Quadruple-chasing Chelsea crowned WSL champions, Bristol City relegated to Championship
In emphatic style on a near-perfect day for Chelsea, her side wrapped up what she called her “favourite title” and the “hardest” to have won so far, but there was still one element of sadness for manager Emma Hayes: That her side’s sensational performances over the past 35 weeks of a gripping Women’s Super League title race have not been witnessed first hand by their supporters.
As the champagne was being sprayed after Chelsea’s comfortable 5-0 victory at home to Reading, with Queen’s ‘We are the champions’ reverberating around Kingsmeadow, word got around that a handful of loyal fans were waiting in the car park. Quickly, the players and staff ran to a security gantry behind one of the corner flags to lift the trophy aloft and dance in front of their supporters, to whom Hayes dedicated their record fourth WSL title.
“I’m so gutted for the fans, this team is amazing and they haven’t had a chance to experience anything with them in the stadium. This, for sure, is about them,” Hayes said. “Football without fans just isn’t the same. That’s why I dedicated this to everyone at home, and not just the fans, our families, all the players and staff’s families, they’re the ones sitting at home while we still get to come to work and enjoy all these highs. I can’t wait to see them again. Some of them were outside, some waited a couple of hours. I’m so glad they did.”
Inside the stadium, Hayes’ team produced as comprehensive a display as they could have wished for to wrap up the title before the hour mark and remove any danger of a final-day slip up that could have allowed second-placed Manchester City to pounce.
The title is Chelsea’s ninth major trophy, all of which have come under Hayes and all since 2015, in what has been a hugely successful past six seasons. Their fourth league crown adds to their two Women’s FA Cups, two League Cups and 2017’s Spring Series and they have established themselves as the most successful British women’s team of the professional era so far.
Fittingly, after a season which has been defined by their instinctive, lethal partnership up front, Sam Kerr and Fran Kirby combined seamlessly yet again against Reading, with Kirby scoring twice after Germany midfielder Melanie Leupolz’s early opener, before Kerr and substitute Erin Cuthbert completed a repeat of the scoreline seen in January’s reverse fixture.
