Lauren Hemp sends message to Chelsea after Man City thrash Brighton in WSL

Manchester City forward Lauren Hemp is confident her side can overhaul Chelsea and climb atop the Women's Super League following an assertive 4-1 victory over Brighton and Hove Albion.

Chelsea, the reigning league champions, moved to the top of the board with their Friday evening triumph against Arsenal. But any relief for the Blues was quickly extinguished as Man City answered back with their win against Brighton.

Hemp scored the first goal, followed by Mary Fowler, Khadija Shaw, and Laura Coombs. Despite this, a six-goal win was needed to propel City to the league summit and a late goal from Lee Geum-min meant the goal difference would separate the chasing teams, with City falling short at 32 to 34.

The aim coming out of the Man City squad is all centered on reducing this gap. «One of the messages throughout the week was to be ruthless and relentless,» Hemp shared with BBC Two [via the Mirror] speaking about the goal difference issue. «I think that is something that we have lacked in recent weeks so it was important for us to really focus on delivering that today.

»We created loads of chances and also scored them which was very helpful. So onwards we go and hopefully that's a statement in the league that we are here and we want to win it and we will try our best to do that."

City boss Gareth Taylor talked about his team letting in a goal that could be important in the title race.

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«It was the message at half-time,» Taylor said to BBC Sport after the match. «Sometimes when you say that and start to go about scoring more goals, everybody starts to then