Chelsea vs Man Metropolis LIVE: WSL group information and line ups as Fran Kirby and Lauren James each begin for hosts

Chelsea XI: Hampton, Charles, Carter, Bjorn, Lawrence, Leupolz, Cuthbert (c), Reiten, James, Kirby, Ramirez

Subs: Musovic, Nusken, Perisset, Mjelde, Kaneryd, Buchanan, Cankovic, Beever-Jones, Ingle

Manchester Metropolis XI: Keating, Aleixandri, Greenwood (C), Coombs, Kelly, Hemp, Ouahabi, Park, Casparij, Shaw, Hasegawa

SUBS | MacIver, Stokes, Fowler, Angeldahl, Morgan, Mace, Blindkilde-Brown, Mace, Kennedy

The gamers are there and the match is now simply over an hour away from kicking off:

The groups will likely be introduced shortly, however a fast reminder that Chelsea are with out talisman goalscorer Sam Kerr for the remainder of the season after she sustained an ACL harm throughout heat climate coaching.

“For us, normalising it’s the wise factor for us. Whenever you play towards Arsenal, Chelsea or Manchester United, the nerves and all the things is there anyway.

“It’s an enormous sport. It feels huge. There’s no denying that. There’s little doubt the significance of the sport and that is what we would like, to be on this place.

“It’s once you come into it at this stage of the season and you’ve got the chance to probably go inside objective distinction of the league leaders. That’s precisely what we wished.”

“We now have expertise of being on this place and we perceive what it takes to win titles,” Hayes mentioned, reported by BBC Sport.

“We must use all of that have within the subsequent half, ranging from tomorrow, to be in one of the best place attainable to win one other title. However one factor is for sure, the title isn’t determined over one or two video games, it’s successfully breaking down the season in blocks.

“We’re in a robust place for positive, however I don’t imagine we’re overwhelming favourites to win a title simply due to our place.”

Yearly, the character of the Ladies’s Tremendous League dictates a single sport or second will outline its season. If hindsight can establish the place the title race was gained and misplaced, Chelsea’s final three titles comply with a theme: in 2021, their profitable margin over Manchester Metropolis was two factors, in 2022, Emma Hayes’s facet edged Arsenal by only one level, and in 2023, towards Manchester United, it was two once more. Because the champions now goal a fifth league in a row in what’s Hayes’s closing season, all of the proof suggests tonight’s conflict with Metropolis could also be seemed again on as its defining second.

Chelsea host Manchester Metropolis as first meets second in a key conflict within the Ladies’s Tremendous League title race tonight.

Chelsea are aiming to win a fifth league title in a row in what’s Emma Hayes’s closing season with the Blues.

The defending champions maintain a three-point lead on the high of the desk after bouncing again from December’s 4-1 defeat at Arsenal.

Metropolis are in a powerful run of kind underneath Gareth Taylor, profitable seven in a row since November, and held Chelsea to a 1-1 draw earlier this season.

Good night and welcome to The Unbiased’s dwell protection of the Ladies’s Tremendous League conflict between Chelsea and Manchester Metropolis at Kingsmeadow.