Chelsea have lost two of the three domestic trophies they held last season.
At the start of the season, the idea of Sonia Bompastor sitting in the Stamford Bridge press room and being asked whether her seemingly invincible Chelsea team needed a rebuild would have seemed absurd. Back on September 5, Bompastor fielded questions about record signing Alyssa Thompson, Ellie Carpenter’s impressive WSL debut, and the significance of their 2-1 opening-day home win over Manchester City for their title defense. Fast forward to May 10, and Bompastor was back in that same room, admitting that being beaten by the same opponents “summarises our season.”
Chelsea’s late collapse against newly-crowned WSL champions Manchester City — a 3-2 extra-time loss in the Women’s FA Cup semi-final — means they have failed to retain two of the three domestic titles they won last season, successfully defending only the Subway Women’s League Cup. The manner of Sunday’s defeat is especially alarming. A comfortable 2-0 lead at home, courtesy of goals from midfielder Erin Cuthbert and forward Sam Kerr, had Chelsea on course for a May 31 Wembley final against Brighton & Hove Albion with just 10 minutes left in regulation. They were in complete control, only for Mary Fowler and Khadija Shaw to strike in the 86th and 92nd minutes, forcing extra time. Shaw then grabbed City’s winner just before the break in the additional 30 minutes.
Shaw’s performance — amid reports of her impending departure from City and Chelsea’s interest in signing her — will dominate headlines. It highlighted why she is the WSL’s best striker, and why her signature is coveted by Chelsea and many others. Yet how Chelsea let another trophy slip away also showed that their chances of reclaiming the domestic crown from City next year depend on far more than just signing Shaw. They need to rediscover their identity.
“It’s not good enough when you concede two goals in the last 10 minutes of the game. It summarises probably also our season,” Bompastor told TNT Sports. “I think mentally we were not strong enough in some games — same today. That’s tough to take.” This is the first time since August 2013 that Chelsea’s women have lost a game they led by two or more goals in any competition. Describing how Chelsea look after conceding, Cuthbert used an adjective that will seldom have entered her vocabulary in 300 appearances for the west London club: “vulnerable.”
For Chelsea to be accused of lacking a winning mentality, or wilting under pressure, would have felt unthinkable at the start of the season. As Bompastor pointed out after the game, her team performed well for 85 minutes — but as they collapsed late on, the cracks in that previously unshakeable mentality were visible. Late in extra time, as City’s Iman Beney received treatment on the pitch, Chelsea’s players were scattered around the field while the opposition gathered in a tight huddle in their penalty area.
“Football is full of emotions,” Cuthbert told reporters when asked why Chelsea have struggled with match management. “Everybody has different emotions in the game. Some people are having a good game, some people are not involved, some people are maybe not having a good game. We all feel different emotions and we’re all playing a different game and scenario, so maybe getting us all back on the same page is really, really important.”
Chelsea needs more than a star striker to fix this. They must restore the winning culture that once defined them.