Emma Hayes declares WSL title race over as Liverpool stun Chelsea in seven-goal thriller

If it was Chelsea's narrow defeat at Prenton Park last season that served to put some fire in the bellies of Emma Hayes' players, then it was at the same venue this term where that flame was extinguished.

The Blues have three games left to play in the Women's Super League (WSL) before their revered boss swaps the Kingsmeadow dugout for the shores of the USA, but the chances of them crowning Hayes' stellar tenure with a fifth consecutive league title now look perilously slim after a last-gasp 4-3 defeat to Liverpool on Merseyside.

It was a game the visitors were winning in the ninth minute and losing in the 81st before the spoils looked destined to be shared thanks to a Teagan Micah own goal seven minutes from time. But a late, late header from former Chelsea defender Gemma Bonner saw the Blues condemned to their third WSL defeat of the season and staring down the barrel of their first trophyless campaign in half a decade.

No team has ever won the title after losing more than twice, and the champions' hopes of bucking that trend this term do not appear likely. And perhaps it would not be too outlandish to suggest that the Chelsea boss knew that something like this was on the cards.

Three days after her team's gut-wrenching Champions League exit, Hayes sat in front of the media and declared that her team of perennial winners should be viewed as underdogs heading into this season's final stretch.

«We are not in the driving seat, we don't have the goal difference, we have to catch up,» she said in her pre-match press conference — a fair comment, perhaps, when you consider that City, who had played two games more than Chelsea before proceedings got underway at Prenton Park, had a goal difference of +46 compared to the Blues' +39.

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