While Chelsea came away with an astonishing 9-1 win over Liverpool in the Women's League Cup last time out, it would've perhaps been naïve to think the feat would be repeated when we hosted the Reds at Kingsmeadow less than two months later.

Since then, experienced Women's Super League manager Gareth Taylor has made improvements to his side, and travelled to Kingston upon Thames off the back of a 4-1 league win over Aston Villa last weekend.

Sure enough, the Reds came out of the blocks strongly. Making four entries into the penalty area as opposed to our three in the opening 15 minutes, our opponents also made two key passes and fired two shots on goal in the early period of the match.

Yet – just like against Tottenham the week before – Chelsea came away with a 2-0 victory. Here's how we did it...

Using the space

As Liverpool set up in a compact shape to make the central areas of the pitch congested, Chelsea overloaded on the left-hand side to exploit the space and make our opponents vulnerable.

As can be seen on the graphic above, Sandy Baltimore (number 17) stretched the defence by hugging the touchline, making sure Liverpool right-back Risa Shimizu had to follow her closely to combat her attacking threat.

Meanwhile, Sjoeke Nusken (number six), Alyssa Thompson (number 12) and Lauren James (number 10) made a tight cluster just inside of Baltimore, leaving centre-back Jenna Clark isolated against the trio.

And that approach worked perfectly when the defence were dragged out of position at the end of the first half, as Alice Bergstrom tried in vain to stop James in a one-on-one situation on the left, before the Blues winger curled in a delightful cross which was converted by the onrushing Nusken.

Snuffing out attacks

While Chelsea earned our second consecutive clean sheet on Sunday, it was by no means easy to contain ambitious Liverpool.

The Blues dominated the play but – as illustrated by the below momentum graphic – our opponents had their moments in which they put pressure on our backline.

Hannah Hampton performed well when called upon, getting down to save a dangerous shot from Ceri Holland after just eight minutes as she made two saves during the contest to preserve the clean sheet.

Chelsea captain Millie Bright had been ruled out of this clash with injury, meaning 19-year-old Veerle Buurman was called upon to move into the centre of the defence.

The Dutch teenager looked assured beyond her years in the backline as she won four aerial duels, made three tackles and won back possession on four occasions, while also contributing in attack with two chances created and one assist.

Magic LJ

Lauren James was in top form as she completed her first 90 minutes of a campaign in which she has been recovering from an injury sustained during the summer.

With one goal and one assist to her name, LJ took more shots (four) than any other Chelsea player, while also creating the most chances (three) and completing the most passes in the final third (16) of the entire side.

However, a look at the stats doesn't tell the full story of her afternoon.

James created a moment of magic out of nothing in the second half, dribbling the ball from deep before playing a one-two with Veerle Buurman and unleashing a special finish to seal the points with her second WSL goal of the campaign.

It was an all-round performance that was well worthy of the Player of the Match award, and Blues supporters will be hoping to see more of the same as the weeks progress.

Potter worthy of Bompastor praise

As highlighted in this previous analysis piece, Blues Academy product Lexi Potter has been steadily working her way into the Chelsea first team.

A confident display in the second half against Tottenham was followed up when she was swapped for Keira Walsh against Liverpool, this time coming onto the pitch after 74 minutes.

Although her appearance was short, she didn't put a foot wrong. Potter was the only substitute to have completed every pass attempted in the win, while she also won her solitary tackles during the 19-minute cameo.

'Lexi always works really hard and she's ready to perform anytime she has the opportunity,' said Bompastor. 'She knows who she is on the pitch, she knows the quality she can bring into this team and I'm really pleased because anytime she steps in, she's performing and helping the team to win.'