Chelsea show fight after back-to-back wins in Women’s Super League – only they can silence the unwanted noise | Football News

Sky Sports columnist Laura Hunter analyses the big talking points from the latest Women’s Super League matches, bringing you closer to the key stories at the heart of the women’s game.

Is the noise around Chelsea warranted?

Plenty has been written about the plight of Chelsea in the past few weeks. To my mind, much of it warranted. This is a club who are happy to indulge in the clamour when lifting titles and lauding trophies. They must be humble enough to accept criticism when things go awry.

I do think ‘Chelsea crisis’ is exaggerative given their wider position. Much of their suffering has to do with their status as unrelenting champions. Even a drop-off of one per cent – which this is not – would be noticeable because of the astonishing achievements of the past decade.

Perhaps a few things could have been handled differently, though. Sonia Bompastor did herself no favours in the aftermath of a damaging 5-1 defeat to Manchester City by claiming her squad lacks depth. It doesn’t. The options among Chelsea’s supremely talent group have long been the envy of the WSL.

They almost have two starting XIs when everyone is fit. Availability has been the big problem. There is validity to Bompastor’s insistence that injuries have cost her side. The Frenchwoman has had to turn to Plan B in the absence of a lot of key players; and Plan B has often let her down.

Still, Bompastor has a large squad to lean on. The fact she has made the highest number of in-game substitutions (75) of any manager this season rather counterbalances the claim her team is short of numbers. Really, it’s lacking fitness and form. And perhaps also the profile of midfielder her playing style demands.

The next mistake was announcing the extension of Bompastor’s contract and departure of an esteemed club figure in Paul Green (head of women’s football) all within the same three-day period. That is not to necessarily question the logic of each of those decisions, but rather their timing. It felt jarring, as if the fault of an underperforming team lay directly at the door of Green.

Green’s 13-year stay at Chelsea, helping yield 19 major trophies, surely deserved a better send-off than a statement amounting to less than 150 words with no club officials attributed. Players were said to be shocked by the news. Captain Millie Bright wrote on social media that she was “absolutely devastated.” Many will rightly ask the question: was Green the fall guy?

There is no doubt Chelsea were entering an evolutionary phase after Emma Hayes left, it just appears to have started 12 months later than planned. Bompastor’s incredible first campaign in charge meant there was little need for change or correction, just continuation. But now results don’t match the very high standards set during Hayes’ tenure or Bompastor’s first year the club have felt a compulsion to act. To be seen to be doing.

However, there must have been a softer approach that did not risk alienating the players, staff and fans Green played an integral role in unifying.

What is clear from on-pitch performances is that a squad refresh is needed, irrespective of the complicated bureaucracy upstairs. Bright, Hannah Hampton, Lucy Bronze, Guro Reiten, Sam Kerr, Aggie Beever-Jones and Catarina Macario are all out of contract at the end of the season, with at least half of those expected to move on.

This summer will no doubt be one of transformation, whether Chelsea end the campaign with silverware or not. They have long conceded their WSL title to Man City but prizes are up for grabs in the League Cup final, FA Cup and Champions League.

Sky Sports’ Izzy Christiansen said on Sunday’s live coverage that the preoccupation with the latter may have contributed to a diluting of “process and culture” at Chelsea – essentially the pursuit of the Champions League has become less incentive, more distraction.

Certainly Bompastor was, in part, head-hunted because of her record in Europe, winning the competition as a player and a coach with Lyon. Her familiarity with how to handle a malaise is less formalised, though. Consecutive losses to Arsenal and City were the first of her 104-match managerial career.

Bompastor has got to accept the growing noise is simply a byproduct of the beast Chelsea helped build. “If you want to be that successful you have to take the hit,” concluded Christiansen. Chelsea have responded with two solid 2-0 wins over Tottenham and Liverpool to contain the critics for now, but remain nine points off the summit.

Some may suggest such a vast gap constitutes the unravelling of champions. That is the world we live in; those who fall from a higher height make a bigger mess – and a better headline.

A true measure of Chelsea’s ‘monster mentality’, as Hayes coined it, will be how effectively the chatter can be drowned out between now and May with the hope of salvaging something. Because, really, this is a situation of Chelsea’s very own making.

Hemp’s creativity

Lauren Hemp has long been one of the best wingers in the league, certainly the most complete. After spending most of last season injured, though, it’s taken some time for her to rediscover the form that earned that title.

Her creative accomplishments in Manchester City’s latest outing suggest she is close. The 25-year-old became the first player in WSL history to create more than 10 chances from open play in Friday’s 6-0 win over Leicester. She assisted two of the six goals.

And yet her reaction at the full-time whistle was to criticise her own lack of goal. Hemp’s contribution was worth just as much as any of the scorers as City landed 15 efforts on target – the highest total of any side all season. They managed a remarkable 232 final-third passes.

The numbers are even more impressive given Leicester play in a deep, compact shape and typically bank up centrally to protect the width of the goal. Hemp was the outlet out wide, with the situation below ending in a cross from Hemp’s left territory and a fine Kerolin strike from the second phase.

“We continue raising the level and chasing more goals, that’s what I’m mostly pleased with,” reflected Andree Jeglertz afterwards. Hemp is the standard-setter, and her brilliance and effectiveness is hitting peak at the perfect time as City prove an unstoppable force.

Read last week’s WSL column

Last week’s column analysed Arsenal’s defensive resilience after back-to-back wins over Chelsea and Manchester City – both with clean sheets – and Olivia Smith’s surprise role.