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Chelsea win the WSL title with a 1-0 win away to Manchester United It's their sixth successive WSL crown and their first under new manager Sonia Bompastor It is the first time in five seasons the title race has not been decided on the final day Chelsea have gone unbeaten in 20 league games this season - a new record for the longest unbeaten streak in a single WSL season "To bounce back was not easy" - Bompastor Get Involved: Whats App on 03301231826 or text 81111 (UK only, standard message rates apply) Craig Nelson, Alex Brotherton & Emma Smyth So there you have it. Chelsea are WSL champions again - for a sixth consecutive season. The onus is on every other team in the division to accept the challenge and attempt to match them again next season. If you're just catching up, here's what we've covered this morning: Man Utd 0-1 Chelsea Natasha Dowie Former England striker on BBC Radio 5 Live Chelsea have strengthened 100%, bringing in the likes of Keira Walsh, Naomi Girma, Lucy Bronze - Sonia Bompastor herself is probably one of the best signings they've made - and they're going to strengthen again.

To challenge them, other teams have to up their game because Chelsea will strengthen again and you can't allow that to keep getting better and better. Siobhan Chamberlain Ex-Chelsea goalkeeper on BBC 5Live On how Sonia Bompastor can help Chelsea take that final step and win the Champions League? Steal a few of Barcelona’s players maybe. Barcelona are a brilliant side and they’ve got a lot of players who have come through the ranks so they’ve been playing together for a long period of time. Obviously Bompastor, she’s done brilliantly but it’s her first season, it might take her a little bit of time. She’s said it wouldn’t. She said she knows how to win but it does take time, they have had injuries as well. So I think embedding new players into your squad, getting used to how you want to play, your philosophy, keeping your players fit and maybe adding one or two more experienced players to that squad, that know how to win the Champions League. I have no doubt that they will do it at some point. Emma Sanders BBC Sport women’s football news reporter on Radio 4 Woman's Hour A very good start to the season, they’ve already got two trophies – the women’s League Cup and now the WSL title. They’re still on for the treble. The women’s FA Cup final is at Wembley next month, where they face Manchester United again. Look [for Bompastor] to come in your first season in the WSL as a foreign manager and to potentially win three trophies is a really great achievement. Even yesterday after that WSL title win when she was talking to us in the media, she was saying - we want the Champions League, there’s still room to grow, we need to get better. So she is a perfectionist and she want that European trophy and I think next season that will remain the priority. Siobhan Chamberlain Ex-Chelsea goalkeeper on BBC 5Live I think it will be frustrating from Chelsea when they look back at it, that they potentially didn’t manage the game [against Barcelona] very well in key moments. It’s in those moments that you need your leaders, you need your experienced players to kill the game slightly. They’ll look back and think this is where we need to look psychologically and the way we manage the game as opposed to the technical side of it. That’s where we need to improve next time. You look at the English League and Chelsea have won six and a row and have won it with two games to spare. It’s a much more competitive league then the French league with Lyon, then the Spanish league with Barcelona. They don’t have that competition week in week out. I think Chelsea has that [competition] more than others, whether that then put too much of a strain on them when it came to those games? It does put a different dynamic and a different strain on those teams but ultimately you’ve got to be able to go out there and beat the big guns when you want to get to a Champions League final. Emma Sanders BBC Sport women’s football news reporter on Radio 4 Woman's Hour On losing to Barcelona: It was a really difficult night for them. Sonia Bompastor was brought in to lead this side towards Champions League success. She’s won the trophy with Lyon as a player and as a manager. She’s one of the best coaches in Europe so Chelsea were hoping that they would take that next step to get into that Champions League final but Barcelona once again, for the third season in a row, just blew them away really. It was a bit of an embarrassment in the end from the Chelsea players and you could see that they