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It’s gin o’clock! Hayes seals 4th title in a row

By Kathryn Batte WOMEN’S FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT AT SELECT CAR LEASING STADIUM

BLUE is the colour, football is the game, winning is in Chelsea’s DNA.

Six titles in eight years, four in a row and three consecutive League and FA Cup doubles. This may go down in history as Emma Hayes’ greatest title of all time.

There were unforeseen challenges which included Hayes having to miss a chunk of the season after undergoing an emergency hysterectomy in October.

She missed six games, including an away match at Manchester United. Assistant boss Denise Reddy and general manager Paul Green took charge but were in regular contact with Hayes, who returned just over a month later.

But it is not just Hayes who was missing for key parts of the season. Fran Kirby has been injured since February, Pernille Harder missed the middle of the campaign and Millie Bright has been absent from March onwards. It is easy to see why this is Hayes’ favourite title win to date. ‘This has definitely been the hardest year, I’m relieved that it’s over, for lots of reasons,’ she said.

‘My backroom staff have carried me in so many different ways this year, they’ve been unbelievable, particularly in the first part of the season when I was unwell. I think the team has carried each other. We found different ways to win, and you have to, it can’t look the same all the time.’

For much of the campaign there were four teams who had a chance of winning the league — Chelsea, the two Manchester clubs and Arsenal. By the final weeks of the season, four had become two, with United taking it to the last day.

Chelsea’s 3-0 win at Reading was routine without being pulsating — a reflection of their season as a whole. There has been the odd game where they have blown the opposition away but this has been more a campaign of efficiency, determination and finding a way to get over the line.

Victory here condemned Reading to relegation but the fate of both teams had effectively been sealed last weekend. After Chelsea’s win over Arsenal and the Royals’ defeat at Tottenham, it had felt inevitable that the Blues would be champions and their opponents would be relegated, unless the latter could produce the biggest shock in Women’s Super League history.

That never looked likely and goals from Sam Kerr and Guro Reiten had Chelsea 2-0 ahead at half-time. That proved enough to secure a 19th victory of the season — a new Women’s Super League record.

Hayes’ side lost their first game of the season, a 2-1 defeat at newly promoted Liverpool, but it is a marathon not a sprint — and they always leave their best form for the run-in. After losing at Manchester City in March, they won all of their next seven games — scoring 23 goals and conceding one. It was fitting that Kerr, who describes herself as somebody who lives for the big moments, got the opening goal yesterday— heading in Reiten’s cross in the 18th minute.

The Kerr and Reiten combination is one Chelsea have relied on this season and the latter delivered once again, making it 2-0 just before half-time.

Kerr scored a third in the closing stages, tapping in after her initial effort came back off the post.

‘It’s gin o’clock,’ a jubilant Hayes said, beer in hand, after the final whistle. ‘You’ll find me tomorrow in North London on a park bench with a bottle of gin!’

Premier League

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2023-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

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