Chelsea cruised into the League Cup final for a record sixth consecutive season after first-half goals from Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Sjoeke Nüsken secured victory over West Ham. If there is a gap to be found in Chelsea’s domestic armour, you could say it is in the League Cup, a competition they have won only twice and not since 2021, having lost three finals in a row. You could argue the League Cup is the least important of domestic competitions, and you would be right, but the more something eludes a team, the more they want it.

The chances of West Ham troubling the Women’s Super League leaders was slim. The two sides had met four times in the League Cup (twice at the semi-final stage) before this meeting at a shivering Kingsmeadow, with Chelsea winning all four games by an aggregate score of 19-2. There were five changes to the team that earned a 1-0 win over Aston Villa in the league on Sunday, but such is Chelsea’s depth it was not a weakened side. Keira Walsh, who joined on deadline day from Barcelona for £440,000, was handed her full debut, after coming on as a substitute against Villa, and Nüsken, Mayra Ramírez, Rytting Kaneryd and Maika Hamano returned to the starting XI.

Chelsea’s other new acquisition, the USA defender Naomi Girma who signed for a world-record fee of £890,000, was not ready for the bench. But she was sitting in the stands, sandwiched between the rested Lucy Bronze and pregnant Zecira Musovic, who announced on Monday that she is expecting. Both of West Ham’s January signings, Verena Hanshaw and Eva Nyström, started the game. There were two changes to the side that suffered a 1-0 loss to Liverpool, with Kirsty Smith and Li Mengwen replacing Anouk Denton and Seraina Piubel.

Despite utterly dominating proceedings, it took 20 minutes for the rejigged home team to make a breakthrough against the side they put five past in January. A clearance landed at the feet of Rytting Kaneryd, who swiped it in at the near post. Before the half-hour mark Chelsea had doubled their lead, as Nüsken and Guro Reiten muscled Nyström off the ball on the edge of West Ham’s area before the former rounded the goalkeeper Kinga Szemik and rolled the ball into the empty net.

The visitors were not completely without chances and Hannah Hampton was forced to race out to clear ahead of Viviane Asseyi after the forward was unleashed in their best play of the first half. The hour mark brought a double change for Chelsea that would put a chill into any team battling to get back into a game, with Aggie Beever-Jones and Lauren James refreshing the home attack. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts.

No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women’s football. after newsletter promotion. It took until the 78th minute for West Ham to muster a shot on target amid the Chelsea onslaught, which they did well to contain. Manuela Paví found Smith wide on the right but the angle got too tight and it was easy for Hampton when the shot did come in.

Chelsea pushed to extend their lead but the West Ham defence stood firm, with a clean sheet in the second half representing a small win to take away from Kingsmeadow and into the league. Sonia Bompastor’s side will play the winner of Thursday night’s game between Arsenal and Manchester City on Saturday 15 March at Pride Park for the chance to lift her first piece of silverware with the London club.