Selhurst Park might’ve been a new ground for the Women’s Super League on Friday night, but it wasn’t for Chelsea. As newly-promoted Crystal Palace hosted the champions in their first home fixture in the top-flight, some unwanted memories will have come back to a few of the Blues as they walked out as it was here that Arsenal came from 1-0 down to beat them in the League Cup final last year. Fortunately for Chelsea, history didn’t repeat itself, as Aggie Beever-Jones, Lucy Bronze and Lauren James got among the goals in a comfortable 7-0 win.
The difference on this occasion was that, once the Blues went ahead, it felt unlikely that they would lose that lead. The first goal came after plenty of promising play from Palace, with Indiah-Paige Riley and Annabel Blanchard having particularly good chances to stun the winners of the last five WSL titles. But Beever-Jones made them rue those missed opportunities just before half-time when she converted a brilliant counter-attack.
It was just three minutes after the break that Bronze’s wonderfully controlled strike flew into the top corner to make it two and James popped up in the right place to add another before the hour, putting the result well beyond doubt despite a decent display from the hosts. Just to be sure, Nathalie Bjorn bundled one in from a corner, Reiten netted twice and Catarina Macario scored with essentially the last kick of the game as Sonia Bompastor’s side cruised to victory in the end.
GOAL rates Chelsea’s players from Selhurst Park…