- Kerr hasn’t played since December of 2023
- Laboured return for striker after ACL rupture
- Unused substitute for Chelsea in season opener
Sam Kerr will have a further frustrating wait to make her return after 20 long months, but she could at least savour a virtuoso match-winning debut from her Matildas teammate Ellie Carpenter while watching on from the Chelsea bench.
After all the anticipation that the superstar striker would burst back into action in the Women’s Super League opener against Manchester City, it all felt a little anti-climactic as Kerr was an unused substitute at Stamford Bridge.
But there was nothing anti-climactic about the debut of Carpenter, who proved comfortably the game’s outstanding player as she capped her livewire contribution by laying on Chelsea’s first goal in the 2-1 home victory over one of their main title rivals.
It wasn’t the most convincing start from the Blues as they began their bid for a seventh consecutive English title, but Carpenter, signed in the close season from Lyon where she’d previously played under Sonia Bompastor when the Chelsea boss was at the helm of the French giants, looked a striking addition.
It was her coruscating burst down the right flank and a pinpoint low cross just after the half-hour that allowed Aggie Beever-Jones, one of Chelsea’s go-to strikers in Kerr’s long-term absence with an ACL injury, to slot home the first goal of the new season from point-blank range.
‘She’s a world-class player, genuinely one of the quickest players ever, and (she) just laid it on a plate for me,’ enthused Beever-Jones as Carpenter received the player-of-the match award for a performance that featured her putting in six crosses as she added a new dimension to Chelsea with her penetrating runs from wing-back.
Carpenter returned the compliment, saying: ‘Aggie tapped it in, so made me look good.
‘It was really nice to create those relationships with the team, being new.
Sam Kerr’s return to football after a 20-month injury layoff was delayed after she was an unused substitute in Chelsea’s season opening win against Manchester City
Matildas teammate Ellie Carpenter impressed on debut for the Blues, ending up with an assist in the 2-1 triumph at Stamford Bridge
‘I think we worked on those foundations, and we’re really gelling as a team.’
City, without their own injured Matildas star Mary Fowler, nearly equalised six minutes later when Alex Greenwood’s left-foot free-kick curler thumped off the crossbar.
The visitors started brightly after the break too, but when Wieke Kaptein got away from Greenwood down the right in the 64th minute, just as Carpenter had done for the earlier goal, her cross allowed Maika Hamano to drill home Chelsea’s second.
Chelsea’s Niamh Charles netted an own goal six minutes later, and as City pressed for an equaliser Bompastor decided it wasn’t the right pressurised moment to bring on Kerr for her first game since December 20, 2023, when she scored her 99th goal for the club in a Champions League match at Swedish side BK Hacken.
‘She was fit to come in the game. It was my decision not to make that call,’ Bompastor said.
‘Maybe if the game had been 2-0, I would have done something different.
‘But (at) 2-1 where City was trying to push hard to score the second goal, I thought maybe I had other options on the bench.’
Kerr must stay patient to get the chance for goal number 100, with her next opportunity coming at Aston Villa on September 14.
