Bristol City 0-5 Chelsea: Blues thrash Robins to go five points clear at WSL summit
- Published
Kirby scores twice as Chelsea dominate Bristol City
Women's Super League leaders Chelsea went five points clear with a dominant win at bottom side Bristol City.
Fran Kirby's deft header from Sam Kerr's corner put the Blues ahead before Pernille Harder smashed in.
Kirby followed up with a neat finish after one of many fine saves from Sophie Baggaley before Jonna Andersson's dinked shot hit the bar.
After the break, Bethany England delivered a pinpoint cross for Kerr to head in and then scrambled in a fifth.
After Manchester City closed the gap at the top with their seventh straight win in the Manchester derby on Friday, Chelsea took their chance to restore their five-point lead, having played a game more, with an eighth league win in nine.
After taking two points from their first 11 matches, the Robins' fortunes had improved, claiming a first win of the season against Brighton and booking a Continental League Cup final meeting with Chelsea, but there was only one winner after Kirby's opener.
Tenacious work from Sophie Ingle allowed Harder to rifle in her third goal in two games before Kirby slotted her 11th of the season after Baggaley's diving stop had prevented an own goal.
As the rain hammered down after the break, Kerr headed in to join Kirby on 11 goals for the campaign before England bundled in Harder's cross at the second attempt after another fine stop from Baggaley.
The damage would have been worse but for the City keeper, who stopped Harder's close-range effort early on and dived at full stretch to deny Kirby a hat-trick.