Chelsea will be hoping for a rather less dramatic denouement to the Women’s Super League than last season, as they go into Sunday’s match at Liverpool looking to secure the first league title in the club’s history.
Last season Emma Hayes’s side looked like they had the league in the bag, going into the final day three points clear at the top of the table, only for Liverpool to snatch the prize after beating Bristol while Chelsea lost to Manchester City.
This season their fate is in their own hands. Two points clear with two games to go, Chelsea will wrap up the WSL with a couple of wins but, should their nearest rivals, City, slip up against the bottom side, Bristol Academy, then the Blues can claim their prize with a win over Liverpool on Sunday night.
“It’s nice that it’s in our control,” says Claire Rafferty, the England and Chelsea left-back. “I’d hate to be a team who were waiting for other people to lose, because you can always blame other people then. We know we have to win, and that’s all we can do. We’ve been up there for the whole season, so in some ways it’s nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Should they secure the title (which admittedly is a long-shot this weekend, as Bristol have only one win to their name all season), it would complete the double, along with the FA Cup they won by beating Notts County at Wembley in August. Rafferty, who has been with the club for nine years and lived through some rather leaner times at Chelsea, has seen a successful team gradually built around her.
“It wasn’t going to happen overnight,” she says. “We knew that when Emma came in, she made a lot of changes and laid a lot of foundations that weren’t already there, it would take a few years for it to all kick in.”
Fixtures: Manchester City v Bristol Academy, 2pm; Notts County v Birmingham City, 5pm; Liverpool v Chelsea, 7pm
