A blog of two halves

Exhaustion sets in for the Blues

I’m a stickler for not getting too far ahead – looking at tables is a total waste of time.

3 May 2022
Categories:
Image 1

Pernille Harder of Chelsea Women scores from the penalty spot against Birmingham City. PICTURE: GETTY IMAGES

I'm a stickler for not getting too far ahead – looking at tables is a total waste of time. So said Emma Hayes last week before her Chelsea side defeated Spurs 2-1, then travelled to Birmingham three days later to scrape a 1-0 win.

Everything now hinges on the last day of the WSL season on Sunday when Manchester United – harbouring European dreams of their own – visit Kingsmeadow.

Arsenal have been gaining strength and confidence just as Chelsea's seems to be ebbing away.

That became obvious during the exhausting match against Birmingham, played in a monsoon, when only a penalty (scored by Pernille Harder) separated the teams.

Despite having the dream strike force up front of Sam Kerr, Beth England and Harder, Chelsea simply couldn't score in open play.

Frankly, the end of the season can't come soon enough. Although the Blues still have their Wembley FA Cup final date to look forward, the players just look bushed.

No amount of urging or substituting by Hayes could revive the team on Sunday as they slushed through alarming puddles in the Midlands before the relief of the ref's final whistle.

Now, at least, there's a week to recover, regroup and prepare for what's expected to be a sell-out crowd at Kingsmeadow for the visit of United.

With all the turmoil at Stamford Bridge over the last two months, and the club's ownership (and the future of the women's team) up in the air, everyone's just dreaming of the beach.

"The team need to remain humble," insists Hayes. "Getting over the line requires detail and diligence, and I have to enforce that as much as possible."

With Ji So-Yun returning to South Korea and Jonna Andersson going back to Scandinavia in the summer, the next Chelsea Women's team will have a very different look.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

Want to read more news stories like this? Subscribe to our weekly e-news bulletin.

Tim Harrison

Tim is our Chelsea FC blogger.

He also writes our Shepherds Bush Cricket Club match reports during the football close season.

Tim has been writing Chelsea match reports since the late 1980s for newspapers and, more recently, websites.

When he first reported on the Blues, the press box was a metal cage suspended over the lip of the old west stand - and you reached it via a precarious walkway over the heads of the fans.

But he has been a Chelsea fan since his father took an excited seven-year-old to watch Chelsea v Manchester United in the mid 1960s... and covered his ears every time the chanting got too ripe.

In July 2005 he wrote The Rough Guide to Chelsea, published by Penguin, which sold 15,000 copies.

His favourite player of all time is Charlie Cooke, the mazy winger who lit up Chelsea's left wing in the 60s and 70s.

When he isn't watching the Blues, Tim acts, paints, writes and researches local history.

Translate this website