Lauren James admitted Chelsea had to fight hard to take the points in a seven-goal thriller with Aston Villa, but was pleased with what could prove to be a vital win in the race for Europe.
Villa were the visitors to west London in a busy spell for the Blues, falling between the two legs of our UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-final against Arsenal, which concludes at Stamford Bridge in midweek.
For today, though, the only thing on the Chelsea players’ minds was our Women’s Super League campaign and sealing qualification for next season’s Champions League through a top-three finish.
We were made to work hard for the points by our opponents. Aston Villa took an early lead, but we fought back to go ahead ourselves with goals by Sam Kerr, Naomi Girma and James herself.
However, in a thrilling match which ebbed and flowed, Villa than levelled the scores before half-time, only for Sjoeke Nusken to strike the decisive blow by finding the net with eight minutes left on the clock, to make the final score 4-3 to Chelsea.
‘Overall, I’m just happy that we won in the end,’ declared James pitchside after the final whistle at Kingsmeadow on Sunday afternoon.
‘It’s a tough block at the moment with the games coming thick and fast and we have another one on Wednesday.
‘The team dug deep and Sjoeke grabbed the winner, so we’re pleased.’
Combined with Manchester United’s derby defeat to Manchester City the previous day, that victory moved us up to second in the WSL table, giving us a two-point advantage over Arsenal and United in what could be a pivotal weekend in the race for Europe.
‘They were good results for us yesterday and today,’ Lauren added. ‘After seeing the result yesterday we just tried to control what we could control and play our best and win the game.’
With that task achieved, the Blues have three further WSL fixtures in which to consolidate our place in the Champions League qualification spots.
But first comes the need to produce another fight-back to continue our current European journey, as we host Arsenal at the Bridge on Wednesday evening, looking to overturn a 3-1 deficit from the first leg.