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Chelsea secured a statement 5-0 victory against struggling West Ham to breathe life back into their Women’s Super League title defence. Sandy Baltimore scored a brace while Lauren James and Alyssa Thompson also got on the scoresheet at Kingsmeadow in an impressive demolition of their struggling London rivals.
Rita Guarino endured a nightmare start to her West Ham tenure as her side conceded four first-half goals to put them firmly on the back foot on in an already difficult encounter.
A combination of defensive errors, lacklustre pressing and careless in-possession work all contributed and left West Ham’s new head coach with more questions than answers as the Hammers remain locked firmly in a battle with Liverpool at the bottom.
Guarino arrived in east London in December, following the dismissal of Rehanne Skinner with West Ham sitting second from bottom with just one win under their belt.
“Recent results have not matched expectations and the Board of Directors believe that a change is necessary to help improve the team’s position in the Barclays Women’s Super League as soon as possible,” read a club statement on the decision to make a managerial change.
Guarino is well respected in her native Italy, particularly after her success at Juventus, and needs to be given the opportunity to instil her ideas. After this first outing, however, it is clear that the 54-year-old has her work cut out to turn around the ailing club’s fortunes.
The performance at Kingsmeadow, more than the result, will surely be what is ringing the alarm bells for Guarino. Expectations of coming away from this encounter with a win would have been low – these will not be the games where the Hammers expect to pick up points – but the evident low levels of confidence among her players will have caused consternation.
Guarino made three changes from their last outing against Manchester City with Katrina Gorry, Eva Nyström and Inès Belloumou coming back in while the France international Estelle Cascarino was named on the bench following confirmation of her loan move from Juventus.
The defender Amber Tysiak was absent, as was England U23 international Anouk Denton who has been strongly linked with a move away from the club. Chelsea, meanwhile, have had a settled transfer window so far and arrived at Kingsmeadow on the back of a warm weather training break in Portugal. Hannah Hampton was named on the team sheet for the first time since suffering a quad injury back in November while Lauren James made just her third start of the season in the frontline.
Nothing less than a win would do for Bompastor’s side as they attempt to close down Manchester City’s six-point lead. They certainly emerged with clear intent to do just that, dominating the ball early on. They got their rewards after less than a minute when James sent Ellie Carpenter away on the overlap. The Australian’s low delivery went through the West Ham goalkeeper Kinga Szemik at the near post and was inadvertently turned home by the unfortunate Yu Endo on the goalline.
Pressure continued to mount on the visitors’ defensive line as they dropped deeper and deeper. They failed to apply any consistent pressure on the Blues and struggled to keep the ball on the rare occasions they turned over possession.
On the half-hour mark, the hosts doubled their lead following another defensive error. When the ball came back to Szemik in her own box, the Chelsea attack applied the press causing the goalkeeper to send her clearance straight into the onrushing James with the ball rebounding into the net.
Chelsea’s third soon followed when Carpenter beat Verena Hanshaw to the ball in the box. A smart lay-off to Johanna Rytting Kaneryd saw the Swedish international able to find Thompson at the far post. On the stroke of half-time, they added another when Baltimore sent a superb finish into the top corner.
A bizarre moment before the restart saw West Ham unable to give Cascarino her debut, apparently due to an item of jewellery. It was a moment that summed up the visitor’s disastrous afternoon and saw Belloumou having to make a quick return from the dressing room to make up the numbers.
Chelsea added a fifth when Viviane Asseyi was adjudged to have handled the ball in the box. Baltimore stepped up to dispatch the penalty with aplomb, rounding off a statement win for Bompastor’s side to kick off 2026.
