5-STAR CHELSEA SEAL TITLE
Kirby the star as Chelsea pip City to claim the crown
EmmA HAYES would laugh off the comparison, but there were echoes of Sir Alex Ferguson when she encouraged her players to observe the team ethic of geese before the game which took them to a second consecutive WSL title yesterday.
Ferguson did not quite go to the Chelsea manager’s lengths by asking his players to honk like the bird in question, though his parable was very much the same as hers when he employed it a decade back.
‘They fly in V-formation,’ he explained. ‘The second row subs for the first ones. The second ones take over. It’s teamwork.’
Whichever way you tell it, Hayes is beginning to earn a status here approaching that which Ferguson established at manchester United. It’s three titles in four years for her now, and the first won back-to-back since Liverpool achieved the feat in 2014.
She’s left Liverpool and Arsenal in the dust. manchester City spent big last summer but they’re in her rearview mirror, too.
Demanding, often uncompromising, intellectually curious about marginal gains and yet innately aware of what makes her players tick: Old Trafford knows all about a manager like that.
Showing the players geese videos was Hayes’s way of guarding against complacency with the title still in the balance. They took the lead after 70 seconds — the fastest opening goal of the season — en route to yesterday’s emphatic 5-0 win.
There have been plenty in the second row of Chelsea’s V-formation all season. The 5ft 3in Ji Soyun gives everyone a run for their money in the player of the season stakes for technical consistency. She ran the game in the 3-1 win over City here last October, a vital three points in retrospect.
millie Bright was a huge contributor in the fiercely fought draw at Arsenal in November. Ann-Katrin Berger’s string of saves kept the score at 2-2 at City, 18 days ago, when defeat would have put a different complexion on the final day.
But Fran Kirby has been the shining light, delivering relentlessly, not least in the 2-1 win which took the wind out of manchester United’s sails and sent Chelsea top in January.
Both her goals yesterday typified her extraordinarily intuitive partnership with Kerr, which City cannot come close to matching.
First, she allowed Kerr’s ball through a crowded area to run across her before placing a shot beyond Grace moloney. Then she anticipated Kerr’s cutback to consign a 15-yard first-time effort to the net. The roles were reversed for the fourth — Kerr despatching from Kirby’s floated pass. Kerr’s 21 goals bring her the WSL Golden Boot. Berger takes the golden glove.
Hayes removed half of her outfield players with Sunday’s
Gothenburg Champions League final against Barcelona in mind.
Their upcoming opponents spent yesterday wrapping up a title of their own in Spain — Barca’s astonishing league record now reads played 26, won 26, scored 128, conceded five.
But the WSL title has not been a walkover. It helped that City, with five big signings and a new manager, took six weeks to really fire. But manchester United and Everton invested and the business has been more ruthless. managers have been sacked at a higher rate than in the Premier League.
As things stand, only five of the 12 clubs will start next season with the boss who finished the last. ‘Teams have invested. Some heavily,’ Hayes reflected last night. ‘It wasn’t just a question of, “Chelsea have invested”, and other teams haven’t. There were four teams that could have been in with a shout.
‘This was the hardest. We’ve had to manage Covid, a dressing room with people who haven’t been in more than a year. That’s hard. People think strength-indepth is an advantage but you try managing it and you’ll see how challenging it is — keeping players on the bench. I’ve never had that before. I’ve never faced this amount of challenge.’
The advent of the £21million Sky Sports and BBC TV deal for next season has made this a very bad season to be relegated for Bristol City.
We now hope for a levelling up, with the top four so painfully far ahead of the rest. It is surprising that few clubs have really made a go of it, given the comparatively small outlay required. The £250,000 it cost to bring Harder here equates to a top- end Premier League weekly wage.
There are challenges for everyone. Arsenal must find a new manager. manchester City’s American stars may head back to the States. But Hayes may need more where that geese adage came from. ‘Do I look like anyone who gets things from a coaching manual?’ she replied, when asked if this was the source. ‘my older sister, Victoria, gave it to me. It made me smile, so I used it.’
CHELSEA (4-3-3): Berger 6.5; Charles 7 (Andersson 57min, 6.5), Bright 6, Eriksson 6.5, Carter 6 (Blundell 68, 6); Leupolz 6.5 (Fleming 69, 6.5), Ingle 7, Ji 7 (Reiten 58, 7); KIRBY 8.5, Harder 6 (Cuthbert 57, 7), Kerr 8. Scorers: Leupolz 2, Kirby 43, 57, Kerr 71, Cuthbert 75. Manager: Emma Hayes 8. READING (4-3-3): Moloney 5.5; Leine 5.5, Cooper 5.5, Bartrip 5, Roberts 6 (Eikeland 78, 6); James 6, Williams 7, Rowe 7.5; Carter 6, Harries 5.5 (Chaplen 46, 7), Harding 5.5. Manager: Kelly Chambers 7. Referee: Stacey Pearson 7.