were hurt when they ran out on Wednesday. They really wanted to turn that around and show that they’re a much better team than how they performed against Barcelona and getting their hands on the trophy, on the league title, was the best way to do that. Craig Nelson BBC Sport reporter Sadly, Chelsea were unable to repeat that trick in the Champions League semi-finals. After slumping to a 4-1 defeat at Barcelona in the first leg, they suffered a repeat of that scoreline in the second leg at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. That means the Blues' wait for the one trophy that eludes them goes on. .. Alex Brotherton BBC Sport journalist The unprecedented run of four games against Manchester City in the space of 13 days arguably defined Chelsea's season. The first - a 2-1 victory in the League Cup final - secured a first piece of silverware under Sonia Bompastor, and once again showed Chelsea's ability to win when not at their best. The second meeting highlighted their flaws, as City were deserved 2-0 winners in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final. Chelsea's refusal to settle for anything less than victory was on full display a few days later at the Etihad Stadium, as Erin Cuthbert scored an injury-time winner to effectively end City's faint title hopes. Saving the best until last, Chelsea blew City away with three first-half goals to overturn the first leg deficit and progress to the Champions League semi-finals. Elizabeth Botcherby BBC Sport Only Arsenal (56) have scored more goals than Chelsea's 54 this season. Manchester City (42) are the only other side with more than 40. But while 54 goals in 20 games is a good record, for Chelsea, it's their lowest return in front of goal over the past five seasons and 17 fewer than the 71 they managed in 2023-24. Indeed, they've had to adapt this season. Instead of blowing teams away, they've had to battle hard for the full 90 minutes on many occasions, winning eight of their matches by one goal. 33% of their goals have come in the final 15 minutes compared to 9% in the first 15. They haven't had the luxury of a standout goal-scorer, either. Whereas in 2020-21 and 2021-22, Sam Kerr enjoyed back-to-back 20+ goal seasons, this campaign, top-scorers Guro Reiten and Aggie Beever-Jones have eight apiece. Instead, what Chelsea have enjoyed is goals from all over the squad, with 15 different players on the scoresheet this season. Chelsea have dominated the headlines with their on-field performances, but they've also had their fair share of attention off it, not least in January when they signed USA defender Naomi Girma for a world record fee (£900, 000). Of course, the Blues are no strangers to marquee signings - Keira Walsh and Lucy Bronze also arrived during the 2024-25 campaign - or being very active during the transfer windows. Indeed, of the 25 players used by Sonia Bompastor this season, more than half joined the club since the start of the 2022-23 campaign. Following Girma's arrival, Leicester manager Amandine Miquel said the money disparity in the WSL was "not ideal" while Everton boss Brian Sorensen said: "They spend [on one player] what we spend on our squad in an entire year. They are number one in this country and they are that for a reason. " But while Chelsea's spending power has assisted their rise to the top of the tree, it's worth noting that they picked up several of their recent arrivals (Bronze, Sandy Baltimore, goalkeeper Hannah Hampton) for free. Emma Sanders BBC Sport women’s football news reporter Sonia Bompastor's first season in England has gone perfectly domestically, despite that crushing Champions League exit. But she is very much aware of the work previous manager Emma Hayes did in order to lay these foundations. Bompastor thanked Hayes in her post-match media conference last night, unprompted, and has constantly said throughout the season that she is building on previous success and not starting from scratch. Obviously it has not been easy - a language barrier, new schools for her children and a new league to navigate - but Bompastor and her Chelsea side have made it look that way at times. There have been strong parallels between Arne Slot's succession from Jurgen Klopp and Bompastor's extension on Hayes' work. Turns out winning league titles doesn't just happen overnight. .. This video can not be played Chelsea: Bompastor proud of WSL title winners One of Chelsea's biggest assets is their defensive strength. In 2020-21, they conceded a league-best 10 goals while for the past four seasons, they've boasted the second-best defensive record in the league. During the past six