LUCY BRONZE wants an invincible end to Chelsea’s season after they won a sixth consecutive WSL title following their Champions League exit.
The full-back’s towering header sealed a 1-0 defeat of Manchester United with her side celebrating more domestic glory.
Chelsea clinched a WSL title win away at Manchester United for the second year in a row[/caption]
Before their match kicked off on Wednesday evening second-placed Arsenal were trounced by Aston Villa.
Their hefty 5-2 loss at Villa Park meant the Blues required a draw to clinch the title against Man United who have never beaten them in the league.
And Bronze’s match-winning moment saw the unbeaten champions maintain their iron grip on the WSL crown following a tense encounter at Leigh Sports Village.
The gritty victory sealed the visitors’ domestic trophy double win ahead of their FA Cup final showdown with United on May 18.
Chelsea’s eighth top-flight title win led to them becoming champions for the second successive year at the Red Devils home.
And it came three days after their bow out of the Champions League following an 8-2 aggregate semi-final loss to Barcelona.
It also capped the first top tier triumph of the Sonia Bompastor era, with the champions an cup final win away from a domestic trophy treble.
Bronze said: “We knew that a draw was good enough as well. We wanted to be unbeaten and keep a clean sheet.
“But it’s really nice to have scored a goal and got the win as well.
“It makes it feel better to celebrate being champions when you win a game.
“The fortunate thing for us this season is we’ve been unbeaten and there were two things to go for.
“We knew before the game that Arsenal got beaten so we knew we needed to come in and get from this game.
“But we wanted to win and we want to be unbeaten this season, so although we’ve won we’ve got two games left.
“We want to win those games and be unbeaten this season.”
United went close to scoring in the first half with efforts from Melvine Malard, Grace Clinton and Celin Bizet.
Malard nearly gave the hosts a 16th-minute lead with Hannah Hampton parrying her shot away before Naomi Girma’s superb block on Clinton’s follow-up strike.
Chelsea and Manchester United will go to battle in the Women’s FA Cup final on May 18[/caption]
Chelsea were forced to make a change later on in the half with Mayra Ramirez going off with a knee issue.
And Leah Galton had a shot blocked shortly before Bizet headed wide close to halftime.
The second half saw Tullis-Joyce pull off a stunning triple save including parrying Aggie Beever-Jones’ 57th-minute shot from distance away from danger.
But the USA keeper was unable to stop Bronze’s 74th-minute winner with her flicked header finding the back of the net.