As hoodoos go, this one involving Chelsea is proving to be a particular bugbear for Manchester United.
In three cup finals now United have come up against the London side. In all three, they have been forced to stand aside and watch painfully on as the team in blue have lifted the trophy in front of them.
‘It’s a mindset thing that we have when we go into finals,’ United boss Skinner after the match. ‘We’re rushing chances but we’ll find the solution. Chelsea have been winning finals for ages, we have to be better in the final finishing phase.
‘Chelsea’s goals were rubbish, from our perspective it won them the game, we have to challenge ourselves.’
Chelsea, in the midst of a topsy-turvy season that has seen them relinquish their grip on the WSL crown, needed this. They needed this to crank the gear on the final few months of the season. Needed a trophy win here, at a sold-out Ashton Gate, against the team just a place above them in the top-flight, to show the rest of the league that they mean business at the business-end of the season.
The League Cup may be the lowest priority on their check list for this season, but at this moment in time, it is more important than ever. Their manager Sonia Bompastor may have called time on the title race already, but her players are calling her hand.
The 24-year-old now has six goals against her former side, more than against any other team
When substitute Aggie Beever-Jones nicked the second midway through the second half, it was clear that United were down and out
‘As we say in Sweden, the hope is the last thing that leaves the body,’ Chelsea winger Johanna Rytting Kaneryd told Daily Mail Sport in the lead-up to this match. They know what a bit of momentum can do for them when they need it.
The circumstances that led to Chelsea’s opening goal were damning for United – and showed the unmistakeable gap between the two teams in terms of their big-game experience.
It started with a simple throw-in to the feet of Dominique Janssen. The experienced Dutch centre-back attempted to pass the ball back to her goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce, but undercooked the kick, and Lauren James was there in a flash.
James, the ink still wet on a shiny new five-year contract, darted into the box and buried the ball past Tullis-Joyce’s near post without pausing to look up.
There lingers a simmering rivalry between James and the United fanbase – courtesy of the English winger’s departure from United in 2021.
Such is the selective memory of football fanbases that they continue to berate James for leaving United, rather than thanking her for her part to play in their historic promotion to the top-flight in 2021. She remains to this day their first ever goalscorer in the WSL.
Had that memory been better preserved, they may realise that their goading only serves to fire James up. The 24-year-old now has six goals against her former side, more than against any other team.
After the ball had rippled into the back of the next, James ran over to the army of supporters in red and cupped her ear to the crowd. It is a contest that she clearly thoroughly enjoys – and one that Chelsea have on more than one occasion reaped the benefits from.
Up until that moment, United had enjoyed the better chances of the game, but were left wanting in terms of their finishing. Elisabeth Terland had dribbled a shot towards Hannah Hampton in the early stages after being unable to find enough power in her legs to trouble the England shot-stopper. Ellen Wangerheim later scuffed an opportunity to nick an equaliser at the near post on the edge of half-time.
Jess Park, so often a bright light in the heart of the United midfield this season, was more frequently chasing shadows than able to put her stamp on the game.
Marc Skinner’s side looked to be lacking an individual to take the game by the scruff of the neck. Ella Toone, out since December with a hip injury, has so often been that player, and her absence was sorely missed here today.
Chelsea on the other hand, were hearty in their defence of their crown. Although severely depleted at the back – compounded by the double substitution of Nathalie Bjorn, who left the field after just a few minutes in tears after three months away – did not show they were lacking in numbers.
They managed to keep United at arms length. And when substitute Aggie Beever-Jones nicked the second midway through the second half, it was clear that United were down and out.
Beever-Jones, perhaps harshly left out of the starting line-up amid a side lacking strikers, came on with the bit between her teeth. She squeezed the ball past Tullis-Joyce at the back post to give her side a deserved second.
And so Chelsea lift the first piece of available silverware for this season on the same day league-leaders Man City dropped points against Aston Villa.
But it’s no celebrations for the Blues this evening, confirmed Erin Cuthbert after the game, with all focus shifting to the midweek WSL fixture against Brighton.
This certainly doesn’t sound like a team that have given up on the title race.
