Chelsea seize another WSL title but this was different

The Blues claimed an unprecedented fourth-successive league title with their 3-0 victory over Reading in the final match of the WSL season

The match was not over yet, not officially anyway. At least two minutes remained, whatever extra time was deemed appropriate for a match that had distilled into relentless one-way traffic.

“Running onto the pitch is a criminal offence” its booming voice warned as it dubbed Chelsea “deserving champions” to the raucous approval of the travelling Blues fans.

Nevertheless, this announcement inspired another roar; the official confirmation that their serial champions were, officially, in store for another medal ceremony, another league trophy lift.

Altogether, the Hayes trophy tally is teeming, a cabinet of 14 major trophies begging for an extension. So the sentiment can risk feeling soaked in recency bias, given the air of inevitability coddling another title lift.

When exactly the edges began to sharpen around this season’s title race is a matter of opinion but perhaps the edges had always been sharp. Chelsea know this hunting ground. They are intimately familiar with the demands and sacrifices that chasing one title after the other necessitates. Three times Chelsea had seized the league title on the WSL’s final day, now four.

"I think at the end of the day it was always in our hands, right?” Sam Kerr said post-match. “Of course there is a bit of pressure but it was the same last year. We knew that if we won every game and took care of ourselves then [we would win].

“We've shown over the last few years that in the last few games of the season, we're a different team. "I think we like it that way. We play better like that, under pressure.”

The temptation is to consider their latest triumph through this prism of fatalism; that Chelsea’s reign is a product outside the realm of human will. Yet, the Blues’ ability to expunge the memory of the season’s tribulations and still give off the air of an unfussy romp to another title with a final crisp dispatch of Reading is both ridiculously impressive and a disservice.

Make no mistake. Chelsea have worked hard for this.

It can take conscious reminding that for six weeks Hayes was an invisible voice in assistant manager Paul Green’s ear, forced away from the touchline due to an emergency hysterectomy; or that Chelsea’s tried attacking trio underwent constant emergency surgery as Pernille Harder and Fran Kirby were lost to injury; or that the loss of centre-backs Millie Bright and Kadeisha Buchanan arrived just as the season crested into its business end.

All of which arrived in the most competitive title race in recent memory, with Manchester United pushing Chelsea until the brink and Arsenal and Manchester City stirring an enthralling four-way battle.

That these moments can feel like peripheral footnotes, even inconvenient ones, in a title race for the ages is a tangible result of relentless diligence in management on the part of Hayes: her emphasis on empowering her players as individual leaders, the freedom afforded them in recovery and her cultivation of a squad built on depth and relationships that reach beyond a basic starting XI.

"Some of the players have gone through really tough times with not playing,” Hayes admitted post-match. “I have to dispel this misnomer that players aren't happy when they don't play - they have the ability to look after themselves and games start coming around and on days like this they know it's absolutely worth it.

"We are family. These people are as close to me as my family. My entire staff deserve credit and the day as much as anyone."

This season, Chelsea have made 80 changes to their starting XIs between league matches, 30 more than any other WSL side. The Blues have also boasted the most different scorers of any side with 16.

It speaks to Hayes' most recent praise of her side, her “hybrid monsters", capable of seamless interchange regardless of the occasion or previous role. This is Chelsea stepping up from the mentality monsters that once stalked the league to an even scarier breed that can devour it on command.

Against Reading, Hayes opted against chops and changes, trusting the starting XI from the Arsenal victory to come good once more.

And so they did, the Reiten and Kerr partnership showing its efficacy for a final time this season; Reiten providing Kerr with her first, before the pair relishing solo goals of their making.

In midfield, Erin Cuthbert and Sophie Ingle once again dictated proceedings. Lauren James cut herself a particular nuisance as she drove relentlessly at Reading’s defence. Magdalena Eriksson demonstrated once more how difficult it will be to replace her, her final appearance culminating in a standing ovation and chants of her name.

Reading sprung surprises but none that ultimately worried the pulses of the Chelsea faithful. Instead, Saturday’s triumph was another comprehensive performance, punctuated by goals whose celebrations grew incrementally louder as affirmation of another league trophy became more indisputable.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise then that Chelsea – even the one whose infallible facade wobbled in the season’s opening stages and cowed to Arsenal in the Conti Cup final – kicked into their high-tempo purr at a time when the rest of the league invariably conceded to the natural order of things: injuries, exhaustion, basic human error.

This is the performance Hayes had warned she had prepared her side for all season, fuelled by that insatiable appetite to win.

"For us it's not just about building a team to compete, it's about growing," Hayes said post-match, a sentiment echoed by Kerr, who declared her sights set on next season's Champions League just minutes after her winners' medal had sunk onto her neck.

As for what that means for the rest of the league, time will tell. But on the basis of this season, it seems Manchester United manager Marc Skinner’s prognosis that an end to Chelsea’s domestic dominance is imminent won’t be taken so lightly by the team once again hoisting the league trophy high into the confetti-strewn air.