Key events
45+1 mins: There’ll be something in the region of three minutes of stoppage time. Looking at a replay, I think that probably should have been a penalty for United: the ball was bouncing, Bright threw out a foot to kick it away, but it looked like Clinton got to the ball fractionally before her, and it was her foot that Bright kicked.
45 mins: It’s just not quite falling for United. Clinton goes down in the area under Bright’s challenge but doesn’t win a penalty; Malard has another shot blocked.
41 mins: For a moment Chelsea seemed to be taking control of the game, but since I first pondered noting the fact United have been all over them. So probably just as well I didn’t, all things considered.
38 mins: What a chance for United! Malard latches on to a back-pass and runs into the area, but Hampton’s out quickly and by the time Malard shoots the keeper is too close! The ball then runs out to Clinton, whose first-time 20-yard drive was on its way in, but Hampton gets up and turns it over the bar!
37 mins: Chelsea’s second shot on target comes from the left foot of Millie Bright, about 25 yards, but it trundles feebly straight to Tullis-Joyce.
34 mins: Chance! Chelsea have a corner on the right, which drops to the feet of Niamh Charles, just outside the six-yard box! She can’t have been expecting that to happen, though, because her feet are not at all in the right place to sweep it in, and as it bounces off her and over the bar she has her head in her hands.
33 mins: Chelsea have their best attack of the game, but Beever-Jones and Kaneryd both choose not to shoot when they probably should have done, and then Cuthbert does choose to shoot but hits a defender.
30 mins: A third of the match played, and the match is just about being played at a fast enough pace for the lack of threatening forward play to be too frustrating, for now.
28 mins: An excellent first touch from Charles takes her away from her marker, but she can’t pick out a blue shirt with the cross.
26 mins: Ramirez goes off, and Johanna Kaneryd replaces her.
25 mins: Ramirez is back on the field, but it looks like she’s just making up the numbers while Chelsea prepare a substitution.
24 mins: Ramirez has left the pitch, so play can continue with Chelsea down to 10 players for now.
23 mins: With the physios on, every other player clusters round their coaches for a tactical update. Ramirez is flat on her back, and doesn’t look to be getting any better.
21 mins: Ramirez goes down, feeling her right knee. It’s not a contact injury, and there’s a chance that’s her night over.
20 mins: United keep the ball for a while, passing it along the halfway line between their defenders, with every blue shirt behind the ball. Eventually they chip it into the penalty area, and Bright heads it away again.
17 mins: Another save! And an incredible goal-saving block! Manchester United are so close to taking the lead, but Malard’s shot is well stopped, and as the ball runs to Clinton with the goal gaping Girma flings herself in the way of the shot!
16 mins: Save! Mayra Ramirez takes a shot from wide to the right of goal. It’s powerful and on its way inside the near post before Tullis-Joyce throws out a glove.
15 mins: Now United win a corner, which Gabby George takes from the right. Clinton wins the header, 15 yards out or so, but she doesn’t control it at all. Goal kick.
13 mins: … which is cleared.
12 mins: Chelsea get the ball into United’s penalty area, but they’re held up on the left and eventually Jayde Riviere, who has started the game well, slides in to tackle and sends the ball behind for a corner.
10 mins: Boos ring out after Janssen gives the ball away, goes down and the referee waves play on. It’s a good decision – Cuthbert got the ball – but Chelsea can’t capitalise, Beever-Jones’ cross going straight to the keeper.
9 mins: A decent start for the home side, but nothing vaguely chance-ish for either team as yet.
6 mins: Melvine Malard, United’s tall solo striker, is making a nuisance of herself. She plays a nice ball through to Clinton, but the cross is headed away.
4 mins: Now Janssen brings down Lucy Bronze. United have set their pressurometer to 11.
3 mins: Grace Clinton and Keira Walsh battle each other for the ball for a while on Chelsea’s right flank. The referee eventually decides that Clinton has battled a bit too much, and gives a free-kick.
2 mins: Chelsea have two more league games after today: at Tottenham on Sunday, and at home to Liverpool next Saturday. One point from this game or either of those will win the league for them.
1 min: Peeeeeeep! Off they go!
Chelsea will kick off. Sounds like a decent atmosphere at Leigh Sports Village.
Out come the players! Hands are currently being clasped, and kick-off a couple of minutes away.
