Chelsea manager Emma Hayes is expecting her side to come up against well-drilled Leicester City team this weekend.
The Barclays Women’s Super League’s fixture calendar has thrown up a top against bottom encounter at The King Power Stadium but the league rankings don’t completely tell the full story. Leicester City have conceded less goals than Brighton & Hove Albion and Reading while they have created an identity of offering a low number of goalscoring opportunities to their opponents.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Chelsea boss Hayes acknowledged the fact that breaking Leicester City down won’t necessarily be easy.
“It’s a lovely stadium, a lovely pitch and I know with Willie (Kirk) taking over, they will have had a couple of weeks to prepare, especially with the training time that he will have been able to have,” Hayes said.
“I know that they have been really stingy defensively so we expect them to be a tough outfit to break down.
“We are looking forward to playing on a top class surface in a top class stadium which is what everyone wants, it’s another good opportunity.”
Chelsea top the Barclays Women’s Super League table with 21 points while Arsenal and Manchester United have 18 with a game in hand. Hayes went on to say that she expects the title race to go down to the wire once again.
She said “I think it has been tight every year so I don’t think this year is any different. The reality is that winning by two points, winning by points-per-game, winning by a goal or two over the last few seasons….taking the title race into the last day is pretty normal across this league, it has been in the last three years. We are certainly prepared for that and we are excited for the league at the same time that the quality is increasing across the teams. You can see that in the fixtures and in some of the surprising results.
“It is something for us to celebrate as well as us hopefully looking forward to another tight run in.”
The Barclays Women’s Super League fixture between Leicester City and Chelsea kicks-off at 3pm on Saturday afternoon.
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