the game’s only goal in the first half. Chelsea did have chances to add to their lead but their opponents were well-drilled and made the contest far from easy for the side from South West London.
When speaking to FAWSL Full-Time after the match, Chelsea boss Hayes admitted that the game was far from impressive but collecting the three points was the most important factor.
“The game was what I thought it would be,” Hayes said. “They were in a 5-4-1 block sitting really low, you have to work hard and drag them out of spaces. I thought we did that well in the first half, the run from Jessie (Fleming) and the movement from Beth (England) was good. We built on that, hit the bar twice, I thought that we should have gone in two, maybe three ahead but we didn’t build on that second half.
“The wind was a factor, I thought Hannah Hampton kicking long created a first and second ball game then a throw-in game and then 1-0 and they are in the game, that’s what it created.
“A clean sheet, a solid performance, a six out of 10, it was nothing more than that, no outstanding performer. When you learn to do these things, you cannot expect every week’s going to be two, three or four-nil.”
One of the best performances came from Canadian international Fleming who got herself in some good positions to add to her goal tally after scoring the opener. Hayes persisted with the youngster but opted to bring her off late on to deal with Aston Villa’s tactical game plan.
Speaking about that decision, Hayes said “She was probably our most likely goalscorer again in the game. I just felt that as it was such a long ball game, I took her out to then play Ji (So-yun) as the 10 and bring Melly (Melanie Leupolz) in for the second balls. It was just going to be long ball, second ball thrown-in, long ball, second ball throw-in, long ball, corner, that was the game second half.
“It was boring, dull, they executed their game plan and we got a clean sheet.”
Chelsea are back in action on Tuesday evening when they travel to Switzerland to face Servette FCCF in their third UEFA Women’s Champions League group game.