City On Wrong End Of Comfortable Chelsea Win
On a Saturday afternoon where a relentless Chelsea side shared the goals between themselves, Willie Kirk and his City side will be hoping to forget and move on quickly as the loss leaves Leicester at the foot of the WSL, still on the hunt for their first points of the season.
After falling to a late defeat to West Ham United at Chigwell Construction Stadium a couple of weeks ago, the Foxes returned to Filbert Way for a tough WSL meeting against league leaders Chelsea.
To make the challenge even more difficult, City were without a number of key players. Abbie McManus and Shannon O'Brien would miss Saturday's match with concussion, whilst a hamstring injury for Ashleigh Plumptre has sidelined the defender until January.
Therefore Leicester's starting XI would see a handful of changes, with Georgia Brougham, Molly Pike, Missy Goodwin and Ava Baker all included.
The visitors took an early lead when Guro Reiten found the bottom left-hand corner of Demi Lambourne's net from just inside the penalty area.
Moments later, City had their first chance of the game when Carrie Jones tried to pick out Goodwin in the box, but the forward couldn't get to the ball in time, and saw the chance disappear.
In the 13th minute, Chelsea strengthened their lead. Catching Leicester out with numbers on the break, scorer turn provider Reiten laid the ball into the path of Jessie Fleming, who fired in from close range.
In the final five minutes of the half, the side from London would find another three goals. In the 39th minute Reiten was once again the provider when she picked out England international Fran Kirby in the box, who had the time to control the ball and find the net.
A fourth was added by Niamh Charles before forward Sam Kerr rounded off the first half. Unmarked in the box, the Australian was able to curl an effort into the bottom corner, out of reach of Lambourne's glove.
Willie Kirk made a couple of changes at the break, introducing CJ Bott and Natasha Flint into the game, but it wouldn't prevent a ruthless Chelsea side adding a sixth just after the restart when Fleming followed in a rebound from ten yards out.
Over the next 20 minutes, the Foxes had their best spell of the game, as they were threatening the Blues' clean sheet with a number of chances. Flint went closest with an effort from the edge of the box, but Ann-Katrin Berger made the save.
The biggest positive from the day was when the Leicester faithful were able to welcome back Welsh forward, Hannah Cain, who made her first appearance in over a year after recovering from an ACL injury.
In the last 15 minutes, Chelsea added two more. Substitute Bethany England headed home a cross from Alsu Abdullina before Kirby rounded off the day's scoring in the 82nd minute, following an error from Lambourne.
With a heavy scoreline on the board, the referee brought an end to proceedings, as top of the table Chelsea would travel back to the capital with all three points.
Major moment…
From the first whistle, Chelsea looked to apply maximum pressure to a young City line-up, and made them pay by scoring eight goals. Guro Reiten impressed for the visitors as the forward found the net herself, and assisted others during the 90 minutes.
Where do we stand?
The defeat leaves City in 12th position in the Barclays Women's Super League.
Coming up...
Up next for the Foxes is a Continental Tyres League Cup away match against Sunderland on Thursday 8 December (7:30pm GMT kick-off).
The details…
City: Lambourne; Simon (Bott 46'), Howard, Brougham, Purfield (Vance 78'); Tierney (Smith 83'), Pike, Whelan (C); Baker (Flint 46'), Goodwin (Cain 76'), C. Jones.
Subs not used: Levell, E. Jones, Scofield, Robinson.