Story byThis Manchester City side is a beast – Chelsea were just its latest preyMegan FeringaMon, February 2, 2026 at 5:16 AM UTC·6 min readFour seconds pass and a thought forms: stick a leg out, Chelsea. Any expendable limb, really. But on Kerolin sprints. Though it’s not so much a sprint as it is a glide, starting in her own half, past one, two, three inconsequential blurs of opposing dark blue. Eventually, the Manchester City winger is bearing down on goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, chipping her shot to score City’s third goal of the day, before landing on her backside, arms folded and tongue out; a punk-rock finish. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementPerhaps the most remarkable part of that nine-second move on Sunday was how predictable it was, how nobody in the Etihad Stadium expected Kerolin not to score, or that Chelsea would stop her, or even get in a position to do so. And of course it was a metaphor. City are so far clear of Chelsea that the eight-time champions cannot even stick a leg out in the hope of a stumble which might stop the kind of title procession that used to be their party piece. City are 12 points clear of third-placed Chelsea at the top courtesy of Sunday’s 5-1 thrashing, the Brazilian’s hat-trick coming on top of goals from Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw and Vivianne Miedema. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHead coach Andree Jeglertz dutifully played down any talk of a title being won with eight matches to go.