Chelsea Women made it five wins from their opening five WSL games for the first time in their history after an impressive 5-0 victory over Everton at Goodison Park.
First-half goals from Aggie Beever-Jones (14), Erin Cuthbert (43) and Guro Reiten (45+1) put the visitors in a commanding position.
Everton improved after the break and had their best chance when substitute Emma Bissell fired off target. Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor looked to her bench and brought on Wieke Kaptein, and it was her emphatic finish which ended any hope of a dramatic turnaround (82).
Not satisfied with a fourth, Chelsea added another just a minute later when Ashley Lawrence met Eve Perisset’s low cross to compound Everton’s woes as their search for a first WSL win of the season goes on.
Wieke Kaptein extended Chelsea’s lead in the second half
The result means Chelsea retain their 100 per cent record and sit in second place with a game in hand over leaders Manchester City, who are just a point above them. Meanwhile, Everton are rooted to the foot of the table on two points from six matches, slipping beneath West Ham on goal difference.
When asked if Everton are in a relegation battle this season, manager Brian Sorensen told Sky Sports: “I think it’s too early to say when we are so few games into the season. Let’s see where we are at Christmas and then we can see where we’re at.”
The defending WSL champions set the tone from kick-off with Beever-Jones drawing a save from Courtney Brosnan after just 37 seconds.
The forward then broke the deadlock and the chances continued to flow with Kadeisha Buchanan, Erin Cuthbert and Guro Reiten all narrowly being denied.
Cuthbert made certain of her second chance two minutes before half-time, steering the ball into the bottom corner after dispossessing Everton defender Veatriki Sarri.
The defending champions went into the interval with a three-goal lead after Reiten stretched to turn in at the back post in added time.
Erin Cuthbert (left) celebrates doubling Chelsea’s lead
The visitors continued to probe after the restart for further goals and eventually got them late in the second period after twice hitting the woodwork.
Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Sandy Baltimore were both denied by the goal frame before the floodgates opened once again.
Substitute Kaptein cracked in the fourth with eight minutes left and Ashley Lawrence had a simple tap-in barely 60 seconds later to wrap up another satisfying night for Bompastor.
Bompastor: We haven’t won anything yet
Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor:
“I think we maybe could have scored earlier in the game. We were efficient, even if I thought we could have been more efficient. We still won that game and all of the players are happy and I am happy as a manager.
“Sometimes we need to be patient and keep the ball when the spaces open in the opponent’s box. We are working a lot on that. The players make the right decisions and that is most important at football.
On being the first Chelsea manager to win her five opening matches in the WSL: “I don’t care about myself, it’s more about the team, so I am so happy that we are able to win every game. At the moment we did not win any trophy and that is my main job. As the coach I don’t care, it is more about the club and the team.”
On Aggie Beever-Jones: “That’s the high level, you have to compete in the club and in the national team. She has a lot of quality, she is able to score and help the team to possess the ball.
“She just needs to trust herself more sometimes. She can play forward and also as a winger which is really good. She will have all the opportunities to start games and to make an impact for the team so I am really happy for her tonight. I think it will be good for her confidence as well.”
Analysis: Frustration growing for Everton
Toni Duggan told Sky Sports:
“When you come up against Chelsea, you have to keep your players in their core positions as much as you can.
“You could see Chelsea had joy because players were playing out of position and the frustration grows.
“I’m not really sure where Everton go from here and how they can get back on track but the Crystal Palace game next week is massive.
“When Chelsea have an injury, they have the personnel so the change is like-for-like whereas Everton can’t afford to do that. With their injuries, the player coming in hasn’t been a like-for-like change. There’s a big reshuffle and is why they have started games badly this season.”
Player of the match – Aggie Beever-Jones
Chelsea celebrate their opening goal at Goodison Park
Chelsea forward Aggie Beever-Jones told Sky Sports:
“I was happy to get the goal but I didn’t want to celebrate too much as it was against a club that means something to me.
“I’m delighted with the goal and to get the three points today. The injuries they’ve had this year has not helped them by any means.
“I wanted to do the basics well today and confidence is sometimes something I rely on and seeing five different goalscorers is always nice as well.”
Sorensen: We ran out of energy
Everton boss Brian Sorensen told Sky Sports:
“I think it’s not the players that play our position, maybe it’s their fault, but especially in the first half we were not sticking to the agreements that we talked about, and then that, especially in the last two, led to goals.
“So that’s something we have to be better at. Getting to Chelsea, you have to get your game plan right 100 per cent, and that’s of course on me, but it’s also very, very tough and we have to make very last-minute changes basically after training yesterday.
“That’s the learning we have to do. We have to be sharp in every second when we play a top team like Chelsea. So I wasn’t impressed with the first half from us, it wasn’t good enough.
“Second half I think we stepped up, but then we just ran out of energy at the end. We need to get players ready to play.
“It’s really hard to compete when we are so depleted as a squad and we have very, very low numbers and have to play players in positions they’re not used to. So we have to get players fit and ready and we’re doing everything we can to get that.”
