Sonia Bompastor was so close when it comes to a ready-made replacement for Emma Hayes. Steping in Hayes' shoes was the equivalent of the frying pan in the fire. Chelsea and Lyon are synonymous in this way.
Pressure and expectation as respective serial champions are constant bedgotten. And yet the Super League for women is a notoriously difficult hunting ground for new coaches. No manager in the history of the competition once won it in their first season. There have only been five general winners. Now six.
In reality, Bompastor inherited a team full of players who know what is needed to win and win consistently. Since then she has added a few – Lucy Bronze, Keira Walsh and the most expensive signing of Naomi Girma among them.
Is it a surprise that she has achieved what no newcomer before her has managed? Sky Sports assesses the merits of the first season of the French wife and her rapid turnout to 'Sonia de Conqueror'.
More records tumbling
Chelsea corresponded to the longest undefeated series in all competitions by a WSL team with their 31-game run between May last year and mid-March. The streak was the same as a record from the Londoners themselves between April 2019 and September 2020 under Hayes.
A profit percentage so phenomenal, so remarkable that football has almost become numb for it. Chelsea has been in the interior of this newest triumph so long has just been a continuation of the natural order, and yet to accept the fact if it would be normal to do a bad service.
Suggesting a title profit is simple or painless, even for Chelsea, is to miss what makes it so special. Because no manager will have a new club in a new country in a new country, Walpen will never have been managed abroad and waves a magic wand.
“Starting with the season, I did not expect that we would be in the position to achieve this with two more games,” Bompastor thought after Wednesday, after he had defeated Man United 1-0 to close the deal. “Some people think because you are Chelsea, it's so easy to do that, but it isn't.”
The performance is possible, but its meaning was precisely the opposite. This is the earliest that the title has been decided since 2018-19, because Chelsea remains on track to be unbeaten the first WSL side in a 22-game season. Imagine it, an invincible in the year one.
The task of Bompastor was far from simple. Just like Hayes, she cherishes details. A plan had to come up with every competition, an idea that is different than the week before and the week before. A motive for every player who starts and an incentive for every player who doesn't. A way to win without Sam Kerr. A schedule to disarm rivals.
Chelsea has defeated Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United Home and Away, an achievement that has never been achieved under Hayes, nor in the illustrious history of the club.
But the problem with such a persistent dominance cycle is that the expectation to reach perfect mountains on impossible. Defender Bronze described the Chelsea campaign as “Up and down” this week, which is equivalent of a tennis player who wins in straight sets but dropped a game here and there. It is true that Chelsea has not been perfect.
They fell against Leicester and again against Brighton and then West Ham, who unexpectedly dropped points in all three. They were only ok at night that they were crowned crowned. Standards are important at Stamford Bridge. But League titles are more important and this newest – the first of Bompastor – should taste just as sweet as the five before.
Total football on ice – for now
Bompastor promised a lot on her arrival in Chelsea. She has already delivered a lot.
The gap between the champions and the rest is demonstrably larger than for years in WSL conditions. No team can match Chelsea during a 22-game campaign. Not anyway. Two trophies benched, one FA Cup final to dispute in May.
However, where there are question marks, the style is over. The promise of Bompastor to play a possession -based football brand that inspires and intrigues at the same time remains a work in progress. Bompastor's Chelsea has won eight WSL matches with one goal – only two of the 18 victories under Hayes last year were decided by a margin of one goal.
There are of course very few teams that can marry consistent results, but that must be the next step on the scale of evolution. Few teams ever reach Peak greatness without.
Bompastor is in favor of the building of the patient, short steps, complicated combinations, giving and gos that mean that the ball always moves, if not always ahead. Chelsea or Old are much more vertical and old habits die hard.
Under Bompastor they are on average a little more possession with better passing accuracy, but forward passes per 90 minutes are less. They also press higher and force more often and higher turnover, but have missed a murderer for the goal in the absence of Kerr.
Skilled by Barcelona in the Champions League Last week that point easily underlined. Barca was everything that Bompastor wants her side to be, full of pass-masters who can spray the ball from left to right, up and down, mix briefly with long. The alignment was so smooth. Barca completed 568 fits to Chelsea's 326 in a demoralizing 4-1 victory.
Beautiful football -the kind that outweighs Europe -then remains on the Nice -Thave list, but the priority list in year two must go up.
Europe – The one who got away
The WSL has always been the bread and the butter. Everything that is more to be considered a nice extra. Apart from Chelsea, the old bread is buttered, the old starts to taste.
What the club wants, what the fan base requires, which the players really crave is a real run in European glory.
Bronze, Walsh, Girma, Mayra Ramirez, Sandy Baltimore – All these world -famous stars were the target to promote the cause of the Champions League. The forbidden fruit. The only competition, even the great Hayes, could not be charming.
And yet Barcelona's newest demolition track – an 8-2 triumph over two legs – only to emphasize the wave in the class between the best WSL and Europe's elite.
The cruel reality of losing Barca for the fourth time in the last five seasons was humiliating. This season's episode saw the biggest victory margin between the winner and loser of all those meetings. Perhaps that says more about the distinction from the Spanish side than about the plight of Chelsea, but it will be little comfort for Bompastor, a triple Champions League winner himself (twice as a player, ever as a coach).
And because so many eggs were placed in the European basket, this campaign, which is a domestic treble is a very real opportunity, tinted with an element of regret. Maybe even failure. The fact that Rivals Arsenal will appear in the final in Lisbon next month after he has overcome Lyon is also salt in the wound.
However, Bompastor will not hide. “I'm not going to shy away from the club's ambitions,” she said. “I want to hire them and this club has everything to perform to make it quadruple. We are all sad and frustrated about it.”
It clearly hurt the blues boss to see her team so torn apart, albeit by the best in the industry. Barcelona is clearly the gold standard, compelling to look with conviction to match. If there was ever a formula to follow, that's for sure.