Chelsea’s domestic dominance still won’t be considered enough until Europe is conquered, too

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In football, the determination to improve never ceases. Even after an FA Cup final victory. Even at the end of a season where you went unbeaten domestically and lifted two other trophies, compiling a record of played 30, won 27, drew three. That is the mentality of serial winners.

“It feels great to dominate in England, but we didn’t win the Champions League,” rued Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor in her post-match news conference after their 3-0 win against holders Manchester United at Wembley on Sunday. “Our ambition is to compete against the best in Europe — against Barcelona and Lyon. Everyone is saying maybe Chelsea will run away from the pack in the league (Women’s Super League), but our goal is to compete against the best teams in Europe.”

It was a theme Bompastor returned to later on in that session with reporters. “We need to make sure we are going in the right direction,” she said. “After the game, some people on the pitch were already mentioning the Champions League. I totally respect that. I came to Chelsea to win the Champions League. We have that ambition.”

Chelsea are still chasing their first European trophy, but domestically they have never been so dominant.

This FA Cup final was not a classic, dominated by fouls, stoppages and midfield scrappiness. Sometimes that suits the underdogs, but this Chelsea team are sturdy, resilient and up for a battle. Goalkeeper Hannah Hampton was rarely forced into action, thanks to the reliability of the five defenders operating in front of her.

As is generally the case when teams have long unbeaten records, Chelsea’s defence has been more impressive than their attack. They conceded just three times in their eight matches across the two domestic cup competitions, on top of allowing only 13 in the 22 WSL games, which meant it didn’t matter that runners-up Arsenal scored more than them.

Their ‘power move’ was supplementing the best defence in the league with the world-record signing of USWNT centre-back Naomi Girma in January, and then protecting that defence with another winter-window arrival, England midfielder Keira Walsh, who had herself been a world-record signing when she joined Barcelona in 2022.

Adding Girma seemed unnecessary considering how well Nathalie Bjorn and Millie Bright were performing together in defence — Bjorn has since won her team-mates’ player of the year award — but Bompastor has adapted by changing Chelsea’s system to a back three in recent weeks, with Lucy Bronze and Niamh Charles as wing-backs. It has proved effective at shutting out opposition attacks.

Cuthbert excelled against Manchester United at Wembley (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

The stars at Wembley yesterday were Erin Cuthbert and Sandy Baltimore, similar in that they were once considered versatile wide options who might find themselves playing, say, three different roles in three matches, but who have transformed into central players who feel undroppable. It was no coincidence that those two, along with Bronze, were substituted at 3-0 with the game going into stoppage time. Bompastor clearly felt those were the three players most deserving of an ovation.

Cuthbert left the pitch on the opposite side to the dugouts and conducted a half-lap of honour in front of the fans who have voted her Chelsea’s best player this season. She thrived in a scrappy, chaotic midfield zone, constantly outwitting opponents, getting her body in the way to win free kicks. “It was a brilliant shift from all the team,” said Cuthbert. “We had a game plan and we executed it perfectly “

Beaten manager Marc Skinner conceded that his side had been second-best, but focused more on physical and psychological factors than tactical or technical ones. “They’ve got boot army midfielders, they try and physically dominate you,” he said of Chelsea, explaining why he left out Wembley specialist Ella Toone, his vice-captain. “If we started the game without physically matching them, we wouldn’t have a foothold on the game.”

Skinner’s post-match news conference turned into a dissection of why Chelsea are so tough to compete with. “They are monsters,” he said of their set-piece ability. “In some of the duels, we got bounced far too easily.”

Oh, and then there’s their reliability. Skinner said: “Chelsea don’t make those mistakes (that United did when conceding goals) because they’re experienced, they’re a robust team who take responsibility in those moments. We couldn’t physically get to them today.”

Maybe, though, you need more than this to taste European success.

In this season’s Champions League, Chelsea came across Barcelona in the semi-finals for the third time in three years and looked further off the pace than ever, losing 8-2 on aggregate. That was a harsh reflection of the balance of play across the 180 minutes. But it was still 4-1 in both legs, with Chelsea having lost 2-0 in the first leg of their quarter-final against Manchester City, before turning things around at home in the second.

Baltimore started and completed the scoring in Chelsea’s 3-0 win (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

So, how do Chelsea get better?

It’s clear that Girma and Walsh have yet to display their full talents in Chelsea colours — mid-season signings rarely make an instant impact. They will be greater assets in 2025-26.

Equally, Chelsea need more quality in attack. With Sam Kerr still to return from a January 2024 knee injury, Guro Reiten not the player of past seasons and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd struggling after Christmas, Chelsea have lacked a genuine world-class player to lead attacks.

Their season has been more about various players chipping in from time to time. In many ways, that is admirable, but to catch Barcelona, Chelsea probably require a superstar or two. That might be a fit-again Kerr. It might be an improved and injury-free Lauren James. Or it might be another signing, bought with investment from new shareholders — Alexis Ohanian, the husband of tennis star Serena Williams and co-founder of Reddit, has bought an eight per cent stake in them.

Those new shareholders were present at Wembley to enjoy Sunday’s win, but also, presumably, to realise that Chelsea really have nothing left to prove in England. Domestic success is taken for granted and you can’t do better than going unbeaten.

Next season, as in this one, winning everything domestically still won’t be considered enough until Europe is conquered, too.

(Top photo: Bright and Bompastor with the latest silverware; Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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