Inside Chelsea's treble quest: Blues begin battle for three trophies with League Cup final despite dreadful WSL title defence

There are plenty of reasons why Chelsea have not been their usually dominant and inevitable selves this season. Some are obvious, like the fact the Blues have just not been as clinical as they should, or normally would, be in front of goal. No team in the WSL is underperforming their expected goals (xG) statistic more than Chelsea, who have scored 29 times from an xG of 33.77. Third-from-bottom West Ham are next on that list, albeit with a negative differential of 2.66, compared to Chelsea’s 4.77.

That’s at least partially related to the injuries the Blues have had to contend with. Just looking at their centre-forwards, Mayra Ramirez hasn’t played all season, Sam Kerr is only just back from a near-two-year injury lay-off and Aggie Beever-Jones has missed time with an ankle knock. Catarina Macario, who has played as a striker at times, hasn’t featured since December either, while the talismanic Lauren James only played her first 90 minutes of the season last month.

But there are other issues, too. There’s the fact this team doesn’t look as defensively sturdy as last term, something that is in part down to Bompastor’s admittedly more attacking approach this term. But when that is not paying off in the final third, it makes frailties at the back more exposed.

On the one hand, Chelsea’s dominance of the WSL couldn’t last forever. To win six titles in a row was incredible, especially given the contenders they are up against. City, United and Arsenal are no slouches, after all. But inside the Blues’ dressing room, that perspective is not being thrown around as a reason to brush off an underwhelming title defence.

“I'm furious that the league might be falling out of reach and I don't like it,” Cuthbert says. “I think we really were in a patch that will be difficult to match even in the future and [winning six in a row] an incredible feat, but that doesn't make it any better or it doesn't give me any softer emotions towards [losing the title]. I'm a competitor. I want to win every single trophy.”

Fortunately, Chelsea still have three trophies to play for. Sunday’s League Cup final presents the first chance of silverware, before a Champions League quarter-final against Arsenal, the reigning European champions and the Blues’ big London rivals, comes later this month. Chelsea will then take on another foe from the capital, in Tottenham, on the first weekend of April, with a spot in the FA Cup semi-finals up for grabs.

It’s a part of the season that demands a lot of players and the squads of these big clubs, often producing a schedule with matches every three or four days. The Blues have long been seen as the team to beat when it comes to depth, but injuries mean that isn’t the case as emphatically this term.

That said, there are still plenty of top players at Bompastor’s disposal and, crucially, they have ample experience of the ‘business end’ of the season, something that not everyone else possesses.

That can be particularly advantageous when it comes to the way Chelsea approach these games. Reflecting on last year’s League Cup final, which saw the Blues beat Man City 2-1 to win the trophy, Cuthbert recalls that it “became any old game” to her, “because at that point in the season, every game is a cup final”.

“Yes, there's a trophy at stake, but there's a trophy at stake in every single game that we're competing in,” she explains. “That's the sort of mindset that, if you get in a habit that every single game matters, it means you're not going to be over-awed by the occasion.”

Do other teams have that mentality? Chelsea have been battling for multiple trophies for many years while Sunday’s opponents United, for example, are much newer to this. Could that work in the Blues’ favour? “You can play the occasion and not the game, and I think that's a dangerous place to be in,” Cuthbert notes of the more inexperienced sides.

This Chelsea group have got into those situations regularly by finding different ways to win, too. Admittedly, the Blues’ feeling of inevitability is not quite as strong this season, with the fine margins not going their way as often. But this is a team that knows how to dig in and grind out a win, even if the performance is not quite where they would like it to be on the day, which is something that has been the case at times recently.

It’s why Cuthbert is so proud of last year’s League Cup final win: “I think that performance, specifically, personified kind of what Chelsea's about. Fighting even when we weren't at our best, finding a way to win. I think going into the next few months, that's what we're going to need. We maybe don't have the rhythm but finding a way to win is what this Chelsea team has always done and it's what we have to continue doing.”

If Chelsea can do that this weekend, it could be the spark their season needs.

“It's the first trophy of the season and comes at a time where it can either give you that extra push to go on and be successful for the rest of the season, or it can knock the confidence a little bit going into the business end and all the big games,” Cuthbert concurs. “It’s important. It's an important trophy for us, it would be important for the group, it'd be important for the manager, and most of all, important for the club.”

And after so much negativity surrounding this Chelsea team, after their first back-to-back WSL defeats in over 10 years, after questions about Bompastor’s future, and as their league crown slips away, what would it mean to this group of players to lift that trophy on Sunday?

“It would be a big statement,” Cuthbert believes. “It would say a lot about where the team's at, it would say a lot about how resilient we are and how much we're able to just find a way to win, which is what this Chelsea team has always done.”