Chelsea’s strength in adversity holds key to more Women’s FA Cup glory

H eading into May, the gap between the Women’s Super League leaders, Manchester United, and second-placed Chelsea was four points and United had a goal difference superior by 10. Now, with the teams preparing to face each other in Sunday’s FA Cup final at a sold-out Wembley, that gap is one point and their goal difference is level. Chelsea played an additional game and still have one in hand.

Instead of looking fatigued and weary towards the end of a gruelling season that has taken its toll injury-wise, Emma Hayes’s charges have risen to the occasion, putting seven past Everton and six past Leicester with the swagger and style long associated with Chelsea.

Hayes said that “this year our team has been written off quite easily”, but that is not entirely true. The quality of Chelsea’s performances has come under fire regularly, but their doggedness and ability to win despite not playing their best football have meant they have been impossible to write off.

Hayes pointed to the side’s ability to peak at the right moment after the impressive defeat of Leicester, in a performance she described as “ruthless”, and said she had not “seen that from us particularly in the first half of the season, but we’re a team currently coming into form at the right time. We’re taking care of the details that matter.”

In 2021 Hayes labelled the Chelsea team that roared past Bayern Munich and into a first Champions League final as “mentality monsters”. That moniker has stuck and, if anything, has been re-emphasised in this campaign.

There are huge caveats to their sometimes less than convincing performances. Chelsea have been without their star forwards, Fran Kirby and Pernille Harder, for much of the season. They were also without the