A blog of two halves

Chelsea Women start on the front foot

The Blues’ remarkable unbeaten domestic record under Sonia Bompastor continues.

8 September 2025
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Aggie Beever-Jones celebrates
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Getty

Following their opening weekend 2-1 win over Man City at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea have now been unbeaten for a boggling 26 Women's Super League matches.

City were beaten by an Aggie Beever-Jones flick, courtesy of a cross from new Aussie signing Ellie Carpenter (rightly declared player of the match) and a second-half goal from Maika Hamano, although there was tension in the air for the final 20 minutes after Niamh Charles headed into her own net while trying to clear the ball.

"It was a great performance from Ellie," said Bompastor, who is well acquainted with the summer signing's skills having managed her at Lyon. "I know her by heart, and I'm not really surprised by her debut."

Intriguingly, striker Sam Kerr was back on the bench, and running up and down the touchline to possibly come on as a sub. However, she wasn't used in the end. It has been a long, long comeback from her knee ligament injury sustained at a training camp in January 2024 - so long, in fact, that Kerr has yet to play a match for Bompastor.

Maika Hamano scores Chelsea's second
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Getty

Through a cloud of dramatic smoke and much razzmatazz, the Blues' new American signing Alyssa Thompson was unveiled before the match at a half-full Bridge. If Chelsea pick up more silverware this season, then the £1.1million pricetag may seem a bargain.

Chelsea should probably have won their opening league fixture 3-1, but a blatant City handball went unpunished, and with no VAR there was no chance of review.

Chelsea's men are back in action this weekend at Brentford, with a Saturday night kick-off in the Bees' cauldron of a stadium, while the women are away to Aston Villa.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

Tim Harrison

Tim is our Chelsea FC blogger.

He also writes our Shepherds Bush Cricket Club match reports during the football close season.

Tim has been writing Chelsea match reports since the late 1980s for newspapers and, more recently, websites.

When he first reported on the Blues, the press box was a metal cage suspended over the lip of the old west stand - and you reached it via a precarious walkway over the heads of the fans.

But he has been a Chelsea fan since his father took an excited seven-year-old to watch Chelsea v Manchester United in the mid 1960s... and covered his ears every time the chanting got too ripe.

In July 2005 he wrote The Rough Guide to Chelsea, published by Penguin, which sold 15,000 copies.

His favourite player of all time is Charlie Cooke, the mazy winger who lit up Chelsea's left wing in the 60s and 70s.

When he isn't watching the Blues, Tim acts, paints, writes and researches local history.

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