Emma Hayes has challenged any other Women’s Super League team to match her Chelsea side in competing for the title on a regular basis.
USA-bound Hayes is entering the final week of her glittering 12-year tenure with the Blues and an historic fifth WSL title on the bounce is within reach.
The change in fortunes has been stark. Last week, Hayes declared the title race “over” after Chelsea’s dramatic 4-3 defeat to Liverpool seemed to gift Manchester City the title and confirm that Hayes’ send-off would be without silverware. But another dramatic twist in the race occurred as Arsenal stunned City with a last-gasp defeat the Joie Stadium.
Chelsea’s subsequent 8-0 thrashing of Bristol City, already relegated, put Hayes’ side firmly back in the driver’s seat with City’s superior goal difference wiped out. Another victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday night is paramount to ending Hayes’ final season with the club with at least one piece of silverware.
“You can’t win everything all of the time,” said Hayes, who is leaving Chelsea to manage the United States women’s national team.
“But to be in a position to compete for our fifth title in five years, I’d like to see another team do that over the next five years. The reason I say that is nobody really understands how hard that is to keep winning.
“To be in a position to compete for that, that’s all I wanted the team to be in. I just want them to enjoy the next two games.”
Chelsea initially harboured heady quadruple hopes for Hayes’ final season in west London, including a first-ever Women’s Champions League trophy, the only piece of silverware to elude Hayes in her Chelsea tenure.
But a cruel month of disappointments and exits from all three cup competitions means that any silverware claimed this season hinges on defeating Tottenham Hotspur and newly-crowned FA Cup champions Manchester United to win a seventh league title in her career.
“If you ask Man City they know they were in a commanding position,” Hayes added. “They just had to get a result at home and they didn’t. A week is a long time in football.”
Hayes will be without record-signing Mayra Ramirez, Jelena Čanković and Lauren James for their contest against Tottenham, who fell to a 4-0 loss to United at the FA Cup on the weekend.
