Continental Tyres League Cup: Chelsea 6-0 West Ham United

Pernille Harder’s first goal in a one-sided semi-final came after just four minutes

Pernille Harder grabbed a hat-trick as holders Chelsea beat West Ham 6-0 with a brutal attacking display to reach the Continental Tyres League Cup final.

Harder’s deft shot set Chelsea on their way to a 4-0 lead inside 30 minutes.

Glaring errors by goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold saw Sophie Ingle and Harder make it 3-0 and Beth England side-footed in Fran Kirby’s cross for a fine fourth.

Second-half strikes by Kirby and Harder ensured a cup final date against Bristol City, who beat Leicester.

The Robins edged the second semi-final and will face Emma Hayes’ Women’s Super League leaders in the final at Vicarage Road.

But on this evidence it would take a monumental effort for bottom-of-the-table City to prevent Chelsea from retaining the trophy they won in such dramatic fashion against Arsenal last season.

Pace, power, panache and Pernille

Chelsea, who are unbeaten in 33 WSL matches following Sunday’s 4-0 humbling of Tottenham, have now won 10 successive matches in all competitions.

Victory over their London rivals at Kingsmeadow was never in doubt as West Ham failed to cope with Chelsea’s pace, power, precision and attacking intent from the off.

Jo So-Yun’s powerful run and fine pass for Danish striker Harder set the tone for a one-sided match.

Arnold’s fumbled attempt to keep out Ingle’s long-range shot and a dreadful miscued clearance gifted the hosts their next two goals and England raced in to tap home a fourth to all but settle the outcome.

West Ham, who have lost eight of their 11 WSL games this season, rallied impressively at the resumption.

Arnold did have to make fine saves to keep out strikes from Kirby and England early on.

But the Hammers then improved dramatically and finally started to threaten, with Emily van Egmond, Maz Pacheco and Lois Joel all going close and Chelsea keeper Ann-Katrin Berger making a brilliant save from Grace Fisk’s close-range strike.

Chelsea responded again, prompted by the constant barking of instructions by Hayes, and Kirby followed up her own effort to score from close in and Harder’s sweet low strike brought her a first Blues treble to complete the scoring.