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Bompastor reflects on 'special' unbeaten debut season with Chelsea

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Aggie Beever-Jones scored a dramatic stoppage-time winner to give Chelsea a 1-0 victory over Liverpool, securing an unbeaten season for the Blues and setting a new milestone in the Women's Super League.

Chelsea became the first club in WSL history to complete a 22-game season without a loss and the runaway champions broke their record points tally to do it, finishing the campaign with 60 points.

The invincible league win capped off an incredible debut season for Chelsea and Sonia Bompastor, who still have the chance to win a domestic treble, having already lifted the Women's League Cup. They face Manchester United in the FA Cup final on May 18.

The celebrations at Stamford Bridge on Saturday were a reflection of Chelsea's remarkable campaign, with players and fans joining in the fun. 

Bompastor watched on with her four children by her side, and gave an honest response when asked about how special it was to share the moment with her family.

"It was wonderful. I had goosebumps just because sometimes behind the scenes [my children] cry because you are travelling and not home," she said.

"It can be difficult, but they understand your job, and it's even better when they can share these moments with you. They know what it means for us.

"I think they realised how lucky they are. When they are sometimes sad, I have these moments to remember why we are doing it as a family.

"It is the best thing you can give to your kids."

For Chelsea, this season has been a historic one, marked by their sixth consecutive WSL title and an unbeaten run that makes them only the fourth English women's team to go an entire season without a loss. 

Chelsea themselves previously did it in 2017-18 after 18 games, and again in 2019-20, though that season was shortened because of the Coronavirus pandemic, while Manchester City (2016) and Arsenal (2012) had also done it in 16 and 14-match seasons, respectively.

Under Bompastor, Chelsea also eclipsed their own record points tally set in 2022-23 (58), with Saturday's win over Liverpool taking them up to 60 points.

Bompastor reflected on the significance of their unbeaten campaign, adding: "To be able to achieve that, for me, is more than the title."

She revealed that she had not thought of it as a possibility until Chelsea had secured the WSL title with two games to spare.

When asked if Chelsea are the greatest WSL team in history, Bompastor gave a measured response.

"It's difficult to say that. For the club to be able to win six titles in a row means we have been consistent and every year we have managed to win trophies," she said. 

"Maybe the fact this year we were unbeaten makes it even more special because it never happened before.

"When you reflect on that, from now, we will be part of history. We had this unbeaten season, and we broke records in terms of points, so it will stay in history."

Chelsea’s results were phenomenal, though their performances were not always flawless.

They won 10 times by a one-goal margin, with 17 of their 56 goals coming in the last 15 minutes of games, including eight in stoppage time.

"It is sometimes difficult to describe my feelings and emotions. We had the right mentality from the beginning of the season until the end,” Bompastor said.

"We have been consistent even when sometimes performances were not the best - we always found a way to win and get the three points.

"I think maybe the game we had against Arsenal [in January] was probably when we started to realise we were in a really good position to win the league.

"The second part of the season was more difficult because we were not as dominant as we would have liked to have been.

"For me, it is a great achievement because we were able to be consistent, unbeaten, and in this league, it means a lot because it is really competitive."