Sam Kerr comeback on hold as Ellie Carpenter sizzles in Chelsea opener

Sam Kerr will have a further frustrating wait to make her return to soccer after 20 long months, but she could at least savour a virtuoso match-winning debut from her Matildas teammate Ellie Carpenter while watching on from the Chelsea bench.

After all the anticipation that Australia’s superstar skipper would burst back into action in the Women’s Super League opener against Manchester City, it all felt a little anti-climactic as Kerr spent Friday evening (Saturday morning AEST) as an unused substitute at Stamford Bridge.

But there was nothing anti-climactic about the debut of Carpenter, who proved comfortably the game’s outstanding player as she capped her livewire contribution by laying on Chelsea’s first goal in the 2-1 home victory over one of their big title rivals.

It wasn’t the most convincing start from the Blues as they began their bid for a seventh consecutive English title, but Carpenter, signed in the close season from Lyonnes where she’d previously played under Sonia Bompastor when the Chelsea boss was at the helm of the French giants, looked a striking addition.

It was her coruscating burst down the right flank and a pinpoint low cross just after the half-hour that allowed Aggie Beever-Jones, one of Chelsea’s go-to strikers in Kerr’s long-term absence with an ACL injury, to slot home the first goal of the new season from point-blank range.

“She’s a world-class player, genuinely one of the quickest players ever, and just laid it on a plate for me,” enthused Beever-Jones as Carpenter received the player-of-the match award for a performance that featured her putting in six crosses as she added a new dimension to Chelsea with her penetrating runs from wing-back.

Carpenter returned the compliment, saying: “Aggie tapped it in, so made me look good.

“It was really nice to create those relationships with the team, being new.

“I think we worked on those foundations, and we’re really gelling as a team.”

City, without their own injured Matildas star Mary Fowler, nearly equalised six minutes later when Alex Greenwood’s left-foot free-kick curler thumped off the crossbar.

The visitors started brightly after the break too, but when Wieke Kaptein got away from Greenwood down the right in the 64th minute, just as Carpenter had done for the earlier goal, her cross allowed Maika Hamano to drill home Chelsea’s second.

Chelsea’s Niamh Charles threw the visitors a lifeline when she steered the ball into her own net six minutes later, and as City piled on the pressure, Bompastor evidently decided this wasn’t the right pressurised moment to bring on Kerr for her first game for the club since December 20, 2023.

That night in Gothenburg against Swedish club BK Hacken, Kerr had scored her 99th goal for the club, but she may have to be patient to get the chance for number 100, as Bompastor also introduced US international Catarina Macario as a second-half sub ahead of the Australian captain.