United Women suffer first defeat of the season

A single Guro Reiten penalty at Kingsmeadow decided the rearranged WSL clash with Chelsea on Sunday afternoon.

Manchester United’s unbeaten start to the 2024/25 season lasted nine games, but came to an end at the hands of Chelsea in what actually finished a tighter game, on the surface, than many had predicted beforehand.

This was never going to be an easy task. United had only ever beaten Chelsea once in 13 attempts prior to kick-off and the less said about the woeful 6-0 annihilation at Old Trafford on the final day of last season to hand the Blues the WSL title in Emma Hayes’ final game, the better.

But that record defeat was perhaps still playing on the mind. Afterwards, despite a narrow defeat, United stood accused of lacking ambition to compete, perceived as satisfied with not losing heavily. It’s difficult to find the balance, weighing up the risks against the relative safety of keeping things tight. In the end, perhaps United got a little lost between conflicting approaches and achieved neither.

There was the added factor of Chelsea not skipping a single beat since the transition of power from Hayes to new boss Sonia Bompastor during the summer. With victory over United making it 12 straight wins to start the season across all competitions, they are yet to drop a point domestically in Europe. A Tottenham consolation more than a month ago was the last goal they conceded in the WSL, although Real Madrid, Twente and Celtic have all managed to breach the defence in the Champions League.

Fans were disappointed that United were largely outplayed by Arsenal at Leigh Sports Village at the start of November, before eventually claiming a draw, and more unhappy with the stalemate against Aston Villa that followed due to a lack of creativity.

Marc Skinner insisted a cautious approach was necessary at Kingsmeadow: “You can’t open up against Chelsea and go all-out attack.”

The game became a nervy watch from early on. Maika Hamano struck a big early chance straight at Phallon Tullis-Joyce, while Sjoeke Nusken blazed a similarly good opportunity wide of the target.

---

---

There could be no complaints when Tullis-Joyce brought down Mayra Ramirez in the box 15 minutes into the game, although she nearly reached the subsequent, and ultimately decisive, penalty from Guro Reiten. That was just the third goal conceded in ten games this season.

United’s defensive record has only been equalled by Chelsea at this stage of the campaign. Opposing teams are still creating chances, but a combination of the brilliance of Tullis-Joyce, heroic defensive interventions primarily from Millie Turner and Maya Le Tissier, and some wasteful finishing too, have largely stopped the goals going in. It was a similar story here, where Hamano and Nusken would have expected to score their early opportunities, and in-form Johanna Rytting Kaneryd was denied by a perfectly-timed Le Tissier block. Overall, Tullis-Joyce made five saves to hold Chelsea to one goal.

Afterwards, Bompastor rued Chelsea’s dominance not translating into a more comfortable win.

“It’s good in terms of result, but we didn’t play our best football,” she said. “We probably could have done a lot more with the possession of the ball. In the build-up phases and creation phases, we were not patient enough. Sometimes, we gave the ball away too much in this game.”

At the other end, attacking rhythm and scoring goals has been United’s biggest limitation this season. While this was only the second time the team have drawn a blank in the league, six of the 11 goals that have been scored have also come in just two games. The overall output is the WSL’s sixth best.

United did respond well to Chelsea going in front and enjoyed a decent spell in the second portion of the first half, where the majority of play was in Chelsea’s defensive third and barely any in United’s. The start of the second half also brought a speculative long-range effort from Geyse that swerved and dipped in the wind, forcing Hannah Hampton to acrobatically push it wide.

That was United’s first shot on target in the game, but also the last. With Chelsea dominating the ball, 11 touches in the opposition box compared to 38 was still a sizeable mismatch.

By Skinner’s own admission, United tried to feel their way into game in the first half, especially in difficult windy conditions that Bompastor described as the “worst element” in which to play football. There was a little more adventure in the second half, which in turn led to Chelsea finding gaps that gave Rytting Kaneryd her opportunity, and a glorious late chance for Ramirez that she hit straight at Tullis-Joyce from the middle of the penalty area.

But then United were also so close to snatching a draw too. Geyse, who played well and feels like she is on the cusp of exploding into regular game-changing impact after injury hampered her start to a crucial second season, used skill and a burst of speed to cut in from the left and find Melvine Malard in the box. With back to goal, she pulled off some incredible footwork to engineer a shooting opportunity and lashed a powerful effort against the crossbar.

Such fine margins didn’t quite tell the whole story. It was a solid defensive display from United once more, gritty and determined to stay in the game and the first time since the opening day of the season that Chelsea have failed to score more than a single goal. But not enough in an attacking sense to satisfy fans when the few opportunities that did come highlighted the potential.

---