Leicester Blown Away by Blues

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Wednesday 10 May 2023 at Kingsmeadow
Result	Chelsea 6 Leicester City 0
Competition	Women’s Super League
Hopstats	Third visit to Kingsmeadow. I was here last week too but the first time was to see AFC Wimbledon v Chelmsford City in a Step 2 fixture in 2009.
Context
Chelsea are hoping to win all four remaining league fixtures in order to defend their title. Leicester City are one place and two points above the relegation position, having eased their position with a couple of wins in April.
In One Sentence
A very polished and effective performance with some well-worked goals and a couple of spectacular ones.
So What?
Chelsea are now one point behind Manchester United with a game in hand, and have actually closed the goal difference gap by scoring 13 goals without reply in their last two games. Leicester City are not yet safe from relegation but they will be pleased that the bottom side Reading will eventually have their final game against Chelsea. Leicester have a two-point cushion with two games to go. In the meantime, Chelsea line up against Manchester United for the Women’s FA Cup at a sold-out Wembley on Sunday.
Match Report
Chelsea took an early lead when Pernille Harder broke free on the right and set up Guro Reiten for a neatly steered finish just inside the left-hand post. Erin Cuthbert got the second, her alertness allowing her to win the ball in midfield and surge round the keeper Janina Leitzig before rolling the ball into the net. Leicester briefly threatened a fightback but then Harder got the next two goals before half-time. The first was a far-post tap-in after Leitzig could only palm away a goalbound effort from Lauren James. The second was a solo effort which seemed to evade the diving Leitzig. Sam Kerr had started the game on the bench and with a 4-0 half-time score it looked like this would be a restful evening for her ahead of the Cup Final. The only argument against this would be the chance to close the gap on Manchester United in terms of goal difference. A quadruple substitution followed the fifth goal. Lauren James hit the shot of the night into the toppest of top corners, and if that’s not a word, well it should be. The pace of the game slowed a bit, not helped by intermittent downpours, and it was not till stoppage time that sub Jelena Cankovic scored the sixth with another rising shot just under the crossbar. This was a very impressive performance by Chelsea Women, who therefore remain on track for a potential league and cup double. You’d have to be brave to bet against it.
A Few Pix
The blur in the centre of the final pic is the ball on its way to the top corner courtesy of Lauren James for the fifth goal of the evening. Possibly one of the worst photos, technically, I have ever included in the blog.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
Usually accompanied by a pre-match prediction on Twitter just before kickoff. Working towards being able to compute a respectable statistical significance test by the end of the season. The full keeper top performance table from my last 273 matches is here, on this separate page. Today, Green beats Yellow, as expected, with the bonus of a clean sheet. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 45% (58 from 128) Based on conventional 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, but also -1pt for a goal conceded (GC) and +5pts for a clean sheet (CS).  Colours ranked on a points per game (PPG) basis. The odd decimal places were caused either by undeniable half-and-half tops or lower league sub keepers in a different colour.  The Fire Cracker colour was confirmed with the help of the social media team at Dulux UK.  All of this arises from a comment attributed to Petr Cech (and supported by anonymous scientists of some description) that orange is the best colour for a goalkeeper because it changes the behaviour of other players around the box. It is supposedly because of an innate primeval human reaction to the colour and the colour “spreads” more in the vision of a striker at the key moment of decision. Genius or garbage? The evidence is gathering here, and is leaning towards the latter.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! Lots happening in the next few weeks. A double-header weekend at Wembley lined up with the National League Playoff (Chesterfield v Notts County) and the Women’s FA Cup Final (Chelsea v Manchester United) and another WSL fixture (West Ham v Chelsea) a week today, followed by the Non League Finals day at Wembley (FA Vase & FA Trophy). I may try to take in a couple of the EFL playoffs at the end of the month too if tickets go to general sale, and there is a lower league women’s playoff final at Milton Keynes on May 20th.