The ‘queens of global soccer’ have reclaimed their treble in style, wrestling the FA Cup back from Manchester United to complete a flawless domestic campaign.
Sandy Baltimore delivered a sensational performance, scoring twice and assisting Catarina Macario as Chelsea added the FA Cup to their WSL and League Cup triumphs this season.
The gulf between these two sides was perhaps most starkly illustrated off the pitch rather than on it for the majority of the game.
Chelsea’s shiny new investor, Alexis Ohanian, conducted a pitch-side interview at half-time, describing how he wants to build ‘the best team in the world’ and the ‘queens of global soccer with the trophy case to prove it’.
While the west London club are set to reap the rewards of Serena Williams’ millionaire husband’s cash injection to take their level to another stratosphere, United continue to be deprived of the adequate care they deserve.
With Sunday’s game avoiding a fixture clash with the men’s Premier League side, minority co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe still remained nowhere in sight.
And when the dust settles on this afternoon, United can still take pride in a positive season: a third consecutive FA Cup final and Champions League football secured for next year.
But until the club starts showing that it truly cares, the gap between them and Chelsea will only widen.
Marc Skinner made a bold call by dropping Ella Toone from the starting line-up, opting instead for Grace Clinton due to her stronger defensive attributes compared to the United No. 7.
Toone has made a habit of delivering in big moments at Wembley, including scoring the opening goal in last year’s final to help land United’s first major trophy, and her exclusion from the starting line-up was an unexpected risk.
Initially, the decision appeared justified, with Manchester United – and Clinton in particular – starting hard and well.
They nearly took the lead early on when Dominique Janssen, a winner of this competition with Arsenal in 2016, found herself in space on the edge of the penalty area.
Her shot sailed harmlessly over the bar, to the visible relief of the nervous Chelsea contingent behind the United goal, and the missed seemed to jolt Sonia Bompastor’s side into life.
Moments later, Mayra Ramirez broke through on goal but took one touch too many, allowing United’s goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce to block the chance before Leah Galton was on hand to deny Lucy Bronze a chance to pounce on the rebound.
Chelsea began to build momentum. Sandy Baltimore came close with a low, driven shot aimed at the bottom corner, but it skidded wide of the post.
Then, with half drawing to a close, United conceded a careless penalty. Celin Bizet overstretched and took down Erin Cuthbert, leaving referee Stacey Fullicks with little choice but to point to the spot.
Baltimore calmly stepped up and sent Tullis-Joyce the wrong way, placing her shot into the bottom left corner to give the WSL champions a deserved lead at the break.
At half-time, Skinner abandoned his experiment, with Toone managing to register United’s second shot on target of the afternoon just minutes after her number flashed on the board at the start of the second half – a weak shot on goal, but a positive flicker of life from the disheartened team in red.
As the game trudged on in the second half Skinner began to throw the kitchen sink at it, bringing on two more strikers in Rachel Williams and Melvine Malard to join Elisabeth Terland up top.
But another set-piece proved to be their undoing once again – with Catarina Macario glancing in Sandy Baltimore’s curling free-kick to send the Chelsea end into pandemonium.
Baltimore’s player of the match status, which had been in little doubt, was confirmed when she extended Chelsea’s lead to three in stoppage time.
