Chelsea brush aside Aston Villa to stroll into fifth round of Women's FA Cup
Aston Villa Women 1 Chelsea Women 3
The holders march on. It may have been the very definition of straightforward, but Chelsea scored three splendid goals to keep Emma Hayes on course to win her fourth FA Cup as Chelsea manager. And with victory came £2,000 prize money. Not that Hayes was celebrating. In fact, she regarded the money as an insult.
“The winner of the women’s FA Cup final gets £25,000, which is what the men’s teams get for winning in the first round,” said Hayes after the win. “That is despicable. Gaining some sort of parity in this competition is the single biggest emphasis at this moment in time, because of what it means for the rest of the pyramid.”
Hayes had arrived at the Walsall stadium, she reckoned, without 500 caps-worth of experience. Sam Kerr and Ji So-Yun were otherwise engaged at the Women’s Asian Cup, Magdalena Eriksson and Beth England among the plethora of injured.
“You tell me if Man City and Arsenal could lose the number of players we have and still be putting in performances like that,” she said. And she had a point: it was some performance, albeit one of control and domination rather than flair and creativity. It needed to be, too. Chelsea were up against a Villa side of some determination, corralled by Jill Scott. On loan from Manchester City, and making her debut for Villa, Scott has won the Cup even more often than Hayes. Four times she has collected a winner’s medal, once with Everton, three times with City. But from early on it was clear she was unlikely to win it with Villa, a club who have not yet reached the final and who are way behind Chelsea in terms of resources and depth.
True, Villa were pugnacious and full of effort. But they lacked the kind of smooth control that Chelsea have trademarked. As was demonstrated when the visitors took the lead on 17 minutes. Fran Kirby kept the ball despite several attempted tackles, laid it back to Jessie Fleming, who played in Jess Carter. The full-back’s clever cross found Guro Reiten, who killed the ball with her first touch, turned Anna Patten with consummate ease and shot into the corner for her third goal of the season.
Hayes’s side were now in total ascendancy. Pernille Harder, Kirby and Reiten were a front three of a quality way beyond anything Villa could muster. The excellent Reiten was then tripped by Ruesha Littlejohn as she cut across her running into the area. The referee, Abigail Byrne, immediately awarded a penalty. Villa manager Carla Ward clearly thought little of her decision, berating the fourth official.
“It happens to us too often,” she said afterwards. “We are constantly on the wrong end of really bad decisions.”
Harder did not worry about the legitimacy of the award, however. She simply hammered the ball into the top corner.
Villa tried to come back. Scott was as pugnacious as ever, right-back Sarah Mayling was constantly surging forward, captain Remi Allen tried to press. But Chelsea were simply too canny; Drew Spence, their central midfielder, a significant barrier to any Villa incursions.
Wanting to keep her most significant powder dry for further confrontations, Hayes felt comfortable enough to take Harder off at half-time. It did not lessen Chelsea’s superiority. Their third goal was a lesson in control. Kirby scurried into the box, keeping the ball away from the defence, looking for the opening, the ball always at her feet. She found what she was looking for when she passed back to Reiten on the edge of the area, who placed it perfectly into the corner of the net for her second of the game.
Scott kept scurrying, Mayling kept trying, but too often Villa were closed down too easily, too quickly. And when Kirby was given a rest, the prospects did not get any easier for the home side. On came Lauren James, sister of Reece, who has barely featured since her signing from Manchester United in the summer. She immediately showed her range with an artful dribble that concluded with a fierce shot that went just wide.
But then at the last Villa – and Scott – got reward for their perseverance. Scott worked the ball into Ramona Petzelberger in the Chelsea area. She was sent tumbling by the Chelsea substitute Niamh Charles and got up to score from the penalty spot with the last kick of the game. It was too little, too late to stop Chelsea. And in the next round there is £4,000 up for grabs. A tenth of what Thomas Tuchel will deliver should the Chelsea men’s team beat Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup next weekend.
Match details
Aston Villa Women (4-1-4-1): Hampton; Mayling, Patten, Asante (Corsie 68), Pacheco; Scott, Allen (McLoughlin 87), Littlejohn (Ewers 87); Arthur (Brown 68), Hayles (Hutton 68), Petzelberger.
Subs not used: Rogers, Boye-Hlorkah, Haywood.
Goal: Petzelberger (90'+5, pen).
Chelsea Women (4-4-2): Musovic; Carter, Bright, Nouwen, Andersson (Ingle 65); Spence, Fleming (Claypole 79); Reiten, Kirby (James 71), Abdullina (Thompson 79); Harder (Charles 45).
Subs not used: Cuthbert, Berger.
Goals: Reiten (18, 62), Harder (28, pen).
Referee: Abigail Byrne.
Attendance: 1,093.
