Chelsea women's player ratings vs Man Utd: Mayra Ramirez runs the Red Devils ragged again as Guro Reiten's strike extends Blues' perfect start under Sonia Bompastor
2 min read
When Chelsea last met Manchester United in the Women's Super League, the Blues were scarily dominant, with Mayra Ramirez running the show in a 6-0 thumping at Old Trafford which sealed a fifth-successive title. Six months on, their meeting at a blustery Kingsmeadow on Sunday might not have been quite as devastating, but Ramirez's quality once again made an important difference in a 1-0 win which continues Sonia Bompastor's perfect start to life in London.
The new Chelsea head coach has now won all of her first 12 games in charge, with the only goal of this affair coming inside 17 minutes. It was a lovely bit of combination play between Ramirez and Maika Hamano which sent the former in behind a United defence that had conceded just twice in seven WSL games, and it was there that Phallon Tullis-Joyce, their impressive new No.1 goalkeeper, made a rare mistake in bringing down Chelsea's centre-forward. Up stepped Guro Reiten to arrow a penalty beyond the American and give the hosts the lead.
From there, the impetus was on the Red Devils to take the game to the reigning champions, but they could only do so in short flurries. Instead, it was Chelsea who often looked the more likely to add to the scoreline, with Erin Cuthbert, Nathalie Bjorn and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd among those to come close. There was a late scare for the home crowd when Melvine Malard smacked the woodwork in the final minutes, though in the end, another goal wasn't needed, with the Blues able to see the game out rather comfortably to move five points clear of second-placed Manchester City at the top of the WSL table.
