Notts County host Chelsea in a battle between two teams striving for silverware this season.
Both sides made strong starts to their seasons in the FA Cup last weekend, Chelsea netting 6 against WSL 2 side Watford Ladies and County beating Tottenham 4-0.
The Lady Pies took 4 points from 6 in last season’s meetings between the two sides, but will be without England international Sophie Bradley who has failed to recover from a knee injury in time for the start of their league campaign.
County will however have former Chelsea players Laura Bassett, Rachel Williams and Danielle Buet available for their first games against their old club.
Ellen White will also be making her WSL debut for the Nottingham side after moving from Arsenal 15 months ago. The striker made her first competitive debut in the fifth round of the cup, assisting the first goal, scoring the second and picking up the Player of the Match award.
Speaking ahead of the game manager Rick Passmoor said: “I think we’ve been handed one of the toughest starts we could have had, with Arsenal just a few days later.
“We were strong and well organised last year but sometimes lacked that end product. We’ve strengthened in those areas, but so have Chelsea and it will certainly be an early test for both sides.
“We’ve got a number of new players and we still need to gel together, but that’s not looking for excuses before we even start because we don’t need to look for them. We’re confident and we’re looking at starting with three points.”
Runner’s up in the 2014 season Chelsea failed to score against Notts in their encounters last year. However they will be feeling inspired for their trip to Meadow Lane on Sunday after an impressive performance against Watford last week, when new signings Marija Banusic, Millie Bright and Gemma Davison all netted on their debuts.
