Sandy Baltimore scored the pick of the goals and grabbed a second from the penalty spot as Chelsea swept aside West Ham 5-0 on Sunday to keep up the pace on Manchester City at the top of the Women's Super League table. The Blues led after just 46 seconds at Kingsmeadow and did not look back as they launched wave after wave of attack on their visitors, with Lauren James and Alyssa Thompson also grabbing first-half goals in a rampant display.
Sonia Bompastor's side needed less than a minute to open the scoring as Yu Endo put through her own net after getting her feet mixed up from an Ellie Carpenter ball across the face of goal. Chelsea's pressing was causing West Ham all kinds of problems, and their efforts paid off again just before the half-hour mark as James charged down goalkeeper Kinga Szemik and the ball bounced into the net off the England international.
Szemik made up for her error as she tipped a swerving Johanna Rytting Kaneryd strike onto the crossbar, but the Blues would make it three shortly after through the dangerous Thompson, who slid home at the far post following a move involving Rytting Kaneryd and Carpenter. With just moments left until the break, it was 4-0, as Baltimore crashed the ball into the top corner from the edge of the box.
Bompastor rang the changes after the break with the game won, but the opportunities continued to arrive for the home side. Substitute Sam Kerr saw a shot smartly saved while Wieke Kaptein's follow-up was cleared off the line, before Chelsea were awarded a penalty for a handball by Viviane Asseyi. Baltimore stepped up and calmly rolled the ball home to seal a five-star victory.
GOAL rates Chelsea's players from Kingsmeadow...