Chelsea started life after Emma Hayes with a 1-0 win at house to Aston Villa on the primary day of the 2024/25 WSL season.
New supervisor Sonia Bampastor’s first aggressive match accountable for the Blues led to victory at a sold-out Kingsmeadow on Friday evening.
Villa went into the sport equally with a recent face within the dugout, however Robert de Pauw’s first sport resulted in defeat.
The hosts’ triumph means they’ve prolonged their good file in opposition to Villa within the WSL to 9 wins from all 9 video games in opposition to them within the high flight.
Chelsea went near taking the lead inside 90 seconds when Guro Reiten was afforded area for a half-volley on the sting of the Villa field, just for her effort to trickle narrowly huge.
Reiten once more let fly from the same distance quickly after when the Blues gained possession excessive up the pitch, however once more her shot was astray and the guests have been let off the hook.
Villa’s first actual likelihood noticed Paula Tomas drag a cross by way of the six-yard field earlier than Missy Bo Kearns had the ball cleared off the road when possession was recycled quickly after.
Ten minutes earlier than the break, Chelsea broke the impasse. Johanna Rytting Kaneryd obtained possession within the centre of the pitch and appeared to weave her strategy to the byline, however then in the reduction of inside left-back Tomas and unleashed a fierce strike from distance that gave Sabrina D’Angelo no likelihood of saving.
After the interval, a looping header from Rachel Daly bounced off the highest of the crossbar as Villa sought to stage the scores.
Deep into second-half stoppage time, Daly pressured Hannah Hampton into an unbelievable save from a nook earlier than Villa goalkeeper D’Angelo got here up with a high-quality header from a nook which additionally wanted to be saved out the England stopper.
Chelsea managed to carry on and declare the three factors regardless of Villa’s late push for an equaliser.
