Emma Hayes was quick to shift the focus of her back-to-back title winners on to next weekend’s Champions League final against Barcelona: “I said to the players when they got their medals: ’Do you like winning? Well do it again next week’,” she said after a 5-0 defeat of Reading sealed the championship.
As Chelsea clinched the league with a dominant win at Kingsmeadow, the players of next Sunday’s opponents Barcelona crouched around a phone to watch Levante drop two points and confirm them as La Liga champions.
“I understand how amazing Barcelona are, but so are we,” said Hayes. “It is a collaborative effort at Chelsea to get us here. We have cultivated something. We have a culture here to be the best – there is no complacency.” Having won the title on the basis of points-per-game last year as the Covid-19 pandemic curtailed the season, Hayes was keen to emphasise how important it was to prove they could win the league without an asterisk attached. It shows they are “consistent as champions” she said.
“In some people’s eyes we didn’t really win it, we were given it on a points-per-game scenario,” she said. “To say, actually, we are the champions, that’s a validation of that. I’m happy about that, because you don’t really want that hanging over you – the players really wanted to demonstrate that.” The 44-year-old pointed to the team’s single defeat, a 2-1 loss to Brighton, as a critical moment in the campaign and one that fuelled their title charge. “The whole season, we’ve lost one game,” she said. “I’m glad we lost that game, we’re never too good to lose and I think it just keeps you on the edge of performance all the time. My team have shown so many sides again and again and again. Great strength in depth. Today it’s another brilliant result.
No doubt it’s my favourite title today.” Before she thinks about Barcelona Hayes is keen to get home to son Harry.
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Brighton’s 3-1 home win over Bristol City not only condemned Matt Beard’s side to relegation to the Championship but ensured Hope Powell’s team finished sixth, their best WSL finish.
Bristol City’s fall into the second tier ensured Birmingham and Aston Villa survived. Villa earned a point in a goalless draw at Arsenal, who finished third as they bade farewell to their Australian manager Joe Montemurro who is taking a break from the game following four years in charge of the North London club.
Ella Toone scored a fine volley as Casey Stoney’s Manchester United defeated Everton 2-0, thereby leaving Stoney’s side fourth, one point ahead of Willie Kirk’s Merseysiders. Louise Taylor
“I woke up this morning feeling so bad at how little I’d seen my little boy, because of what I had to do here, and the last words he said to me when I walked out the door were: ‘Mummy, bring a medal home for me today’, so that’s what I’m doing,” she said. “I’ll probably have something to eat with the team next door and I’m going to go home and spend much-valued time with my child, because he’s not going to see much of Mummy this week because she’s going to be away three nights from Friday, so quality time when it matters.”
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