The winger shone in a chaotic draw with Chelsea on Sunday, continuing her run of excellent displays for club and country in 2023

Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor had a feeling on Sunday. He had a feeling that Chloe Kelly, the electric England winger, was going to score. In a huge clash between two Women’s Super League title rivals, it took just seven minutes for his gut to be right. The ball fell kindly for City’s No.9 on the edge of the box, and with the space to shoot, she didn’t hesitate to rifle it beyond Chelsea goalkeeper Zecira Musovic and give her team an early lead.

Ninety-six minutes, 11 yellow cards, two resulting reds and a heart-breaking stoppage-time goal later, Kelly’s effort wouldn’t be the match-winner. City were eventually reduced to nine players in a crazy game that raised serious questions of the league’s new approach to time-wasting and dissent, and Chelsea finally made their numerical advantage count with Guro Reiten’s 96th-minute equaliser.

Kelly was watching from the sidelines at that point, having been subbed off on the 80th minute after an incredibly hard-working display. It was a sucker punch for City, who looked to be on their way to three points despite being up against it. But Taylor was beaming with pride at full-time because of the effort and application of his players. He will have been delighted with the performance of his No.9, too, and he will not have been alone in that respect.

England boss Sarina Wiegman chose a trip to Barcelona, to watch Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh, over a visit to a surprisingly sunny Manchester this weekend. But when she catches up on one of the maddest matches the WSL has seen, Kelly, a player still trying to force her way into the Lionesses’ starting XI on a regular basis, will certainly catch her eye.

Powering City ahead

Kelly’s goal was the headline moment of her afternoon on Sunday, for sure. It wasn’t just the strike – hit with some ferocity from the edge of the box – that was impressive, but also the way she drifted into the position to produce it.

The 25-year-old received the ball out on the left wing, drove inside, picked out Filippa Angeldahl in midfield and then slowly moved into a central area as play started to build up on the opposite flank. Chelsea midfielder Erin Cuthbert checked her shoulder a couple of times to see that Kelly was lurking, but when the ball did eventually drop to her, the Scot failed to press with her usual energy. Kelly didn’t need a second invitation to try her luck.

"I'd love to see the miles per hour on this one," said former England goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis on commentary for the , in reference to the 69mph that Kelly's penalty against Nigeria at the Women’s World Cup this past summer was clocked at. It was a speed that beat the most powerful goal of the 2022-23 Premier League season, that by West Ham’s Said Benrahma (66.6mph).

AdvertisementGettyMaking a fast start

It wasn't just a goal that got Kelly and City off to a flyer in Sunday’s game, either. Last season, it took until February for the winger to find the back of the net in the WSL. That she’s already done so in just the second game of this new campaign will particularly delight her, then, especially considering she failed to convert a penalty on the opening weekend against West Ham.

Once Kelly broke her duck last term, her form soared. The England star ended the campaign with five goals and nine assists to her name – the rest of the former and five of the latter coming after she opened her account against Leicester in February. She was playing so well at that point that Bronze, her Lionesses’ team-mate, said it felt like everything she touched turned to gold.

Kelly will certainly hope a first goal this early in the current season means she is in for quite the year, and that she can help Man City have one to remember, too.

Getty ImagesAll-round top performance

It wasn’t just the goal that made Kelly’s display on Sunday so impressive, though. Her set-pieces and crosses from out wide created chances for others, her willingness to run at the opposing full-back put Chelsea on the back foot and her work-rate on the other side of the ball was admirable, too.

When City went down to 10 players, that effort caught the eye even more. Lauren Hemp, who had started through the middle of the front three due to Bunny Shaw still working her way back to full fitness, needed to drop into a conservative left wing-back role, so Kelly took her place as the team’s focal point.

Starved of service because of the numerical disadvantage, she still managed to manufacture a decent chance for herself shortly after half-time and kept the Chelsea defence on their toes despite the Blues spending the overwhelming majority of the second half on the front foot.

Getty ImagesSarina, are you watching?

Kelly might have been a key player for City since her arrival in the summer of 2020 and she might have scored the dramatic extra-time goal that saw England beat Germany to win the European Championship in 2022, but she’s still not a fixture in the Lionesses’ starting XI.

After all, those forward areas are loaded with talent, which head coach Wiegman certainly won’t complain about. But Kelly is one of those names pushing for more involvement with her performances.

In the last international window, the Man City star featured from the off in England’s Nations League opener against Scotland – but as a wing-back. Her impact was limited massively and, as a result, she was taken off before the hour mark. There has to be a better way to integrate her into the 3-5-2 set-up that Wiegman is preferring as of late.