Emergency surgery to Chelsea glory: Emma Hayes’ extraordinary season

“M aybe that’s why it’s my favourite year. My own personal health issues, that was frigging hard,” said Emma Hayes after Chelsea’s 2-0 victory against Arsenal ensured they moved to within one win of a fourth successive title.

What an understatement. That Chelsea are within touching distance of a third league and FA Cup double in a row, with Hayes’s emergency hysterectomy an almost forgotten footnote, is remarkable. It has been a long a season but Chelsea’s ability to cope with the loss of Hayes towards the start of the campaign, the influential centre-back Millie Bright towards the end of it and Pernille Harder and Fran Kirby for huge chunks of the season speaks to a level of squad management and personnel development that is second to none.

It has not been as straightforward a march as in recent years but it has been patient and consistent. Critically, Chelsea have stepped up a gear in May, winning all five league games, scoring 21 goals and conceding one. For context, that is one-third of their 63 goals this season. Hayes prepares her squad for this month: the focus is on making sure they are ready for anything at the business end.

Hayes alluded to one aspect of what makes them so successful in this phase after the defeat of Arsenal when she spoke about how important it is to try to give her players some semblance of a work/life balance and mental as well as physical rest.

“I believe we always give the most amount of time off – the girls tell me this, anyway,” she said. “We start the latest; when it comes to the winter break, I usually give the most time off; when we’ve done well, I usually reward that with the right days off. Apparently I’m quite generous.

“I think recovery is important here [points to her head],