Chelsea v Liverpool: Women’s Super League – live!

53 mins: Spence is booked for taking down Clarke, who is very much in the thick of things at the start of the second half.

52 mins: Clarke has a chance to return the favour, carrying the ball down the right and spotting Coombs running absolutely free and totally clear down the middle, but she hits her pass into a defender.

48 mins: Chance for Liverpool! Coombs finds Clarke, who controls on her thigh, bursts into the area and then shoots straight down the middle of goal, and straight at Telford!

46 mins: Peeeeep! Chelsea’s Fran Kirby gets the second half started.

The teams are back out and ready for more. Can Liverpool find a way back into this game? It’s time to find out!

It’s not all been bad news for Liverpool. Their full backs have played well, Clarke’s been sporadically threatening and Babajide was excellent until she was swapped from the left wing to the right about halfway through the half, and still occasionally sparky. Having conceded only once they remain in the game. However, Chelsea have been vastly superior overall in the first half, and Vicky Jepson’s first interval as Liverpool’s full-time manager will be a busy one, with considerably work to be done if they are to get anything from this game.

45+1 mins: Peeeep! It’s half time!

45 mins: Babajide intercepts a pass midway inside Chelsea’s half, turns nicely and shoots. Telford saves easily enough, but it was a demonstration of good technique and positive intent.

45 mins: Liverpool make a rare foray forward, where they win a corner. They take it short and immediately give it away.

42 mins: Another fine Chelsea move ends with Kirby shooting from the 18-yard line, right in the middle of the pitch, but Kitching makes a reasonably comfortable save.

41 mins: Spence has another go, with her right foot this time, but it rolls shyly goalwards and Kitching picks it up.

38 mins: The corner bounces out of the other side of the area but is sent back in from the right, and Spence’s header loops into Kitching’s arms.

38 mins: Liverpool have been chasing shadows for about 10 minutes. Chelsea work the ball right, then central, and then down the left before winning a corner.

35 mins: Chelsea are controlling this match now, playing with a bit more freedom, or at least a lot less tension, since the goal. Liverpool are breaking occasionally, mainly down the left, but offering little genuine threat.

33 mins: Here’s a video of the goal. Watch and enjoy.

30 mins: A fine crossfield pass sends Clarke racing away in ye olde inside left channel, but Bright gets across to snuff out the danger at the vital moment.

27 mins: It was a corner, won by Kirby at the far post and headed back across goal to Eriksson, in way too much space with the defence all following the ball, who controlled nicely on her chest and then sent an overhead into the top corner!

Chelsea take the lead with an overhead into the top corner!

26 mins: Clarke gets down the left for Liverpool, and then goes down. She’s convinced that she was tripped; the referee’s thinks she wasn’t. Goal kick.

23 mins: The ball bounces through to Kitching, the Liverpool goalkeeper, but with nobody near her she miscontrols and hands Chelsea a corner.

22 mins: Chelsea are dominating here, and making chances. So far they have been unable to convert any, which has pretty much been the story of their season so far.

20 mins: Chance for Chelsea! A fine move ends with Cuthbert miscuing a first-time shot which skews to Kirby, who controls, spins and fires wide.

20 mins: Cuthbert gets in a good position to the right of the Liverpool goal, but her driven cross/shot – which might have been going in – finds only Bradley-Auckland well placed again.

19 mins: I’ve not seen much of Rinsola Babajide before, but she’s been impressive so far. She just tracked back well from her left-wing berth to break up a Chelsea attack inside her own area, and then rather than hacking clear brought the ball forward herself, running to the halfway line.

15 mins: Now Bradley-Auckland tries to score at the other end, from a long way out – perhaps 45 yards or so – but Telford catches.

13 mins: Chelsea are denied by a brilliant goalline clearance! Spence has a low shot from just outside the area and it was destined for the corner of the net, with Kitching this time helpless, until Bradley-Auckland stuck out a leg at the last to divert it wide!

12 mins: Ji now shoots from just outside the box, and Kitching saves again. That was a good move, though, with Chelsea moving the ball well around Liverpool’s penalty area – but not, still, into it.

10 mins: And another! This time Chelsea’s Ingle takes aim from outside the area. It’s on target, but Kitching makes a straightforward save.

9 mins: And another! This one’s from Linnett at the other end, but this too goes wide.

8 mins: A shot! Bright, the Chelsea captain, has it, but she’s 40 yards from goal and misses the target by a distance.

7 mins: There is a brief appeal for handball against Robe, inside Liverpool’s penalty area, but it’s entirely without merit and the referee ignores it.

5 mins: Very much in the early-game sparring phase still, with the ball spending almost all its time within 25 yards of the halfway line.

2 mins: Liverpool are the first team to get the ball into their opponents’ penalty area, but Clarke’s cross is headed clear.

1 min: And they’re off! Liverpool get the game started!

Liverpool are still huddling!

Pre-match huddles are currently being huddled. Kick-off moments away!

Liverpool have now joined them, and out they come!

I have pictures! And they’re showing Chelsea’s team in the tunnel, waiting for some opponents to turn up.

Only 15 minutes to kick-off and excitement is building (I’m guessing – I personally am still waiting for the BBC’s coverage to begin).

The team sheets are in, and these are today’s line-ups:

Hello world!

Chelsea, last season’s champions, have started the season poorly, winning just one of their opening six games to sit unimpressively in seventh place. Liverpool, meanwhile, have had a chaotic start to the season, in which Neil Redfearn quit as their manager after a single match – a 5-0 defeat to Arsenal – leaving the goalkeeping coach, Chris Kirkland, and the development squad manager, Vicky Jepson, in joint temporary charge. They seemed in disarray, but they have won four of their five matches since then, and with three league victories are fourth in the WSL table. Jepson was named as Redfearn’s permanent replacement on Friday, at which point this is what she had to say about today’s game:

It doesn’t change things in terms of me just being given the title of manager because we’ve been together on this journey as staff and as a group. So we’ll be continuing the same as we have been doing. We know as a group this game is going to be very challenging because as individuals they are outstanding and they have got a great manager who has grown them from strength to strength as a collective, so they are going to be a very tough test. But it’s one that we are very much looking forward to and we’ll give it our all.

While this is what Chelsea’s manager, Emma Hayes, had to say on this match after her side dominated last Sunday’s game against Birmingham only to be held to a 0-0 draw:

As I’ve said to the players, we can take heart from the number of chances we are creating at the moment and yes there is pressure when you don’t stick it in the back of the net, but we just need to remain patient and it will happen for us. The team are doing absolutely everything they can to put things right and as I keep saying to them, we’ve just got to keep at it. We should be talking about three points against Birmingham, but we’re not – and it’s up to us to make sure we put that right against Liverpool. They’re in good form at the moment, but we know we’ve got the quality to hurt any side.

And so, in short, we have for various reasons an intriguing game on our hands this afternoon. Settle in, let’s see what happens.