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Sunday 1st February - Chelsea Crushed
The Love In My Heart and I woke up with Litlte Miss O all snuggled up with The Love - she had been asleep some of the night but had woken up a little upset. I do seem to remember holding her bottle of milk for her and as she had a drink pointed to the bottle and went "cat cat" because there is a little cartoon styled cat on the side of the bottle. She seemed fine when she got up though and shortly Little Miss E got up too, and the three of them went into the front room so they could have some cereal and juice, and I did manage to get a little bit more time in bed before heading up to keep them amused.
In fact, we had some of the colouring out and Little Miss E was content to do some of that and I even put on an episode from the original Gladiators via Youtube to show her "this is what me and Daddy used to watch when it was first on" and of course being the same theme tune helped recognise it. I mentioned some of them back then and how for a lot of people, their favourite was Jet (Diane Youdale) and me included. I must admit I always thought Nightshade (former heptathlete Judy Simpson) was a little scary, but she had skills! Also Wolf (Michael van der Wilk) was also featured on the front cover of the computer game Barbarian, released way before Gladiators too.
Later on The Love got the girls in her car so she could drop them back off with her parents, and for me, I had a little game of football to attend to. There was no way I could get tickets for the men's team away at Tottenham today, so I decided it'd be good to give the women's team some support. We were playing Chelsea, who were the only team to beat us this season in the league (and I was at Stamford Bridge for that one) and since then the women had won the next twelve league games on the spin. Going into today, we were nine points clear of Chelsea, and with Man Utd's win over Liverpool earlier, they were now second and eight points behind. So could we extend the lead at the top?
It was not a massive crowd but most of the bottom tier was full plus some in the middle of the second tier of the East and Colin Bell stands were the hospitality bits were, which I was tempted by to be fair. The City side looked a good line up and with Chelsea having a couple of injuries, with Lucy Bronze being one I thought they would miss, it may be a good time to play them following their 2-0 loss at home to Arsenal last week. It maybe didn't need The Wanted 2.0 to play a "live" set before the match but I guess that might have got some people in the ground early at least.
The teams came out and straight away after kick off, City looked like they meant business. The battles in midfield were being won with Yui Hasegawa being her feisty self, and Laura Blinkilde Brown (for me the most improved City player this season) doing all the unsung hero stuff as they both broke everything down so well, allowing the attackers to do their thing. A corner came over, a chance was punched away, but on the half volley, Kerolin Nicoli went for the shot, and with a slight deflection off Ellie Carpenter, it went in past Hannah Hampton i the Chelsea goal for 1-0 to City. Happy times, and Chelsea did try and come back into it with Yamashita in the City goal producing some quality saves.
You always felt though that if City got on the break they would be dangerous. An attempt to play the ball out from Millie Bright put the Chelsea midfield in trouble. Hasegawa robbed the ball, passed to Vivanne Miedema, and the ball forward was gorgeous for Khadija "Bunny" Shaw to muscle her way past Naomi Girma and slot it perfectly home. The Chelsea players were claiming a foul but when you see the reply later, Girma was trying to pin Shaw with her arms and of course the Jamaican international was having absolutely none of that. So 2-0 at half time and a well deserved lead, and one I really was enjoying.
If the first half was good, the second half was even more of the same goodness. City looked ruthless on the counter attack and as the ball was punched clear from a Chelsea corner, Lauren Hemp charged forward and won the ball, with her challenge releasing Kerolin Nicoli, who ran from her own half, held off Keira Walsh and deftly chipped the ball over Hannah Hampton for 3-0. Absolute dreamland. Even more so when Ellie Carpenter tried tricks, Vivianne Miedema saw that and went "that ball is mine" - she fed Lauren Hemp, who ran down the left and it was a simple finish for Kerolin Nicoli. In my view behind that goal, Hannah Hampton should have done better so for her to chastise the other players was a bit rich to be honest. 4-0 to City though, well this was unexpected but very welcome!
Chelsea did press on a little bit to try and get some pride and after a missed lob, they did manage to pull one back with a very good finish from Alyssa Thompson. I did think it was maybe a deserved consolation based on the first half's attempts, but City were then ruthless a few minutes later. Lauren Hemp had a shot well saved by Hampton, but from the resulting corner Kerstin Casparij (my current favourite City women's player) found the head of Vivianne Miedema, and well she does not miss those! 5-1 to City, and I do like a good 5-1, me. The City tannoy even played that theme from the darts (you know the one, Chase the Sun by Planet Funk, and tune of the day). What a win this was, and a statement win too!