The two managers have chats with Sky. Chelsea’s Sonia Bompastor says:
It could be one opportunity to take a big step to the title, we know that. We need to focus on ourselves. We need to bounce back from the game we had on Sunday.
While Manchester United’s Marc Skinner says:
I believe in what we are about and who we are, and I want to make it really difficult, really really difficult. We need to be ready to go all the way. That’s what I want to see from us tonight: full commitment.
Final score: Aston Villa 5-2 Arsenal
The final whistle blows, the final remnants of Arsenal’s title challenge have been comprehensively shredded, and Chelsea are just one point from the title!
Villa finally have a shot on target that doesn’t go in, Katie Robinson with a tame effort from just outside the area.
There are two minutes’ stoppage time remaining in that game, and Arsenal have a goal-kick and four goals to score.
Aston Villa have earned their 5-2 lead with only five shots on target; Arsenal have had more possession (64%), more shots (15-14) and more shots on target (6-5), as well as more corners (10-5) and many, many more passes (489-276 as I type), but here they are.
The teams!
Meanwhile the teams have landed for the late game, and here they are:
Man Utd Women: Tullis-Joyce, Riviere, Le Tissier, Turner, George, Miyazawa, Ildhusoy, Janssen, Clinton, Galton, Malard. Subs: Middleton-Patel, Rendell, Mannion, Sandberg, Awujo, Naalsund, Toone, Griffiths, Terland.
Chelsea Women: Hampton, Bronze, Bright, Girma, Charles, Walsh, Kaptein, Beever-Jones, Cuthbert, Baltimore, Ramirez. Subs: Spencer, Hamano, Mpome, Jean-Francois, Macario, Reiten, Lawrence, Kaneryd, Nusken.
Surely that ends it! This is wild, wild stuff: a one-two on the halfway line releases Chasity Grant to sprint clear of a high and understaffed Arsenal backline, and she makes no mistake – it’s 5-2!
And another one! A loveley cross from the right, and Alessia Russo stoops to head in at the near post! It’s 4-2 now, with 20 minutes or so to play!
Stina Blackstenius has pulled one back for Arsenal, getting on the end of a long pass over the top of the Villa defence, running clear, and scoring past an exposed keeper. It’s 4-1 now.
It’s a couple of years since anything like this has happened to Arsenal: in the space of a few weeks in April and May 2023 they lost league games 4-1 to Manchester City and 3-0 at home to Brighton, but they are not used to this kind of thing. Before this season they’d lost 10 games in three years; Villa have lost seven of their last 10; Manchester United tonked them 4-0 the last time they played a home game.
GOAL! Amazing scenes! Aston Villa are thrashing Arsenal
Well this is happening: Aston Villa have just scored a fourth – fourth – goal against Arsenal, a great move from goalkeeper through to forward, excellent passing and movement, ending with Rachel Daly poking past the keeper to make it 4-0!
Hello world!
Six points clear with three games to play, Chelsea would win the league tonight if they take more points from this match than Arsenal get in their 6pm kick-off against Aston Villa (likely to be impossible: Arsenal have won 12 of their last 13 in the league, slipping up only against Chelsea). The question is how the champions-elect cope with Sunday’s Champions League elimination at the hands of Barcelona.
“If we can win on Wednesday, it will be a big step for the title,” said the Chelsea coach, Sonia Bompastor. “This motivation is big enough for us to be focused. I’m still really confident going into the game. I know we have the quality in the squad, and the players and the staff will be all together to turn things around and be ready to compete.’
The fact that if they avoid defeat here they would guarantee going a full calendar year unbeaten in the WSL (winning 19 and drawing three) suggests there isn’t going to be much stopping them, but the possibility of a post-cup-defeat hangover is a straw to cling to – and in vaguely similar circumstances Chelsea lost an FA Cup semi-final to United in their first game after they were beaten in last season’s League Cup final. “I think it was the first time we beat Chelsea,” said the United forward Melvine Malard. “It was good. If we can do it once, we can do it again. We need to think like that.”
We’ll know for sure well before kick-off but the likelihood is that even if they win tonight Chelsea will have to wait until Sunday, when they visit Tottenham, to seal the title. But this game still holds intrigue as a dress rehearsal for next month’s FA Cup final, where Chelsea will attempt to complete the domestic treble for the second time in five seasons.
