Could Chelsea finish the season as 'Invincibles'?
Is this Chelsea squad capable of having an unbeaten season and possibly win more than one piece of major silverware?
I think we all felt that coming into this season it would take time for things to click with Chelsea and Sonia Bompastor. Yet instead what we have seen is a side that has delivered a near-perfect set of results and effectively given themselves a strong chance of being WSL champions once again.
Last Sunday, we saw them beat Arsenal at Stamford Bridge which set them ten points clear of the Gunners, but it is a nine-point gap between them and Manchester United who now occupy second place.
Outside of the league, their dominance has been felt as well. They navigated their Subway League Cup quarter-final against Durham with a 5-0 win, plus a 4-0 win against Championship side Charlton Athletic to reach the fifth round of the Women’s FA Cup. It was also a clean sweep of six victories in their Women’s Champions League group and they now wait to find out who they face next in the quarter-finals of the competition they want to win the most.
Their squad is filled to the brim with quality and talent and yet still they have gone and strengthened further with the additions of Naomi Girma and Keira Walsh (still waiting for her to be confirmed as of time of writing) in this most recent transfer window. Girma being for a world record fee. There is the sense that a team is being built here to dominate the women’s game in England for a long time.
WSL champions once again?
Focusing on the WSL for now though, it’s gone as well as they could have hoped for given the last few years where they have been used to being in close battles alongside the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City in trying to be the champions and yet for the last five seasons they have won the league either on the final weekend or on the penultimate one.
There hasn’t been a WSL title winner that has won the league earlier than the penultimate weekend and it’s even stranger that Chelsea haven’t done it before considering the dominance we have seen of them over these last years. Their biggest points tally win as well was when they achieved 58 points two seasons ago.
Other than dropping points on just one occasion when they drew with Leicester City just before the winter break, they have been formidable against everybody else. A few of the games have been won with tight margins which is where the strength in depth has come into play and what an incredible depth it is.
Plus, how massive could it then be if they were to wrap the league up with a couple of weeks to go and then solely focus on other competitions elsewhere in which they haven’t tasted success before?
Strength in depth
Squad depth is probably the key to any team maintaining this high level they operate at and Chelsea are a club that have done this sort of thing for a few years now and it’s hard to see that stopping any time soon. It’s their rotation which will be so important in their ability to stay unbeaten for the rest of the season.
Let’s just talk about the attacking side of the team to start with. You have Mayra Ramirez as a central forward and then Guro Reiten, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd or Catarina Macario as we have seen in recent games. Lauren James as well is somebody we should expect to feature more now because of her return from injury. Even just having her come off the bench in games when they do need someone to inspire them can be a pivotal option for Chelsea to have.
Then there’s the ‘back-up’ options for example, Aggie Beever-Jones who can play out wide or in the middle and is a different type of player to Mayra Ramirez and how she operates. It’s almost the same now for somebody like Maika Hamano as well, who impresses whenever we see her play. The common thing between Chelsea’s attacking options is that they are all impact players in some way or another and how they can affect a game.
On the defensive side of things, that depth may not be as deep, but it’s still very strong, and that was even without Naomi Girma, who you would expect to be straight into the team once fit enough to play. You would imagine her and Millie Bright alongside each other as a partnership is just one that is gonna be a tough one to come up against. Plus, there is Nathalie Björn who has looked solid enough for them and is actually quite a versatile player. But the question with her would be whether she is the player they would want starting regularly.
Midfield-wise you can’t fault the job that Erin Cuthbert and Sjoeke Nüsken have done in the middle of the park, they have both been fantastic for Chelsea this season. Now one of the things you could identify with Chelsea though is the lack of having that one player who is more suited to playing in a pivot, or at least one that you could say is truly at the elite level in terms of their ability. So is that where signing Keira Walsh comes into their thinking?
Walsh is someone who will happily play deep in front of the defence and dictate a game and what she will bring technically to the team as well is that she is strong on the ball, which is what will make her a different option to Cuthbert and Nüsken. Perhaps she is the signing that makes Chelsea play how Sonia Bompastor wants the team to do when they have possession.
Will they finally win the Champions League this season?
Having all them quality options at their disposal leaves them a chance to compete for trophies season after season as we have seen for a while now and they have won all they can domestically. It’s just the one trophy which has evaded them. The Women’s Champions League.
This is where the question of becoming ‘the 'invincibles’ comes in because to win the quadruple, they might have to go unbeaten from now until the end of the season to turn that dream into reality.
They have certainly targeted this for a long time because of their transfer spending which as we have said has gone to a new height in this most recent window. It’s these squad improvements that surely position Chelsea in a much better place to finally win that missing piece of silverware.
Chelsea are established now as the club to be at for the best players who want to come and play in the Women’s Super League because they show the ambition and drive to be the overall best. They have that spot now in England and the expectation is it will be their spot for years to come at this point with their rivals falling behind a bit and not showing the same levels of intense investment.
In terms of the Champions League, that draw in just one week is what they will have their eye on where they can be drawn against either Wolfsburg, Bayern Munich or fellow WSL side Manchester City.
In saying that though, if you’re Chelsea and you have built this culture of winning trophies and now this further strengthened winning mentality and confidence. Then surely you would take on all-comers with the knowledge that this is finally our year. Then if they achieve the success they want, they’ll want it again and again.