Considering she only got off a plane from Sydney three days earlier, striker Sam Kerr seemed fresh as a daisy as she scored twice in Chelsea’s 3-0 FA Cup final crushing of arch rivals Arsenal.
Her partner up-front – Fran Kirby – was also dazzling, undermining the Gunners’ hopes inside three minutes by scoring a cool opener.
“I thought it was Fran’s best game in a Chelsea shirt – she was a real threat, a real handful,” said manager Emma Hayes afterwards, agreeing with reporters who suggested that the Wembley victory in front of 40,000 people presaged a golden era for Chelsea which must – eventually – culminate in lifting the Women’s Champions League trophy.
Chelsea waltzed to their win at the national stadium, with the Blues refusing to let the Gunners settle on the ball and utterly dominating midfield through the endeavours of Mellie Leupolz and Sophie Ingle.
Up front, Kirby and Kerr – the Special K pairing – produced a masterclass in synchronicity and intuition, understanding and predicting each other's movements and darting runs as if they were two halves of the same apple.
"We deserved it," said Kerr at the end, after being named the player of the match and necking a bottle of bubbly on the podium.
Perversely, the only serious injury of the game came as the streamers flew and the champagne flowed. Central defender Millie Bright, who with captain Magda Eriksson, Jess Carter and Erin Cuthbert on the right had an outstanding game, sustained a cut above her eye when the top flew off the trophy as Eriksson hoisted it into the air for the cameras.
Chelsea travel to Reading on Saturday morning, before hosting West Ham at Kingsmeadow a week later. On current form, Chelsea are on target to overhaul the Gunners at the top of the table and put their opening-weekend defeat behind them.
With that wise owl Hayes masterminding the campaign, anything and everything now looks possible.
She also believes that the Wembley final (which was delayed from May because of Covid) could be the springboard for boosting attendances at all WSL grounds in the coming months.
A new army of young, enthusiastic fans has been recruited to the beautiful game, and the foundations are being put in place to make women’s football a serious force in the coming decades.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
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