A crackling of the Stamford Bridge PA system, an approximate 37 seconds of whirring smoke machines and confused heads spinning to find the petite figure just visible through the grey haze.
A flimsy theory went that Chelseas fuel stocks only went as far as their pre-match flame cannons and pyrotechnics. USWNT forward Alyssa Thompson had only been signed from Angel City less than 24 hours earlier. This stuff takes time, something Chelseas 20-year-old $1.3million deadline day signing didnt take much of.
Instead, 10 minutes before kick-off Thompson fluttered out, clad in black jeans, Ugg boots, Chelsea shirt and a beaming smile, only to skitter back down the Stamford Bridge tunnel before phones could be properly angled, the crowd given a Groundhog Days glimpse of their new attacker.
Maybe Thompsons shadow heralds one more season of Chelsea dominance. Theres still plenty of football to be played but on a night when pre-match discourse was dominated by one name, the six-time reigning Womens Super League (WSL) champions beat Manchester City 2-1 and offered a timely reminder that their domestic hegemony has never boiled down to just one facet.
Perhaps thats really why Thompsons unveiling was so understated, an orchestrated scaling back of the frenzy surrounding Chelseas pilfering of a franchise player from Angel City. When youre this good, you dont need to engineer an ostentatious flex: not even for a forward youve been after all summer.
In a season of high turnover across the league, Chelsea remain an incorrigible constant. Thompson marked Chelseas fifth signing of the summer, two of which are goalkeepers (Becky Spencer made her loan from Tottenham Hotspur permanent) and the third being 19-year-old German youth international Mara Alber.
But only Ellie Carpenter represented a new face in Sonia Bompastors starting XI, replacing right-back Lucy Bronze, who remains out after playing with a fractured left tibia throughout the summers European championships.
Appropriately, on the night of one high-profile signings unveiling, Chelseas other one slotted into her competitive debut with near flawless ease. Bronze, whose face has been plastered across south London ahead of Chelseas opener, was not missed: not with Carpenters strength and tenacity in defence (she recorded a team-high six tackles, seven recoveries and two interceptions, according to FotMob) and her impact in attack, specifically her inch-perfect cross into the box that found Aggie Beever-Jones for Chelseas 31st-minute opener.
There is room to improve, particularly in the consistent quality of her crossing (only two of her six crosses were accurate, according to FotMob, while she was two for five on long balls) but her signing speaks to Chelseas recruitment model: tinkering and upgrading a near-perfect machine because, actually, you can fix something that aint technically broken.
I told her, I dont think Ive gotten up the pitch that quick the whole of my career, Chelsea centre-back Millie Bright said afterwards. Shes unbelievable; carrying the ball forward, giving us that attacking threat. She showed exactly what shes going to bring to us, on and off the ball.
Chelsea are still technically thin without Bronze, without forward Mayra Ramirez, who sustained a hamstring injury in pre-season, without Naomi Girma due to a calf injury. Forward Sam Kerr, an unused substitute, is still returning to full fitness from a long-term anterior cruciate ligament injury.
And yet Chelsea have acted accordingly, signing Carpenter and now Thompson, ensuring that the spaces where Chelsea can still feel flimsy and exposed are well padded while continuing to see growth in places theyve placed faith. Beever-Jones, Chelseas top goalscorer across all competitions last season with 13 goals, continues to step into a new realm of potential, increasingly basking in the opportunity of leading Chelseas line given the injuries around her. Fittingly, the 22-year-old scored the seasons opening goal.
By contrast, Manchester City, armed with a new manager in Andree Jeglertz and six new faces, bristle with potential but are still fine-tuning their individual rhythms to the same frequency, from Lauren Hemp adjusting to her new role on the right to new signing Jade Rose discovering how impossibly big a final third can be when Beever-Jones, Catarina Macario and Maika Hamano are running into it.
Its a long season, so even (after) what happened last season, Chelsea not dropping points, we dont know whats going to happen this season, Jeglertz said after the defeat. We shouldve scored but the team is creating this many scoring chances. It gives me belief for the future.
In one way, Friday night was vintage Chelsea: not perfect but not not perfect, scintillating when required, dogged and ruthless in the rest. But there was also a new fluency, building on the relationships and learnings from Bompastors first season. Jeglertz admitted that Bompastors decision to commit to a back three, a system she used a few times last season, threw him and his staff off for most of the first half. Bompastor replied by saying her comfort level with being unpredictable in various systems is high this season, so stay tuned.
In other words, Chelsea are still very good at this football thing and may have even gotten better. That is their flex.
Other contributor: Conor ONeill
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Chelsea, Women’s Soccer
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