Chelsea hit seven past helpless Crystal Palace

Sonia Bompastor’s Chelsea reign is off to the perfect start as an opening night victory over Aston Villa was consolidated by a statement 7-0 win over Women’s Super League newcomers Crystal Palace.

Chelsea were not quite their fluent best first half, but found themselves ahead just before the break when Aggie Beever-Jones rounded off a swift break, initiated by Sjoeke Nusken, who found Johanna Rytting Kaneryd on the charge.

The pace of the counter was blistering and caught Palace – who had spent the majority of the half in relative comfort – completely exposed, as Beever-Jones swept the ball beyond Shae Yanez.

The visitors had rode their luck too, with chances falling the way of Katie Stengel and Annabel Blanchard, as well as Indiah-Paige Riley’s opportunity to punish goalkeeper Hannah Hampton for some first-half sloppiness.

But the champions stepped on the gas after the interval, and scored a bucket load of wonderfully crafted goals to prove their obvious superiority over Palace – hosting their first ever top-flight game.

Lucy Bronze arrowed a stunning strike into the top left, before Beever-Jones linked with substitute Mayra Ramirez to present Lauren James with a simple tap in. Guro Reiten slammed home a fourth, while Nathalie Bjorn scored from a particularly poorly defended corner. Palace’s resistance had all but collapsed.

Open play, set-pieces, from the left or from the right, Chelsea were scoring from every angle. The home side thought the humbling was complete when Sandy Baltimore, on as a late substitute, shimmied inside the box to tee up Reiten for a sixth, but there was still time for Catarina Macario to notch a lucky seventh in stoppage time.