campaigns, they've conceded 78 goals in 123 matches. Over the same period, Arsenal (93) are the only other side to concede fewer than 100 goals. This season, Chelsea have conceded 13 goals in 20 matches, with goalkeeper Hannah Hampton keeping 11 clean sheets. Tottenham, Brighton (twice), and West Ham are the only sides to score multiple goals against them in the league. This video can not be played 'It feels surreal' - Hampton on winning WSL title Alex Brotherton BBC Sport journalist Chelsea began 2025 with four straight wins, though late goals were needed to beat Arsenal and Aston Villa 1-0 and Everton 2-1. Points were dropped for a second time this season in a 2-2 draw away at Brighton, which saw Lauren James score for a second match in a row after returning from injury. #bbcfootball, Whats App 03301231826, text 81111 (UK only, standard rates apply) I don't think to win again, with the injuries Chelsea have had, has been acknowledged enough. They've only had one centre-back fully match fit for almost the entire season, among other injuries. Elly Alex Brotherton BBC Sport journalist Chasing a domestic treble is a stunning feat in its own right, but the fact that Chelsea have done so while missing several key players for much of the season shows how strong their squad is. Striker Sam Kerr has not played a single minute of football this season after suffering an ACL injury in January 2024, while injury has limited midfielder Lauren James to just nine WSL appearances this term and kept defender Kadeisha Buchanan out since November. Chelsea broke the women's world transfer record to sign American defender Naomi Girma in January, only for her to get injured on her debut. Compare those absences to Manchester City, who looked a shadow of themselves when missing Khadija Shaw, Lauren Hemp and Alex Greenwood through injury. Alex Brotherton BBC Sport journalist The wins kept on coming, including back-to-back defeats of title rivals Manchester City and Manchester United to assert Chelsea's dominance. However, the first wobble came in the final game before the winter break when Sonia Bompastor's side had to settle for a 1-1 draw away at Leicester City. Still, after taking 28 points from a possible 30, Chelsea spent Christmas with a six-point buffer at the top of the table. Emma Sanders BBC Sport women’s football news reporter Chelsea's celebrations looked fairly subdued last night but that is largely down to the fact that they still have work to do. An FA Cup final awaits in May and Chelsea are chasing the Treble, as well as an unbeaten domestic season. They travelled straight back to London on Wednesday night rather than staying in Manchester to party. Some chocolate and "a little bit" of champagne were on the cards for Sonia Bompastor, but it did not sound like a late evening. She did ask for a selfie in her post-match media conference though, and we heard Erin Cuthbert leading the celebrations in the changing rooms when the door opened. I doubt she stuck to the "little bit" of champagne request. So if Chelsea still have work to do, did they allow themselves at least one night to enjoy their latest WSL title success? BBC Sport's Emma Sanders has the inside scoop on that one. .. Man Utd 0-1 Chelsea Chelsea's players and manager made their objective pretty clear early on - they wanted to go through the WSL season unbeaten. It was a theme Lucy Bronze touched upon in her post-match celebrations on Wednesday night, after scoring the winning goal to help clinch the title against Manchester United at Leigh Sports Village. "We wanted to be unbeaten, " she said. "The fortunate thing for us this season is that we have stayed unbeaten so we knew there were still two things to play for [WSL title and unbeaten record]. "We knew before the game Arsenal had got beat and we knew what we needed, but we wanted to win, we wanted to be unbeaten all season. "Although we have won the league tonight we have two games left and we want to win those too. " Alex Brotherton BBC Sport journalist After a 7-0 thrashing of newly promoted Crystal Palace, the first big test of Bompastor's side came against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Mayra Ramirez's overhead kick and Sandy Baltimore's header had Chelsea in control after only 16 minutes, and it was only a superb piece of individual skill from Caitlin Foord that got the Gunners back in the game. Chelsea showed nerve and grit to see out the result in front of a 45, 000 strong crowd. It proved to be Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall's last match in charge - prompting his resignation. Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.