A much-changed Chelsea thrashed bottom side Crystal Palace 4-0 at home to go a step closer to clinching the Women’s Super League title as they moved six points clear at the top.

The unbeaten Blues need just four points from their last three matches to lift a sixth consecutive WSL title.

Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor made seven changes ahead of Sunday’s Champions League semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge against Barcelona and bounced back from their 4-1 first-leg defeat in Spain to cruise past 10-player Palace, who failed to have a shot at Kingsmeadow.

With Chelsea leading 2-0 after a quickfire first-half double from Guro Reiten’s penalty and Catarina Macario’s low finish, the visitors had defender Allyson Swaby sent off just two minutes into the second half after a last-player challenge on Sjoeke Nusken.

Chelsea added a third from the resulting free-kick as Macario’s 49th-minute effort took a wicked deflection to wrong-foot Palace goalkeeper Shae Yanez.

There was a nice moment for Chelsea in the 64th minute as substitute Mia Fishel scored their fourth as she flicked home Lucy Bronze’s header for her first goal since returning from an ACL injury that has kept her out since February last year.

Chelsea then took their foot off the gas as their attention turned to Sunday’s second leg against Barcelona.

Domestically, Bompastor’s side remain on course for a treble, having won the League Cup in March with an FA Cup final to look forward to next month against Manchester United at Wembley.

But it is a different story for rock-bottom Palace, who are seven points adrift of safety and will be relegated on Sunday if they lose at home to West Ham for an immediate return to the Championship.

Bompastor unhappy despite win – ‘We should’ve scored more’

Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor speaking to the BBC:

“I think this game was a crucial game in terms of points on the run to the title. We are now top of the league with six points ahead of Arsenal, so I think it was crucial to win.

“I was waiting for a team reaction. On the result, it’s really good. I think the second half was not good enough in terms of the high standards we need to have, especially when [Crystal] Palace were playing one player down. I think we could have done better. The really good teams just hurt the opposition when they have the opportunity to.

“I think this game could have finished with six or seven goals, and we only scored four, so not good enough in that aspect.

“I’m more frustrated about the fact that it should have been more. When you want to be one of the best teams in Europe, but even in this league, you need to have that mentality.

“When you have the opportunity to score goals, to just kill, I know it’s not the right word, but hurt the opposition, you have to do that. And it’s not like once in that time, it’s every time, so when you have that opportunity, we need to work on our mentality to want to be always expecting high standard performance, and I think that’s what we need to work on.”

Smerud: Red card ended it for us

Crystal Palace boss Leif Smerud speaking to the BBC:

“I think the penalty was a big blow. We had started to get them frustrated and we were in the game then.

“Of course, we had to ride out the early storm from them and then the penalty changes a lot. Then they got the second goal quickly but still I felt we were in the game.

“It is gone when the red card comes. That is when it’s gone. But no one in that Palace team gave in.

“I am really proud seeing a team with ten fighting against such a good Chelsea team. That is what I want to see and that is what I saw.”

Story of the match in stats

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