Chelsea women season preview 2024-25: Sonia Bompastor already faces a fight to live up to Emma Hayes' success as Blues begin WSL campaign

Chelsea haven't undergone this much change on the women's side of the club perhaps ever. Stalwarts like Fran Kirby, Maren Mjelde and Jess Carter have all moved on while, after 12 years under Hayes, this team will be led by a different face, a different voice and some different ideas, as Bompastor looks to make her mark on England's all-conquering side.

There's no doubt that Hayes holds iconic status in the blue corner of London, but that doesn't mean there cannot be excitement about a new era. Some may be a little uneasy about change and what it holds, but Bompastor has impressed during the summer with the intensity of her football and her personality off the pitch, while her success in the Champions League commands real respect.

Fans have thoroughly enjoyed being the dominant side in England over the last five years, but it feels like the appetite now is for a European triumph. That's not to say supporters won't expect the team to be competitive with the likes of Arsenal and Man City, or that disappointing results on the three domestic fronts wouldn't be frustrating. However, if Bompastor can deliver a Champions League title, it would achieve a feat that the fans - and the club - have been craving for a very long time.

Bompastor hasn't hesitated to dip into the French market during her first transfer window at the club, bringing in Maelys Mpome from Montpellier and the Paris Saint-Germain duo of Oriane Jean-Francois and Sandy Baltimore. Lucy Bronze, who Bompastor knows well from her time at Lyon, has also joined from Barcelona, alongside Julia Bartel, one of the Catalans' academy products. That means, despite eight departures, this squad remains well-stocked in all departments.

Of those, Baltimore is the stand-out arrival because of her game-changing qualities that can win matches for the club. At 24 years old, her best years are certainly ahead of her, too. If she can settle well and make an early impact, she will make up for the exits of Kirby, Jelena Cankovic and Katerina Svitkova, who all had very different Chelsea careers but who all ultimately left the team lighter in attack upon their departures.

Though there is a smattering of scepticism around the heavy focus on the French market, that is nothing that won't be alleviated by some strong early performances from those players. As such, Bronze is probably the signing that raised the most questions, especially given the squad already boasts two top-quality international right-backs. That said, she will add some necessary leadership after the club bid farewell to Mjelde and Melanie Leupolz.

Chelsea went to the U.S. for their pre-season tour, taking on NWSL champions Gotham before an all-WSL match-up with London rivals Arsenal. Those two games are best to read into, especially given the recent 9-0 thrashing of Feyenoord comes with the caveat of the opponent being reduced to 10 players after less than half an hour, with the score only 2-0.

In those, Chelsea fans will have been pleased with what they saw, too. The Blues really took the game to Gotham, going 3-0 up with less than half-an-hour on the clock, and they looked sharp in a 1-0 win over the Gunners as well, despite being in the early stages of their pre-season schedule. The likes of Mayra Ramirez and Lauren James only played limited roles on that tour, too, before racking up further minutes in friendlies back on home soil, with the Blues playing some behind-closed-doors matches as well as those well-publicised.

Among all the positives, the one big negative from Chelsea's summer has been injuries. First to fall was Erin Cuthbert, who at least looks like she will be back in the early weeks of the new season, before Sophie Ingle then suffered an ACL injury against Feyenoord. It leaves the Blues a little lighter in midfield for the coming campaign, especially as Francois is also still working her way back from a few niggles.

There won't be too many obvious differences between Hayes' Chelsea and Bompastor's Chelsea this season, as there will be a lot of games where opponents sit back in a low-block, reducing the matches to attack versus defence drills which are all about players coming up with solutions, rather than a style of play. Furthermore, under Hayes, Chelsea dominated most matches and scored a lot of goals, and Bompastor also wants to do that.

However, if there is one particular contrast, it is that the new coach wants the Blues to win possession back as quickly as possible. That's something that should certainly suit this squad, as it contains a whole host of aggressive, energetic and hard-working forwards, such as Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, Ramirez, Guro Reiten and Aggie Beever-Jones.

When it comes to the personnel in the XI, one thing fans can expect from Bompastor is that she will give young players a chance. The former France international worked as the head of Lyon's academy before taking the first-team role at the club and so is well-placed to develop the promising talent that the Blues possess, whether it be those in the youth set-up or the flurry of teenagers signed for the senior side in recent years. That was evident throughout pre-season, as Wieke Kaptein, Maika Hamano and Beever-Jones stood out in particular.

