It’s a measure of Chelsea’s confidence that Katie Chapman insists her side have the ability to go the whole season unbeaten – but that’s not to say anyone’s resting on their laurels for the trip to Manchester City.
Chelsea beat City in a classic FA Women’s Cup nail-biter last weekend, as South Korea international Ji So-Yun struck late on to send them to the Wembley Final.
But The FA Women’s Super League with BT Sport is back on the agenda this week and it’s the last chance for teams to send a message before domestic football breaks up for the World Cup.
Manchester City v Chelsea
The FA Women's Super League
6pm, Sunday 10 May 2015
Academy Stadium, Manchester City
By Dan Gillott
Unbeaten in their first five league games, Chelsea are flying high in FA WSL 1 and look set for a sustained attack on both fronts.
And captain Chapman is adamant a repeat result against City will be hard to come by – though her side’s ambitions are burning as brightly as ever after their stunning start.
"It’s always a tough game against City but I think it’s going to be different in the league than it was in the cup game," said Chapman, whose form earned her a return to the England squad last month.
"League games are always going to be difficult, the league this year is very close and you can see that in how close the results have been.
"I think we can take what we learned from playing City in The Cup, reflect on that, look at things we can do better and take the positives into the league game
"We can take the confidence from the cup game into the league game and hopefully carry that over when we play at Wembley.
"Our target for the season is to go unbeaten, that’s the run we want to be on and we have to take every game as it comes.
"Obviously, City away is going to be a different game, it’s always a tough game but hopefully we can get a result."
In contrast, City are still scratching around for form after such a promising start to their campaign that saw them go unbeaten in their first four games in all competitions.
City skipper Steph Houghton wants to go into the World Cup break on a high
Three defeats have come since then, though they suffered a similar run early last year before recovering in style.
And England skipper Steph Houghton is determined to leave her club in fine shape before starring in Canada next month.
"We want to make sure we end this part of the season on a high and with three points," she said.
"We know that it’s going to be a tough game but we’re on our home pitch and we want as many as the fans to come and help support us along the way.
"The league game against Chelsea can’t come any sooner.
"We know Chelsea are a good team but we are a good team as well and we’ve got that team togetherness now where we always want perfection.
"We haven’t got that perfection yet but we’ll strive to work as hard as we can in training and make sure that as a squad we stick together and I know for a fact we’ve got a squad that’s capable of doing that."
Watch an FA Women’s Super League match near you, tickets available: http://www.ticketstores.co.uk/fawsl
