The five-time defending champions face a fight to maintain their superiority within the English game under their new coach
No team has dominated in the Women's Super League era like Chelsea. Each of the last five league titles have been claimed by the Blues, they've won the FA Cup in three of the last four seasons and they've also played in all of the last five League Cup finals, winning two. They are England's dominant force and, without a shadow of a doubt, the team to beat.
The question is, can they keep that up after a summer of significant change? There are six new faces in the first team for 2024-25, on top of eight senior exits, but the most notable change of all is in the dugout. After 12 years in charge, Emma Hayes bid farewell to the club in May, taking up a head coach role with the United States women's national team in which she has already won an Olympic gold medal.
Sonia Bompastor, the former Lyon boss, is her replacement, someone Hayes knows well from her time coaching in the U.S. and believes can help the team continue to progress forward. The appointment firmly highlights Chelsea's ambitions on the European front, as Bompastor has won the Champions League title this club craves – as both a player and a manager. They will hope she can provide a missing ingredient in that quest.
But continued domestic success is also very important. Chelsea are the team with the target on their backs after five successive league triumphs and both Manchester City and Arsenal have made some impressive signings this summer as they once again try to knock the Blues off their perch.
Can the champions of England make further progress in Europe? And does that have to come at the expense of some of the domestic success they've enjoyed? Or can Bompastor deliver both at the same time? We're about to find out…
Getty ImagesMood around the Blues
Chelsea haven't undergone this much change on the women's side of the club perhaps ever. Stalwarts like Fran Kirby, Maren Mjelde and Jess Carter have all moved on while, after 12 years under Hayes, this team will be led by a different face, a different voice and some different ideas, as Bompastor looks to make her mark on England's all-conquering side.
There's no doubt that Hayes holds iconic status in the blue corner of London, but that doesn't mean there cannot be excitement about a new era. Some may be a little uneasy about change and what it holds, but Bompastor has impressed during the summer with the intensity of her football and her personality off the pitch, while her success in the Champions League commands real respect.
Fans have thoroughly enjoyed being the dominant side in England over the last five years, but it feels like the appetite now is for a European triumph. That's not to say supporters won't expect the team to be competitive with the likes of Arsenal and Man City, or that disappointing results on the three domestic fronts wouldn't be frustrating. However, if Bompastor can deliver a Champions League title, it would achieve a feat that the fans – and the club – have been craving for a very long time.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesTransfer business
Bompastor hasn't hesitated to dip into the French market during her first transfer window at the club, bringing in Maelys Mpome from Montpellier and the Paris Saint-Germain duo of Oriane Jean-Francois and Sandy Baltimore. Lucy Bronze, who Bompastor knows well from her time at Lyon, has also joined from Barcelona, alongside Julia Bartel, one of the Catalans' academy products. That means, despite eight departures, this squad remains well-stocked in all departments.
Of those, Baltimore is the stand-out arrival because of her game-changing qualities that can win matches for the club. At 24 years old, her best years are certainly ahead of her, too. If she can settle well and make an early impact, she will make up for the exits of Kirby, Jelena Cankovic and Katerina Svitkova, who all had very different Chelsea careers but who all ultimately left the team lighter in attack upon their departures.
Though there is a smattering of scepticism around the heavy focus on the French market, that is nothing that won't be alleviated by some strong early performances from those players. As such, Bronze is probably the signing that raised the most questions, especially given the squad already boasts two top-quality international right-backs. That said, she will add some necessary leadership after the club bid farewell to Mjelde and Melanie Leupolz.
Getty ImagesPre-season performances
Chelsea went to the U.S. for their pre-season tour, taking on NWSL champions Gotham before an all-WSL match-up with London rivals Arsenal. Those two games are best to read into, especially given the recent 9-0 thrashing of Feyenoord comes with the caveat of the opponent being reduced to 10 players after less than half an hour, with the score only 2-0.
In those, Chelsea fans will have been pleased with what they saw, too. The Blues really took the game to Gotham, going 3-0 up with less than half-an-hour on the clock, and they looked sharp in a 1-0 win over the Gunners as well, despite being in the early stages of their pre-season schedule. The likes of Mayra Ramirez and Lauren James only played limited roles on that tour, too, before racking up further minutes in friendlies back on home soil, with the Blues playing some behind-closed-doors matches as well as those well-publicised.
Among all the positives, the one big negative from Chelsea's summer has been injuries. First to fall was Erin Cuthbert, who at least looks like she will be back in the early weeks of the new season, before Sophie Ingle then suffered an ACL injury against Feyenoord. It leaves the Blues a little lighter in midfield for the coming campaign, especially as Francois is also still working her way back from a few niggles.
USA TODAY SportsTalking tactics
There won't be too many obvious differences between Hayes' Chelsea and Bompastor's Chelsea this season, as there will be a lot of games where opponents sit back in a low-block, reducing the matches to attack versus defence drills which are all about players coming up with solutions, rather than a style of play. Furthermore, under Hayes, Chelsea dominated most matches and scored a lot of goals, and Bompastor also wants to do that.
However, if there is one particular contrast, it is that the new coach wants the Blues to win possession back as quickly as possible. That's something that should certainly suit this squad, as it contains a whole host of aggressive, energetic and hard-working forwards, such as Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, Ramirez, Guro Reiten and Aggie Beever-Jones.
When it comes to the personnel in the XI, one thing fans can expect from Bompastor is that she will give young players a chance. The former France international worked as the head of Lyon's academy before taking the first-team role at the club and so is well-placed to develop the promising talent that the Blues possess, whether it be those in the youth set-up or the flurry of teenagers signed for the senior side in recent years. That was evident throughout pre-season, as Wieke Kaptein, Maika Hamano and Beever-Jones stood out in particular.
One thing that will be especially interesting to track as the campaign progresses, meanwhile, is how Bompastor's team changes. That's because Chelsea have a few key players who are currently sidelined with long-term injuries, most notably Sam Kerr and Mia Fishel. How she fits Kerr and Ramirez, for example, into the same team will be intriguing, while it's also likely that Beever-Jones gets more chances in a central position early on but then moves wider as those strikers come back into the fold.