One thing that will be especially interesting to track as the campaign progresses, meanwhile, is how Bompastor's team changes. That's because Chelsea have a few key players who are currently sidelined with long-term injuries, most notably Sam Kerr and Mia Fishel. How she fits Kerr and Ramirez, for example, into the same team will be intriguing, while it's also likely that Beever-Jones gets more chances in a central position early on but then moves wider as those strikers come back into the fold.

It's absolutely vital for Chelsea that Millie Bright stays fit this season. Knee injuries forced the Blues' skipper to miss the end of the 2022-23 campaign and then five months of 2023-24, with Mjelde and Magdalena Eriksson deserving huge credit for their performances in that first spell before Carter stepped up brilliantly to really hold the fort down in the latter, starring despite the rotating cast around her.

All three of those players have since moved on, making Bright the unquestionable leader at the back. That's because, in the centre-back position, Nathalie Bjorn only arrived in January, Kadeisha Buchanan's time in London to date has been rather up-and-down, Mpome is a promising but inexperienced summer arrival and Aniek Nouwen is still working her way back from an ACL injury.

One of those names would need to step up in a big way if Bright was to suffer another blow. Keeping the England star on the pitch is preferable as with her leadership, experience and quality, she is a player you can always rely on to deliver.

Perhaps the stand-out player of Chelsea's pre-season has been Wieke Kaptein, who joined the club last summer and is now preparing for her first campaign with the Blues after spending last year back on loan at former club Twente. The 19-year-old has been ever-present in midfield in the build-up to this new season, with Bompastor extremely impressed with what she has shown when given the chance.

Asked by GOAL at the WSL season launch media day what she has seen in Kaptein that has made her give her such opportunities, Bompastor replied: "That's really simple. She is performing. My vision is that I don’t care about age. It’s about performance and if a player who is 17, 18 or 19 is performing better than more experienced players, she plays. It’s that simple.

“She’s smart. She runs a lot. She’s technical. She sees the game and understands the game. She’s all over the place and she’s efficient. I just think at the moment she is doing a lot of good things and that’s pretty obvious for me. She has to start.”

So far, there's nothing to suggest Kaptein, already a senior Dutch international, cannot make the step up in her first season at Chelsea. The teenager won eight major titles in her three seasons with Twente and so, in terms of mentality, she should fit into this winning machine rather seamlessly, too. She's ready for the challenge.

Success for Chelsea this season is complex to define. Generally speaking, the Blues will want to be competitive on all four fronts, reaching the latter stages of the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League, while sustaining a title challenge into the final weeks of the WSL season.

From that point, there are various outcomes that would be classed as a successful season. For many fans, to win the Champions League and nothing else would be an incredible season. Despite domestic dominance, it remains the one title that has eluded the women's team and to get their hands on it would be such an overwhelming success that it wouldn't really matter if they did not win anything else.

If a European triumph is not possible, continued success in England will be imperative, with it also important to supporters that the team doesn't disappoint in those big fixtures against Arsenal and Man City. A couple of domestic honours and strong showings in the competitions Chelsea fall short in would be something to celebrate, especially with it Bompastor's first season and there having been so much summer change.

Player of the Season:Wieke Kaptein. She looks completely ready to be a force in this team and will win so many fans so quickly.

Biggest disappointment:No Champions League title. Progress can be made on that front this season, but it'll still take a little bit more time for Chelsea to get over the line.

Best signing:Sandy Baltimore. Though she hasn't been at her best level for a few years, there are signs Baltimore can work her way back to that and make key contributions for a team fighting on four fronts.

Top scorer:Mayra Ramirez. She showed what a dominant centre-forward she can be in her first half-season at the club and can only build on that, especially as the first choice No.9 going into this campaign.

European fate:Champions League final. Chelsea can make strides with Bompastor but it's still her first season in charge and there are plenty of elite rivals for the crown.

League position:Second. Figuring out how much to rotate on four fronts in a more competitive league could prove to be Bompastor's undoing in what will be a grippingly close title race.