Sam Kerr was again the toast of Chelsea after snapping up the two crucial goals that leave the Blues on the verge of retaining their Women’s Super League title.
Australia’s captain was at her sharpest again, scoring either side of halftime on Wednesday evening to give Chelsea a 2-0 win at Tottenham in the penultimate game of the WSL season.
It gives Chelsea a two-point lead at the top over Manchester City going into Sunday’s final matches of the season and, having now scored 20 goals in the league this season, Kerr is also poised to lift the golden boot award as the season’s top scorer.
The 27-year-old Matilda, who has the chance to complete an amazing treble of being top scorer in the US, Australian and now English leagues, is two goals ahead of Arsenal’s Dutch star Vivianne Miedema.
Not that the modest figure from Western Australia is thinking about the individual accolade.
“It’s (Scoring) what I’m paid to do. I mean, more importantly, we’ve got to win the league on Sunday, and that’s the most important thing to me. We’ll deal with all that type of other stuff after,” Kerr told BT Sport afterwards.
Man City visit West Ham while Chelsea host Reading in the final matches on Sunday with Emma Hayes’ Blues still in with a chance of a unique ‘quadruple’ of trophies, having already won the League Cup, reached the final of the Champions League and still in the FA Cup.
Kerr, who had been instrumental in creating several chances in the opening half, struck five minutes before the break, when Guro Reiten’s first-time cross picked her out at the back post where she slotted home.
“It’s always hard to come away and get the first goal and obviously there was a lot on the line, so it was a big goal for us close to halftime,” she reflected.
In the 52nd minute, it was Kerr’s heading prowess that came to the fore as she rose to power Reiten’s cross at the excellent Spurs keeper Becky Spencer, only to then also react quickest to snapping up the parried ball by volleying home from close quarters.
Kerr was then taken off just after the hour, her job done, allowing the Australian the luxury of a bit of rest before Sunday.
It ended a remarkable few days for Chelsea, who were still on a high after qualifying for the Champions League final on Sunday with their 4-1 win over Bayern Munich.
“It’s been intense. It might look all roses and butterflies from the outside but this has been the build-up all season, we’ve worked so hard, sacrificed so much, we’ve gone through so much as a team,” said Kerr.
Asked if she was feeling the pressure, she added: “When there is pressure, this team performs better. For us, we’re enjoying the moment, enjoying everything riding on each game – we’re enjoying it.
“For us, it now feels like a reward but we’re not done yet. We’ve got two massive games to come and we want to win it all.”