Chelsea’s new monsters, bench depth and other Women’s FA Cup final lessons

After Chelsea had navigated their way past Bayern Munich in 2021 to earn a place in their first Champions League final, Emma Hayes labelled her gutsy side “mentality monsters”. They went on to lose the final to Barcelona by a humbling 4-0 scoreline. However, the “mentality monsters” moniker stuck and has been reaffirmed in three back-to-back FA Cup wins and two consecutive WSL titles, with a third in sight. After the Blues beat Manchester United 1-0 to win the FA Cup at Wembley on Sunday, Hayes had a new label for her side. “What the team has become is the most flexible team,” she said. “Our team has become ‘hybrid monsters’. We can float between things in ways that takes years to master. They are so adaptable.”

There are always incomings and outgoings, but football teams exist in cycles, with the core peaking and then being pulled apart as the side are reshaped for the next phase. Chelsea are in transition. The team have had to cope for much of the season without the forwards Fran Kirby and Pernille Harder and the summer signings Kadeisha Buchanan forced the captain Magda Eriksson out of the side in the early stages of the season. But it is ongoing, with Harder and Eriksson out of contract at the end of the season and courting offers and Kirby’s injury and illness record meaning Chelsea always need a plan B. Despite the turmoil, they are still winning and that is what makes these victories more impressive. After Sunday’s triumph Hayes spoke of her aim during periods of change. “Our team has been in transition,” she said. “We had six different players in the starting lineup to last year’s final. That, for me, is a sign of real progress. My big thing is: ‘How can we keep winning while transitioning?’ To win knowing we’re