In the Chelsea dressing room, no one uttered a word in front of Sonia Bompastor about the possibility of winning the Women’s Super League before their away game against Manchester United on Wednesday night.
But the players were aware that Arsenal’s 5-2 defeat to Aston Villa, which finished 30 minutes before their kick-off at Leigh Sports Village (LSV), left an opening for them to snatch the title with two games to spare. Bompastor did not want to speak about it though as such information may have allowed her players to relax a little.
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It was a question of when not if Chelsea would win the league but nobody expected it to happen on Wednesday yet Lucy Bronze leapt like a salmon to head the ball home in the 74th minute to hand Bompastor’s side a 1-0 win and a sixth consecutive league triumph.
The celebrations were muted. When the full-time whistle blew, Sandy Baltimore hopped on the back of compatriot Maelys Mpome, Millie Bright burst into a huge smile and later hugged her parents, who were in the far corner of LSV with the travelling fans. Along with Erin Cuthbert, who had a Scottish flag tied around her waist, Bright lofted Guro Reiten in the air. Aggie Beever-Jones grabbed a water bottle and poured it over Niamh Charles’ head, yet there was no spraying of bubbles.
The team formed a line and banged the winners’ board that the league provided at the last minute on Wednesday given the unexpected timing of Chelsea’s triumph. Chelsea Women CEO Aki Mandhar and Nadia Shahrestani, head of stadium revenue, joined the team on the pitch but executives from the Women’s Professional League Limited, the company that runs the WSL, were not there. The plan is to present the trophy on the final day of the season at Stamford Bridge.
Instead, in the away dressing room, Niamh Charles bounced a bottle of water as the squad, who were missing members such as Sam Kerr, Lauren James and Kadeisha Buchanan, bobbed round her to the tune of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads”.
Bompastor described the feeling as “unreal” while Hampton, wearing the 2024-2025 Champions flag as a skirt, said she felt “relief” and their achievement had not yet sunk in.
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Chelsea’s players were understandably deflated after Sunday’s 8-2 aggregate hammering by Barcelona, which dumped them out of the Champions League semi-finals.
“Not going to lie, I wasn’t listening to a lot of people after Sunday,” Hampton told after Wednesday’s 1-0 win.
“I honestly couldn’t explain the emotions. People don’t realise the emotions that footballers go through. It’s either high or low. There’s never a middle ground. It’s so hard to explain to non-footballers what that feeling actually is unless you experience it yourself.”
Her head coach, France and Lyon’s former captain, knows.
Bompastor told her players after that chastening European loss: “It hurts to be knocked out of the Champions League but we are professionals. We need to focus on how we can win on Wednesday against Man United and get a step closer to the title.”
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On Monday morning, Bompastor reminded her players that they are top of the league, unbeaten, six points ahead of Arsenal and fully competent enough to beat Manchester United away as long as they have the desire.
“I just trust our process,” said Bompastor.
The Chelsea boss didn’t do or say anything different on the days between the two games. The players had more of a recovery day on Monday to clear their minds, according to Hampton, before getting back on the pitch on Tuesday to prepare.
In some aspects, it was good to have a 72-hour turnaround from Sunday as the players could focus on a task and wipe the slate clean.
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Hampton said Chelsea’s Champions League semi-final performances were “not the Chelsea we know”.
“We were more annoyed at ourselves that we went out of the Champions League and the way that we did. Everyone was more determined and had a lot more fight and grit in their stomach. They didn’t want fans to think that performance against Barca was the (true) Chelsea. We wanted to come here and prove that we can win the league.”
Bompastor told the squad before the game: “We started pre-season in August. We are probably 90 minutes away from having a hand on the title.
“Ninety minutes — it’s nothing. The game will go quickly and make sure at the end, we just think we have done the job.”
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Bompastor, despite saying that she gets more stressed when her attention is taken away from the task at hand, had an eye on the Aston Villa and Arsenal game early on during the evening.
“1-0, 2-0; I was like: ‘I’m done, I’m not watching anymore’,” she said. Her staff informed her before the game that Arsenal had suffered a shock 5-2 defeat, which she admitted gave her some breathing space.
Against United, Bompastor wanted her team to win the duels with the first contact, be first to second balls, to fight for each other and protect their goal as a unit to secure a clean sheet. United put up a tough fight and were resilient at the back, but failed to convert any of their five shots on target.
The fact that Bronze, a player who leads by example, scored the winning goal was symbolic of Chelsea’s never-say-die attitude.
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Despite the muted celebrations, one should not diminish Chelsea’s nor Bompastor’s achievements.
“You have to be mentally really strong to be able to bounce back,” she said. “Some people think because you are Chelsea, it’s so easy to do that but it’s not.”
Chelsea have beaten Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United both home and away, a feat never achieved under former manager Emma Hayes or in the club’s history. “It’s unbelievable,” Bompastor said. “I think you need to realise that”.
The WSL title has been decided on the final day of the season for the last four years but Chelsea wrapped it up with two games of the season left, an illustration of their dominance.
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They have set a new record for the most consecutive matches unbeaten in a single campaign, surpassing Manchester City’s tally of 19 from the 2018-19 season. It is their ninth WSL trophy, three times as many as any other side, with Arsenal coming closest on three.
Personally, for Bompastor, who has won the Champions League as a player and a manager, her first WSL title ranks high in her list of achievements. She had expectations on her shoulders at her former club Lyon but the WSL, according to her, is more competitive and the gap between teams is closer.
Bompastor is a self-acclaimed perfectionist who demands a lot from her players. “I never let my players breathe,” she said. She is always pushing for more and always thinking of the next step.
With Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool up next, Chelsea’s goal is to go the whole season unbeaten. No team has ever gone undefeated in a 22-game WSL campaign. Should they win their last two games, they will also equal their record points tally of 58 and are still on track to win a domestic treble, a feat they have only achieved once in their history in 2020-2021.
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“We’re not going to get complacent now,” said Hampton.
Bompastor did offer herself a moment of reflection, though, pointing out that she is a new manager to the league, a foreign coach who, in her words “struggled a little bit with the barrier language” and had a wealth of information about the club, players and “everything in England” to absorb. She thanked her predecessor Hayes for allowing her to build on Chelsea’s foundations.
“I’m sure she’s very happy tonight with our title,” said the Frenchwoman. “It feels really nice.”
Bompastor, who describes herself as a “simple” person, said that she was considering toasting the victory with a little champagne on the bus back with some milk — not dark — chocolate followed by a kiss for her children on Thursday morning.
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As for Hampton, should have got some well-earned rest. “We have a game in three days (against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday) so I don’t think we can celebrate just yet. I can’t lie, I’m going to sleep.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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