Chelsea had to wait until the final day of the Women’s Super League season to confirm what everyone suspected: that their dominance of English football would continue with yet another title, their fourth in a row. But when it finally happened, at the end of a campaign in which they were taken all the way by Manchester United, there was a strange feeling to accompany the success.
Winning at Reading — a result which relegated the hosts in front of a crowd of 5,000 mainly made up of Chelsea fans — was expected. But for title-winning manager Emma Hayes, sending her friend and opposition manager Kelly Chambers down added a layer of awkwardness on an afternoon when the PA system played ‘We Are The Champions’ and declared the visitors worthy title winners, all while their own players contemplated the ramifications of relegation.
The game did not have the feel of a title decider; there was more an air of an exhibition match, a showcase of just how great this Chelsea side is. It takes an exceptional effort to win back-to-back titles and even more to win four in a row. Chelsea have now won six WSL titles, twice as many as any other side in the league’s 12-year history, and this was achieved with a record points total.
Sam Kerr and Guro Reiten put paid to some stubborn…
