Six and out: How Chelsea's WSL title defence fell apart so fast - and why things could still get worse for Sonia Bompastor's Blues

In the early knockings of this season, it looked like the defence could be Chelsea's undoing this term. After building last year's treble-winning campaign on the foundation of an extremely sturdy back line, Bompastor took a different, more attack-minded approach this season.

"We want to take more risks in our game," she explained. "I'm someone who really likes to take the risks. We want to be offensive."

As a result, Chelsea have been allowing significantly more shots, shots on target, shot-creating actions and key passes to the opponent, per game, ever since the season kicked-off.

However, with Hannah Hampton playing as well as she has been, Chelsea have managed to largely keep the number of goals conceded down, even while their underlying numbers have become alarming. Instead, it's actually been in attack where the major issues have come, despite that front-footed and risk-happy approach Bompastor has gladly taken.

Chelsea's problem is rarely that they don't create chances. Even in their thrashing at City, the Blues had some notable opportunities. Instead, it's a lack of clinical touch that has regularly haunted the reigning champions this season.

Indeed, according to expected goals (xG) statistics, no one in the WSL is under-performing in front of goal as much as Chelsea. The Blues have found the net 25 times in 14 games, having registered a total xG of 30.35. That gap of 5.35 between the two numbers is huge, with Brighton, the next biggest under-performers in the WSL, only having a gap of 2.1.

It's something Bompastor noted in the build-up to Sunday's defeat to City, describing her side as having been "a little bit less clinical than last season". There are, she added, reasons to explain this, particularly given the injuries Chelsea have had to deal with.

"We are missing some top-class players, Mayra Ramirez being one of them," Bompastor said. "I think she was available for most of the games last season and she was involved in the important games. We have some other really good players in the squad but as you know, some of them are coming back from injury. They are trying their best to perform at their best level but we have to be fair with them. You also need time to recover from not playing for two years, if we take the example with Sam [Kerr]. That's probably one of the explanations."

Lauren James has spent a significant amount of time on the sidelines this season as well, while Aggie Beever-Jones has been dealing with an ankle problem and Catarina Macario hasn't featured in 2026.

After Ramirez was ruled out until at last 2026 back in September, Chelsea did spend big before the transfer deadline and brought in Alyssa Thompson, the 21-year-old forward who is their top scorer in the WSL this season, with five goals. But she didn't arrive as the final product. Thompson needed time to settle and find her groove, and is still a player in a developmental stage of her career, even if she has made a fantastic start to life in London. 

Given the uncertainties around the futures of Kerr and Macario beyond this season, and with Beever-Jones also on an expiring contract, as well as the overall under-performance in front of goal, one wondered if Bompastor might have wanted to add to her forward options further, either in the summer or in the winter transfer window, which closes on Tuesday. When Kerr suffered an ACL injury in January 2024, for example, Chelsea spent a club-record fee on Ramirez, whose arrival proved all the more important when Mia Fishel, Kerr's back-up, suffered the same injury a month later.

"Without making too many comments on that, I would have liked to have been in a better place from the last transfer window," Bompastor admitted on Sunday.

For some, hearing Bompastor bemoan a lack of depth, something she has done more than once this season, will trigger an almighty eye roll. After all, Chelsea have one of the best squads in the women's game. However, relative to the standard set at the club, this season's roster is a little weaker than previous ones and there is more trust having to be placed in young, inexperienced players for huge games, the kind of which they have not experienced before.

"A lot of people talk about Chelsea being an example of having depth in the squad and of having players with different profiles they can bring into the game. Right now, I don't think we are in that place," Bompastor reiterated on Sunday. "I'm not saying that explains everything, but being in that position probably doesn't help.

"As a manager I will always [accept responsibility for] the results of this team, so I need to focus also on what the solutions are for me to be in a much better place. It's tough because I have to focus on the players available, but when you have many games in a row, you can't rotate as much as you want and you can't bring in the exact profile you want in the game."

Asked if Chelsea, yet to make a signing in this ongoing transfer window, could act before the deadline on Tuesday, Bompastor replied: "We'll see."

It has all culminated in Chelsea losing that sense of inevitability that has followed them around for so long. Last season, 10 of the Blues' 19 league wins were decided by just one goal. In five of those games, the decisive strike was scored after the 80th minute. This term, with 14 of their 22 WSL games played, the reigning champions have won just three one-score games and have only scored twice beyond the 80th minute. Those goals, both from Kerr, were stoppage-time strikes that extended leads they already held.

"I think if you reflect from last season, even when we were winning a lot of games, sometimes the margins were really fine and we were able to sometimes score in the last minutes of the game. This season, things are probably not going the same way," Bompastor admitted last week.

Nothing highlights how incredibly different this season has been, compared to last, than the line of questioning that was directed at Bompastor after Sunday's chastening defeat. With the title out of reach and securing a Champions League spot now the main focus, the Frenchwoman was asked how confident she is that she will be in charge next Sunday, when the Blues take on a Tottenham side who could leapfrog them with a win.

Given the achievements of last season and the fact the club are still in the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League, it would be a huge surprise to see Bompastor leave her post.

“I’m really confident in terms of someone who is really honest," she responded, starting her answer in a manner that reflected as much. However, as she continued, that feeling of certainty that she will remain for the foreseeable weakened ever so slightly.

"If people think I’m not the right person to stay for this job at the club, I’ll be happy to go if they think that’s the right thing," she added. “But I will never give up. I know football, sometimes it happens, you can be in this situation. I always fight. But again, the institution of Chelsea is a lot more important than myself.”

Chelsea still have a lot to fight for. There are still three trophies on the table, including that much-sought after Champions League title. But if Bompastor's Blues are going to enjoy a successful end to the 2025-26 season, they have to improve, and improve quickly.

As for the WSL, after six glorious seasons of dominance, Chelsea will finally be dethroned. Now, it's all about how they respond to disappointment neither they nor their manager are used to.