Chelsea Ladies - A year with Emma Hayes

This week saw the anniversary of Emma Hayes’ appointment as manager, and after a disappointing defeat 2-0 against Lincoln. Hayes had the chance to celebrate with a league double over leaders Liverpool and a host of former blues.

The ladies were off to a flyer with Jakobsson and Aluko inside the opening 8 minutes to give the blues a 2-0 lead. That’s their 7th and 6th, in all competitions this season, respectively. Liverpool recovered, with a fortunate bounce off a freekick that deceived Telford to trail 2-1 at half time with Chelsea put under real pressure.

Into the second half Liverpool equalised before an own goal from a Jakobsson cross saw the blues go into the final ten minutes 2-3. Liverpool showed why they have become title contenders under Matt Beard scoring 2 late on to snatch a 4-3 victory. They put 4 past our Ladies in the continental cup and have scored 4 against Arsenal and Everton earlier in the season and despite conceding 9 in their last 3 matches they have scored 25 in the league.

The ladies came away disappointed and wounded after a few feisty challenges with Davies taking a knee to the ribs from former teammate Longhurst.

There were a few positives, however, as Sophie Fogarty was able to make her first team debut as a second half substitute after her mid-season move from QPR and new star Ogimi looks to have settled quickly showing good composure and link up play. The Japanese international was unlucky not to score her first goal for the club with a clever lob.

The ladies have won just 3 of the last 12 and just once in the last 8 in all competitions, perhaps more worrying is the 3 wins from 12 matches after the mid-season break over the last 3 seasons.

Maybe there is an underlying problem that comes with a heavily congested first part of the season followed by a long break before having to adjust to another set of games. The blues have now played 10 league games, more than any other side and have 4 remaining including Arsenal next up on the 29th of August, a Thursday night. The game is being shown live on BT Sport.

Hannah Blundell, meanwhile, is in Wales with the England Under 19s who took a well earned point in the group stage with a 0-0 draw with France.

Written by @ChelseaStats

Published 20 August 2013, with 402 words.