Chelsea manager Emma Hayes said that she was pleased to end a challenging week with a 1-0 victory over Manchester United.
Sam Kerr’s first half goal was enough to down The Red Devils at Kingsmeadow yesterday and thrust Chelsea to the top of the Barclays Women’s Super League table.
Chelsea’s fixture against Manchester United came at the end of a week which saw The Blues contest the FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup final along with a home fixture against Brighton & Hove Albion. Manager Hayes was pleased with how her side dealt with a third game in a week.
“That’s our third game in a week, it’s three points, we’ve done it,” Hayes said when speaking in the post-match press conference. “We’ve had injury and illness in the squad, so to perform like that is why I have been saying every week that squad depth matters; players have come into the team and delivered.
“We knew that we were going to be without the ball, so we had to be structured defensively. We were and I think that we could have won by more.”
It wasn’t a case of continuous free-flowing football from Chelsea at Kingsmeadow but The Blues did what was required to get the result, much to the delight of their manager.
“When it is the third game, I’ve got a lot of experience of knowing how hard that game is whether it is home or away,” Hayes said. “It would be suicide for us to play a high-press game with numbers out of shape.
“The decisions that we took tactically were the right decisions for the right moment, that’s what our jobs as coaches is to do and the players have to execute that. Both of those things married up today.”
Chelsea will now have the opportunity to get some rest before next Sunday’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup quarter-final tie at Reading.
About The Author
