Reviewing Chelsea FC Women's Season

Invincible. Unbeaten. And yet, you can't help but feel there is more to come.

Invincible

1. adjective

If you describe an army or sports team as invincible, you believe that they cannot be defeated.

When she is on form she is virtually invincible.

Synonyms: unbeatable, unassailable, indomitable, unyielding

Been a while hasn’t it? When I last wrote a piece here, Chelsea FC were still in a mess and unable to find form at the right time, the backroom was still ridiculously messy and in contrast CFCW were a paradigm of consistent success and unbeaten in the WSL.

Fast forward some 4 months and nothing has changed… amazingly even the last point hasn’t changed.

Chelsea FC Women have become the first women’s team to go unbeaten in the 22-game Women’s Super League season. In doing so, they have also recorded their third unbeaten WSL campaign, the most of any club.

Winning the WSL once is an achievement. Defending it is spectacular. Winning three on the bounce is monumental. Four in a row is legendary. Five on the spin is iconic. Six in a row? I’m going to go out on a limb and say it won’t be repeated in the current format. This is a special side, who have established a Blue dynasty.

Winning the WSL before the final day is impressive. Going unbeaten with 2.73 points per game, collecting 60 points in a 22 game season, and ending up 12 points clear is frankly absurd. When you also factor in that Chelsea have been missing their goalscorer supreme in Sam Kerr (many congratulations to the Kerr-Mewis family on the safe arrival of baby Jagger!), the fact that Lauren James has been absent for over half the WSL season and the injury issues suffered by Guro Reiten, it’s staggering that Chelsea actually ended up with the 2nd-best attacking record.

At the other end, Chelsea ended up with the best defensive record and Hannah Hampton shared the Golden Glove with Phallon Tullis-Joyce. They put together an impressive run of 3 clean sheets to close out the season, and Brighton were the only side to twice manage to get two league goals against Chelsea. This is despite the fact the central defence was a revolving door of pairings. Millie Bright and Kadeisha Buchanan. Kadeisha Buchanan and Natalie Björn. Natalie Björn and Millie Bright. Natalie Björn and Lucy Bronze. Naomi Girma and Natalie Björn. Naomi Girma and Millie Bright. Millie Bright and Lucy Bronze. Lucy Bronze and Kadeisha Buchanan. Sjoeke Nüsken and Millie Bright. Lucy Bronze and Maelys Mpome. That isn’t even a definitive list and before we even get into those weird 3-at-the-backs we ended up with at various times. It’s incredible that with such a variance at the back, Chelsea were still able to shut teams out in over 50% of the WSL fixtures.

A lot has been said about the lack of Chelsea players in Player of the Season awards and Sonia Bompastor herself has weighed in on this debate. In many ways I find it quite funny - consistently rivals have tried to belittle Chelsea for relying on individual brilliance, rather than a collective spirit and strength, however, this year although we were obviously so reliant on individuals, none of them managed to unanimously make it into Team of the Season suggestions.

If anyone did wonder, my Team of the Season was something like the below:

Phallon Tullis-Joyce; Emily Fox, Maya Le Tissier, Natalie Björn, Sandy Baltimore; Erin Cuthbert, Mariona Caldentey; Celine Bizet, Mary Fowler, Vivianne Asseyi; Alessia Russo.

Yes, only 3 Chelsea players get into it. Shocking I know.

I think there are a few you could make arguments for - Aggie Beever-Jones has been fantastic but she does have some elite supporting acts, which isn’t something you can say for Viv Asseyi. PTJ and Hampton have both been immense, but quite frankly if PTJ wasn’t as good as she was this year, Manchester United would have been nowhere near the Top 3.

Original drafts had Mariona Caldentey playing further forward. I’m informed by people much closer to Arsenal than I that she spent most the year in the pivot and I’m inclined to trust their expert opinion. She’s been fantastic this year and was named Player of the Year. People took my comments the other day out of context on social media - as usual - about marketability. It’s more the fact you will see Caldentey’s name more on social media, she is the sort of player who makes the highlights reels or get into headlines (often because she is scoring or assisting) or more likely to go viral by scoring a wonderful goal.

Erin Cuthbert on the other hand, is the unsung quiet hero. Her nationality does count against her a lot. If she was English, she’d get more reverence. I was pleased to see the fans at least recognised how important she is to the side by naming her Player of the Season. If you need a barometer on how important Cuthbert is, just look at CFCW results in recent seasons when Cuthbert has been absent, or how we play when she isn’t on the pitch. She is the tempo setter and the standard setter for so many other players.

Both are world class footballers and if both fanbases (and I include myself in this) stopped being quite so tribal, we could perhaps appreciate the other more.

Back to Chelsea.

This year has been special and the fans should rightly serenade a team that quite frankly had little right to be so dominant this year. Over the past 18 months, the club’s seen the record goalscorer, a world class midfielder, two of the most versatile defenders and an elite goalkeeper all leave. In doing so, they’ve lost over 300 games worth of experience between them. Players have had to step up and have done so with flying colours. Who would have anticipated by the end of the year that Wieke Kaptein would be approaching one of the first names on the teamsheet, or the fact Sandy Baltimore would usurp Niamh Charles as the first choice left-back? Sonia Bompastor herself admitted this year was the transition. Everyone else was meant to take advantage of the changes at Chelsea and finally de-throne them. In reality, they seem to have ended up further away this year.

We have to talk about the Catalan elephant in the room. Chelsea were outclassed over two legs against Barcelona. At 2-1, Bompastor got her tactics wrong for the remaining 15 minutes and instead of trying to close it out, she had the team chase an equaliser. The two late sucker punch goals all but killed the tie. The early Nüsken chance at Stamford Bridge needed to go in to give Chelsea any chance. Instead, about 80 seconds later, Aitana Bonmatí was wheeling away celebrating. Regardless, I think at times you just have to hold your hands up and admit you were beaten by the better side. FC Barcelona are a truly frightening proposition, in the fact you could play much better than Chelsea did in either of the 90 minutes and still easily lose by 2 or 3 simply by how precise and clinical they are, and how much quality they have. One thing I did find pretty staggering was how committed they were even at 7-1 up on aggregate to harry, to press, to cut passing lanes and close players down. When people talk about standards, that is what I’ll be pointing to.

Make no mistake. This result did sting and it will still with Bompastor and the players and the fans for some time. One day, CFCW will win the Champions League and we’ll be able to look back on this result and laugh. Until then, it will and should piss people off. No player over the two legs with the exception of maybe Hannah Hampton can honestly say they turned up to be counted for.

That said, to show the cojones to kick on from this defeat to record three clean sheets, win the league and then complete an unbeaten season does need to be commended. That is mentality. That is sheer bloodymindedness. Like I said earlier, this is a special side and they deserve much more acclaim than they get. It’s unlikely you will see this level of dominance again. Enjoy it. If you get a chance to get down to Kingsmeadow, or to Stamford Bridge to watch them, do it. You are witnessing the high point of a dynasty.

There is one final game, an FA Cup Final and revenge mission against Manchester United. They took Chelsea’s trophy away from them and I would bet that plenty of players in the dressing room have not forgotten that. They will want to win it back and will be roared on by a very passionate, loud Chelsea crowd as always. The players and staff will want to seal off the unbeaten domestic treble, which would be another very special achievement.

Obviously, no one will be happy if we lose it. No one wants to lose a final. But regardless of what happens on Sunday, this has been a truly special season from a special side and statistically, they are now the best side in Women’s Super League history. Even if rival fans want to snipe or tear them down, or undermine them and the achievements they have made. There will only be one word associated with them in the annals of history.

Invincibles.

Rob Pratley