Chelsea Ladies: The Season So Far

After finishing in 7^th place in the FA Women’s Super League 1 (FAWSL 1) last season, just one place above the relegation spot, Chelsea FC decided to invest a bit more this time in the ladies department. Emma Hayes continued as Chelsea Ladies manager but there was a mass exodus of players from the club and also, fresh arrivals of high profiled players, of course, from various corners around the world.

Chelsea Ladies said goodbye to players like Welsh international forward, Helen Ward, Sweden’s high profiled Sofia Jakobsson, the Brazilian, Ester, Carly Telford and a couple of others and have since signed over 10 players since then, such players includes highly rated world class attacking Asian pair of South Korean player of the year, Ji So Yun and Japanese World Cup winner, Yuki Ogimi. Arsenal’s Gilly Flaherty, Jackie Groenen of the Netherlands and most recently, Portuguese forward, Ana Borges are now since all aboard on the Chelsea Ladies squad.

Improvement has already shown in this current side as the lady blues are currently 2nd in the league just 3 points behind leaders Birmingham City LFC. The Lady Blues won just 3 times last season out of 14 games but this season they’ve already won twice out of 5 games, drawing 2 games and losing only one compared to the 10 games they lost last season including one draw.

In other competitions they have also done quite well. They reached the semi-finals of the Women’s FA Cup losing to eventual winners, Arsenal in a 5-3 thriller, English legend and Arsenal captain, Kelly Smith with the pick of the goals. In the Women’s Continental Cup they remain top of their Group which is Group one, even above Arsenal who defeated them recently in their last Continental Cup fixture 3-0, Kelly Smith again with 2 goals.

The mood in the dressing room also seems fine on and off the pitch, the new faces seem to be doing well, new signings, Ji So Yun and Yuki Ogimi have scored 4 goals each in all competitions, even Ana Borges who recently signed scored the winning goal in their last league match which was her debut, against Reading Ladies FC to win 2-1. However the standout player has to be Eniola Aluko, who has been at the club for some time now, the English international has 5 goals in all competitions this season with a number of assists as well. She finished joint top scorer for the blues in the league last season with 6 goals and seems to have improved a lot since them, she also scored in the English women’s last international game and seems to be having a great season.

Still in 2 competitions they look very much in contention for and reaching the semi-final of the last one seems a massive improvement from Chelsea Ladies FC as regards to last season and they would love to get their hands on a trophy and qualify for the UEFA Women’s Champions League to continue typical Chelsea tradition. Because what’s Chelsea of recent without trophies and constant Champions League football, right?