Chelsea 2-0 Manchester City: Blues secure first win of WSL season

After losing to Manchester City on the opening day of the season, the Blues bounced back with a victory.

Fran Kirby poked home Guro Reiten's low cross to open the scoring and make it 2-0 to the home side.

Some sloppy defending let them down as City had the better of the defending champion.

The final blow came from Maren Mjelde's powerful spot kick.

In the past 20 WSL appearances, Kirby has scored 21 goals and provided 13 helpers.

Kirby will surely have impressed England manager SarinaWiegman, who was watching on from the stands, but fellow Lionesses LaurenHemp andChloe Kelly struggled to assert themselves with many of City's opportunities coming through Khadija Shaw.

Shaw was lively, shooting from long range and asserting her dominance in the air, while Berger was kept busy by Coombs.

After many predicted that Lauren James would be the breakthrough star of the season, she put on an impressive display, catching the eye ofWiegman.

The visitors were hurt by the sloppy defending that allowed Kirby to score the opener just before halftime.

In the second half, James drove into the box from just beyond the halfway line and saw her shot saved, while Kirby had a chance to double the lead but shot over the bar.

It might have been a mistake to award the penalty, but it was a just reward for the second-half dominance of the Blues.

In the WSL, the hosts have won five and drawn six.

Chelsea show why they are defending champions

The manager said that her side couldn't hit a barn door after the loss toLiverpool.

In the first half, they didn't take advantage of their chances. Sam Kerr should have scored in the first minute.

Then, when Kerr latched on to the loose pass, it looked like they would break the stalemate. The chance was missed when Kerr passed to Kirby instead of shooting herself.

It was mostly against the run of play when Kirby scored. City had played mostly for the previous 10 minutes in the half and had 12 shots to their opponent's five, but the champion's clinical passing and speed on the break means they can never be ruled out of a game.