This past weekend Chelsea wrapped up their 24/25 season with a 3-0 win over Manchester United in the FA Cup Final at Wembley. Even though it took 45 minutes for Chelsea to score their first goal, it did feel like they were in complete control of the game. Thanks to Celin Bizet for giving Erin Cuthbert a roundhouse kick to the gut in the box, Sandy Baltimore sunk her penalty against Phallon Tullis-Joyce. In the second half Chelsea’s foot remained on the gas with Catarina Macario getting on the scoresheet from a header off service from Baltimore. As if she hadn’t made her mark on the game already, Baltimore smacked another one into the top left corner at the beginning of stoppage time. Unfortunately for United it looked like they were fighting for their lives out there. A lot of their forward progression seemed stalled due to Chelsea winning a lot of balls back in the midfield. They were only able to get three shots off with only two on target compared to Chelsea’s 13 and seven.
With the win on Sunday, Chelsea took home not just the FA Cup but capped off the Domestic Treble. Quite the opening to the Sonia Bompastor era. In March they won the Subway Women’s League Cup over Manchester City and before the last day, they won the Women’s Super League. Chelsea ended the campaign with 60 points and an unbeaten record. It feels in some ways like Chelsea’s UEFA Women’s Champions League losses to Barcelona in April overshadowed just how much of a stranglehold on England they had throughout the season. It wasn’t always pretty and there were some injuries and roster changes along the way but at the end of the day the Blues did what needed to be done.
Living on the west coast I’m not able to catch a ton of Chelsea games because they’re usually either extremely early in the morning or in the middle of the work day. However, I treated myself to this replay after my NWSL team suffered an unfortunate 0-2 loss the night before. It’s nice to support a WSL team where the emotional rollercoaster every season is a little bit less intense. Next season should be interesting. Arsenal seem to have stabilized under Renee Slegers, Manchester United have won Champions League football, and Manchester City are currently without a head coach and are absolutely ravaged by injury. The mid-table remains pretty competitive with one another with teams like Brighton trying to put together a competitive side that can ruffle the feathers of the top four. The WSL will also welcome Michelle Kang’s London City Lionesses from the Championship, and as we’ve seen in other leagues, that woman is prepared to put her money where her mouth is. Chelsea will have their work cut out of them at home as they continue to hunt for the Champions League title yet again.
Despite the undefeated record, it was clear that the players were still getting used to Bompastor’s style of play throughout the season and with participation in so many competitions and players coming in and out of the squad due to injury, it was clear that some kinks were still being worked out along the way. I’m looking forward to seeing what the squad for 25/26 will look like now that they have a season under Bompastor in the books, players should be trickling back from injury, and they have time in the offseason to fully integrate their big signings of Keira Walsh and Naomi Girma.