WSL winner and loser: Man City’s imperfect spearhead makes toothless Chelsea pay in title race | OneFootball

Chelsea only went and lost a game of football and Manchester City keep winning in what was a massive weekend in the WSL title race.

Winner: Khadija Shaw

Riding high after a hat-trick for Jamaica during the international break, it looked for a long while like Manchester City’s clash with Leicester would be ‘one of those days’ for Bunny Shaw.

She dragged a first chance into the side-netting with her left foot, opened her right foot up too much to put an even simpler opportunity wide when unmarked at the back post, stuck one simple header over the bar six yards out and skewed a slightly more difficult one wide from the same position. All in a first half which could easily have resulted in Andree Jeglertz not sending her out for the second.

But the City manager’s faith in Shaw was rewarded midway through the second period as she pounced on a defensive error to chest the ball, manoeuvre her feet expertly and drive a half-volley low and hard past Janina Leitzig, before doubling City’s lead soon after with a header.

She’s now three goals clear of Stina Blackstenius in the race for the golden boot on eight in ten games, and while Shaw will feel as though she could and really should have had four or five on the day, refusing to allow those missed chances to affect her confidence makes her a winner. As does playing in a team that makes so many chances who are now big favourites for the WSL title, thanks in large part to their imperfect spearhead.

Loser: Chelsea

It had to happen at some point but you would have got long odds on Everton being the side to end Chelsea’s record-breaking 34-game, 585-day unbeaten run in the WSL and condemn Sonia Bombastor to her first league defeat as Blues boss to leave them six points behind Manchester City at the top of the table.

“It’s just one of these games where the ball didn’t want to go in,” Bombastor said having watched her side hit the woodwork three times from 30 shots having had 79 per cent possession.

The result also means Chelsea have won just one of their last five in all competitions – the 6-0 drubbing of St. Polten in the Champions League – and although that run has included credible draws with Arsenal and Barcelona, there will be a burgeoning concern over their goalscoring form. Aggie Beever-Jones is struggling to find the back of the net after a fine start to the campaign and the wealth of alternative attacking options are failing to contribute as expected.

Sam Kerr looked a shadow of herself having come off the bench and Chelsea’s season may well rest on how quickly Lauren James can get back up to speed. She made her first start in a whopping 255 days in this shock 1-0 defeat to Everton and looked understandably undercooked, but is a cut above the rest when fit and flying.