Key events
44 min: Rytting Kaneryd drives at Sandberg down the right. She twists, turns and finally shoots. Straight at Tullis-Joyce. United have been more intricate in attack, Chelsea more direct. Both have come close in their own way to adding to their goal tally.
42 min: Rytting Kaneryd makes good down the right and crosses long. Baltimore prepares to head home, but Riviere heads clear just in time.
40 min: Cuthbert plays a long pass down the right in the hope of releasing Macario on goal. The flag goes up for offside, and Tullis-Joyce claims on the edge of her box anyway.
39 min: Sandberg, Park and Toone paint crisp triangles down the left flank. Eventually enough space opens up for Toone, who leans back and lifts a shot over the bar from the edge of the box. That would have been quite the goal.
38 min: United’s turn for a bit of sterile possession. Both teams perhaps recovering from their blistering start.
36 min: Chelsea pass and probe, United sitting back for now. Pretty much the first moment of downtime since the first whistle.
34 min: Beever-Jones romps down the left before cutting back for Kaptein, who leans back and, unmarked from eight yards, should score. But she flips her shot straight at Tullis-Joyce, who makes a great point-blank stop. Admittedly a save she should never have been allowed to make. Kaptein tries to ram home the rebound, but only succeeds in hoicking miles over the bar. United get away with one, because as fine a save as it was, the miss was egregious.
33 min: The wind is really whipping around the Progress With Unity Stadium. The corner flags are almost horizontal!
31 min: Toone, quarterbacking from deep on the left, tries to find Zigiotti Olme with a floated pass into the box. But she overcooks it, while her team-mate gives up on the run, and that’s easy pickings for Hampton.
30 min: Beever-Jones and Riviere contest a 50-50, and the former comes off worse. The Chelsea striker expects a free kick, holding her leg and rolling about a bit, but she’s not getting one. She’s not particularly happy about the absence of whistle, and she might have a point. Riviere looked a couple of nanoseconds late. But we play on.
28 min: Both teams are backing themselves in attack. Now it’s Park’s turn to drive aggressively at the Chelsea defence. She nearly busts her way through the thin blue line, but the gap closes just in time. There are more goals in this all right.
26 min: Chelsea have responded to that equaliser as though it was a personal affront. Which to champions it probably was. They win a corner United deals with. Then Carpenter storms down the right yet again, but overhits her cross. The visitors want their lead back.
24 min: A simple long ball down the inside-right pass nearly does for United. Macario spins Janssen and she’s all alone in the box! But the whistle goes for a foul on Janssen. A light stroke of the face, and a generous free kick. Macario doesn’t complain too much, to be fair, but United and Janssen have got away with one there.
22 min: That’s a really good response to falling behind from Manchester United, when you take those aforementioned Chelsea/Bompastor stats into consideration. And it can all be traced back to Janssen’s Beckenbauer-circa-1966-esque elegant slalom from her own half to the edge of the Chelsea box. No assist, but she’ll take United scoring from the next phase of attack. Wow.
GOAL! Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea (Sandberg 20)
Chelsea fail to clear their lines. On the edge of the D, Le Tissier cushions a header down for Sandberg, coming in from the left. Sandberg meets the ball flush, sending a dipping screamer across Hampton and into the bottom right. What a pearler!
19 min: Janssen strides out from the back, down the inside left, drifting infield, all the way to the edge of the Chelsea box. She rolls across for Park, whose shot is blocked. That’s such a shame, because that would have been one of the all-time assists. But never mind from United’s point of view, because …
17 min: This is Sonia Bompastor’s 100th league game as a head coach. Of the 99 she’s previously contested, either with Chelsea or previously at Lyon, 90 have been won, and just two lost. Another measure of the size of job United have on their hands now.
15 min: Riviere looks for Toone down the right, and the pass is perfectly weighted … but also perfectly anticipated by Cuthbert, who comes across to get in front of Toone and use her strength to hold off the United player, ushering the ball out for a goal kick.
13 min: Suddenly United are under siege. They can’t get out of their final third. Baltimore swings in another dangerous cross from the left; Janssen is forced to turn behind for a corner. Baltimore crosses the pitch to take the set piece, but it’s cleared confidently by Tullis-Joyce.
11 min: That’s only the second goal United have conceded so far this season. It was a brilliant one, and it could be a costly one. Because here’s Chelsea’s record when opening the scoring in their last 26 WSL games: W24 D2 L0.
GOAL! Manchester United 0-1 Chelsea (Kaptein 9)
… and here’s the opener. Carpenter crosses low from the right again. Macario, on the corner of the six-yard box, backheels for Kaptein, who calmly slots across Tullis-Joyce and into the bottom left. That’s a gloriously smooth move!
