Lucy Bronze’s late header helped clinch a sixth successive WSL title for Chelsea Women, beating Man Utd Women 1-0 at Leigh Sports Village.
The Blues were gifted the opportunity to wrap up the league after Arsenal were beaten 5-2 by Aston Villa earlier on Wednesday, knowing a point would be enough.
Marc Skinner’s side pushed Chelsea all the way in an energetic, intense game, but Bronze finally made the breakthrough as she glanced home Sandy Baltimore’s corner to seal the title for her team with two games to play.
It is just the tenth WSL goal Phallon Tullis-Joyce and the Man Utd defence have conceded this season, and it could have been more had it not been for their in-form goalkeeper.
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Lucy Bronze headed the eventual winner
Her best moment came early in the second half, denying Erin Cuthbert, Aggie Beever-Jones and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd in quick succession.
The defeat is a blow for Man Utd’s hopes of Women’s Champions League football next season, who still remain two points behind Arsenal with the Gunners and local rivals Manchester City still to play.
They arguably should have come away with at least a point too. Melvine Malard went close late in the first half, latching onto a poor Chelsea back pass but was denied by Naomi Girma and Hannah Hampton. Grace Clinton then sent the follow-up over the bar.
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Chelsea have secured their sixth successive WSL title
Malard also drew a fine save from Hampton minutes after the break, but Man Utd were unable to find a way past the eventual WSL champions.
Chelsea have now won the title for a sixth season in a row and it marks Sonia Bompastor’s first WSL win in her first season in charge. She remains on course for a domestic treble, having already won the League Cup earlier this year.
The Blues will face Man Utd again in the Women’s FA Cup final on May 18 at Wembley as they look to wrap up another trophy against the current holders.
Bompastor: Title win tonight feels a bit unreal
Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor to Sky Sports:
“It’s a great achievement. It feels a bit unreal but we weren’t expecting Arsenal to drop points tonight, but being away, being able to bounce back after the game on Sunday and being able to win against a big team feels amazing.
“I told my team before the game that’s a big opportunity for us to take a step closer to the title, even if I was not expecting this to be real. I’m so proud of my players, all the staff, the team and club.
“Tonight was a team performance, we stayed together. We bounced back which showed the great character this team has.
“Starting the season, I was not expecting us to be in that position and able to achieve that with two games left. I knew we worked hard to fight until the end.
“The biggest challenge is perhaps my English? But this league is really competitive so just for us to be in that position to be unbeaten and to achieve what we just did is something very good.
“Not easy to come as a new manager, to a new country, to adjust to a new league. I learned a lot. But I have a great bunch of players and also a great staff. I’m not the only one.”
Bronze: We want to go unbeaten now
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Lucy Bronze gives her reaction scoring the winner against Manchester United that sealed a sixth straight WSL title for Chelsea.
Chelsea goalscorer Lucy Bronze to Sky Sports:
“We knew a draw was good enough as well. We wanted to be unbeaten and keep a clean sheet, but it’s nice to score and get the win.
“It’s better to celebrate being champions when you win a game.
“The fortunate thing for us this season is we’ve been unbeaten so there’s always been two things to go for.
“Although we’ve won tonight, we know we’ve still got two games and we want to win those games. We want to be unbeaten all season.
“The nice thing is that we get to finish at home at Stamford Bridge and all the fans get to come down and celebrate winning the trophy.
“It’s hard to focus on so many competitions, we’ve always said that. We did well to keep ourselves in all of them until the end.
“It was nice to come here and celebrate a win, the title and move past the disappointment of the weekend.
“Next season we can push on and improve a lot more having not been at our best for the second half of the season.
“Sonia has done well so far, she wants a lot more from us and we can give it.”
Christensen: What a job Bompastor has done
Chelsea won the WSL title with a 1-0 victory at Man Utd
Sky Sports’ Izzy Christensen at Leigh Sports Village:
“This is what dreams are made of for Sonia Bompastor, her staff and her new players, and the existing players who have done this before.
“They don’t care where they do it or how they do it, as long as they do it.
“Man Utd were the better team this evening, but that goal and that mentality from Bronze and the team getting over the line is credit to the foundations that this team have built.
“It’s such a big task and a big weight to carry [to win the WSL title again], but to already have two trophies, this is what you remember as a player.
“What a job Bompastor has done. Big players out with injury throughout the season, that depth, that support, those resources and they’ve found their way to win it again.”
Hampton thanks Villa for Arsenal win
Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hampton to Sky Sports:
“It’s unbelievable, I don’t think I’ve got enough words. I’ve got to say thanks to Villa for helping us at the start of the evening.
“I’m so excited and happy to be in this team. We’ve achieved everything we wanted to, maybe not in the Champions League, but we fight until the end.
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Highlights of the Women’s Super League match between Aston Villa and Arsenal.
“That’s what we’ve done here, we’ve won the league with two games to go so we’re all ecstatic. Best believe we’re not going to let up for those games, we want to go unbeaten for the whole season.
“We knew we had to respond in a good way. It’s probably not the way we wanted to go out of the Champions League.
“We knew we could have put up a bit more of a fight, but there’s always next year to come.
“Right now, we can enjoy this. We’ve got them again in a few weeks’ time so it’s going to be a tough game then to get the treble, but we’re going to give it our all.”
