It was an all too familiar sight for Manchester United fans on Sunday evening when the club’s title hopes were dealt a serious blow by one of the ‘Big Three’.
On this occasion, like many others in the past, it was Chelsea who humbled The Red Devils as they ran out 3-1 victors in front of a healthy crowd of 6,186 at the Leigh Sports Village. It was not a case of Manchester United being outmatched by their opponents, errors in key areas of the pitch led to the hosts’ downfall.
When speaking in the post-match press conference, Manchester United head coach Skinner expressed his frustration at his side’s mistakes. An error handed Chelsea the game’s opening goal with Sophie Ingle picking up possession before playing in Sam Kerr to score and The Blues never looked back from that moment.
“There are controllable moments that we’ve let ourselves down on,” Skinner said. “That moment where we had control and they steal the ball and score (the opening goal), that’s not a pressure situation for us, that’s not a high press, that’s a mistake.”
With the deadlock broken, Chelsea then quickly found themselves two goals to the good when Kerr picked out Lauren James in the 18-yard box. The former Manchester United forward found the far corner of the net. Despite watching his side’s grip on the game crumble away, Skinner saw positives in their performance.
He said “There were loads of moments in the second half where we looked more competitive. We acquitted ourselves much, much better than we did against them last year.”
Manchester United had enjoyed such a rich vein of form in the Barclays Women’s Super League. They boasted a 100% record going into the game and were the only side still to concede. Yet, when faced with their first big test of the season, they fell short which could have an effect on the mentality of the team. Skinner was quick to quell such suggestions.
“If you feel sorry for yourself, it’s not a sport for you,” he said. “It’s too quick, it’s too fast.
“There are things we’ll definitely learn, we’ll grow from the experience and it will only feed our hunger for these next fixtures coming up.”
“Everybody will go and focus on what they need to do internationally and then come back and we’ve got Arsenal. It’s a great opportunity for us to put a performance in against them.”
It is Arsenal who go into the international break top of the table while they possess the only remaining 100% winning record in the Barclays Women’s Super League. The Gunners will be backed by more than 30,000 fans when they host Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium in their next match. While Arsenal will be the favourites to win that fixture, there would be no better stage for Manchester United to bounce back. If The Red Devils are able to eliminate the mistakes that cost them against Chelsea, they could record a big result in North London.
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