Chelsea 2-0 Man City: Emma Hayes’ side pick up first win of the season

In recent years, the matches between Chelsea and Manchester City have been pulsating, end-to-end affairs that ended with high scores.

But after an opening day defeat to newly promoted Liverpool, Chelsea boss Emma Hayes had said she would be happy with a dull and tense game with few goals as long as her team finished on top. She got her wish.

This was by no means a classic, but Chelsea were a worthy winner, with goals from Fran Kirby and Maren Mjelde to seal a 2-0 win.

Maren Mjelde (second from right) scored a penalty 12 minutes before the end to make the 2-0 for Chelsea

City have now lost their first two games of the season for the first time since 2014.

The club’s twitter account erroneously tweeted a photo of Plow Lane, home of AFC Wimbledon, two hours before kick-off with the caption that they were in ‘North London’. They made it to the right stadium, but they probably wish they hadn’t.

The word crisis is too strong, but things are not going well in the blue half of Manchester. The exodus of key players over the summer, including England stars Keira Walsh, Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh, have left gaps that have yet to be filled by summer signings.

Mjelde’s penalty gave her side some breathing room after some late pressure from City

Emma Hayes’ squad took their first points of the season after defeating Liverpool last week

The presence of former Dutch boss Mark Parsons in the crowd at Kingsmeadow may have been a coincidence, but pressure on City boss Gareth Taylor will continue to mount if results don’t improve.

Parsons was fired by the Netherlands after the European Championship, but is well regarded among the ladies and had a successful period in America with Portland Thorns.

Sarina Wiegman was also in the stands. There was a mixed bag of performances from the English players, but the standout performer was Lauren James. The forward only made her second competitive start for the Blues after spending her freshman year working her way up to full fitness.

An impressive pre-season was enough to land her a call-up to last month’s England squad, where she made her second-half debut as a substitute against Austria.

There’s more to come from James, but today was more proof of the huge potential she has. Her passing, dribbling and awareness were first class. However, it was not such a good day for the hopefuls of City in England.

Steph Houghton had said this week that she did not want to retire from international football due to an injury after missing out on qualifying for the European Championship.

She had the chance to impress Wiegman, but it’s doubtful she will have done enough to make it into the roster next week.

The defender nearly gave Chelsea the opener with a misplaced backpass to goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck.

The ball was intercepted by Sam Kerr, but instead of firing, the attacker played a bad pass on Kirby whose final attempt was blocked. That was a letdown, but City would be penalized just before half-time.

Jessie Fleming skipped past Houghton on the edge of the penalty area and played through Guro Reiten. She cut the ball back to an unmarked Kirby, and when Roebuck was pulled off her line, she had an empty net to end up in.

The defending champions will have confidence in beating last year’s runners-up

Lauren Hemp and Chloe Kelly also had quiet afternoons as City struggled to really create many chances. Their brightest spark was Bunny Shaw, but she was off duty.

There was only one team that seemed to score in the second half and that was the home side. James nearly doubled their lead with a driving run and an attack from the edge of the penalty area, but Roebuck went down to make the save.

The deciding goal came 12 minutes from time when Sophie Ingle’s shot was blocked by Leila Ouahabi’s hand. Referee Abigail Byrne pointed to the spot and Mjelde converted beautifully into the top corner.