8 min: Zigiotti Olme has the opportunity to release Riviere into acres down the right, but overhits the pass. Goal kick. Both teams look absurdly open.
6 min: Carpenter is sent scampering down the right by Walsh, who whips a cross to the near stick. Beever-Jones leans back and hoicks over from close range. It was surely easier to score. Somewhere in the multiverse, it’s already 2-2.
5 min: That’s a promising start for United, though: two one-on-one opportunities already, albeit neither a particularly easy one. But all good considering United have never beaten Chelsea in the WSL.
4 min: Chelsea respond through Baltimore, who sashays down the left before curling a delicious ball in for Macario. For a second, it looks as though the goal is at her mercy, but she can’t get a shot away because Le Tissier stubbornly stays in the road to block. Then United counter the counter, Toone driving down the middle and slipping Park into the box down the right. Park tries to float a chip over Hampton from a tight angle, but it clears the bar. Looks like there may be goals in this!
2 min: United are on the front foot immediately. Terland strides purposefully down the inside-left channel. She’s got Rolfo in the middle, but is within her rights to take a pop herself. Her low drive, intended for the bottom left, is kicked away by Hampton.
The players also intermingle in the centre circle, linking arms to mark the start of Black History Month … then Chelsea get the ball rolling.
The teams are out! United in red, Chelsea in blue. We’ll be off soon, but before kick-off there’s a moment of solemn silence in tribute to the victims of the terror attack on a Manchester synagogue. Perfectly observed.
Chelsea’s Sonia Bompastor talks to the Beeb. “Coming into every game we are trying to bring players who can bring specific things to the team and performance … tonight is a tough game … we expect the finishers to come in … I have good quality on the bench.”
Manchester United boss Marc Skinner speaks to the BBC. “Fantastic to welcome Hannah [Blundell] back [after giving birth] … it’s been a long time but it’s a very welcome addition to the team … [as for dropping Melvine Malard in favour of Anna Sandberg] because of their bench you have to have two strategies, a start and an end game … in this one we’re looking in a certain way to exact that plan … it was harsh for [Malard] because she’s in excellent form … in reality it’s a bit of a gameplan that hopefully we can spring on Chelsea.”
Manchester United make one change to the starting XI from the one that began last Sunday’s 2-0 win at Liverpool … and it’s one with the visit of the all-conquering champions very much in mind. Anna Sandberg comes in for leading scorer Melvine Malard, who drops to the bench.
Chelsea rotate three players in/out of the XI that started the 4-0 win at West Ham United last weekend. Ellie Carpenter and Sandy Baltimore return as right-back and left-back respectively, with Catarina Macario coming into the midfield. Veerle Buurman, Oriane Jean-François and Alyssa Thompson drop to the bench.
The teams
Manchester United: Tullis-Joyce, Riviere, Le Tissier, Janssen, Rolfo, Sandberg, Miyazawa, Park, Toone, Zigiotti Olme, Terland.
Subs: Middleton-Patel, Rendell, Blundell, George, Awujo, Ildhusoy, Naalsund, Malard, Williams.
Chelsea: Hampton, Bjorn, Bright, Carpenter, Kaptein, Cuthbert, Walsh, Baltimore, Kaneryd, Macario, Beever-Jones.
Subs: Peng, Reiten, Thompson, Buurman, Kerr, Hamano, Jean-Francois, Nusken, Potter.
Preamble
Just four games in, and already this feels like it could be a potentially decisive fixture. Look!
Manchester United can go top if they win tonight. It’s a big ask, even with home advantage, not least because Chelsea haven’t lost in the WSL since the tail end of the 2023-24 season – and they still went on to win the title – but also because Erin Cuthbert and Aggie Beever-Jones are currently in the sort of form that’s seen them pinging the ball into this top corner and that one. Yep, it’s a big ask.
Yet having said all that, United will still have confidence in their ability to end the 500-day-plus unbeaten WSL run of the best team in the land. Partly because their defence is formidable – they’ve only conceded one goal in their first four gamedays – and they’ve got spectacular goals in them too: step forward Hinata Miyazawa, and, without breaking stride, launch a howitzer. With Melvine Malard joint top of the early goalscoring charts alongside the aforementioned Beever-Jones, there’s enough in-form attacking talent on show for this to be a thriller, and if I’ve tempted the Football Gods into serving up a 0-0, I can only apologise in advance. Kick-off in Leigh, Greater Manchester is at 7.30pm BST. It’s on!
