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

No team has dominated in the Women's Super League era like Chelsea. Each of the last five league titles have been claimed by the Blues, they've won the FA Cup in three of the last four seasons and they've also played in all of the last five League Cup finals, winning two. They are England's dominant force and, without a shadow of a doubt, the team to beat.

The question is, can they keep that up after a summer of significant change? There are six new faces in the first team for 2024-25, on top of eight senior exits, but the most notable change of all is in the dugout. After 12 years in charge, Emma Hayes bid farewell to the club in May, taking up a head coach role with the United States women's national team in which she has already won an Olympic gold medal.

Sonia Bompastor, the former Lyon boss, is her replacement, someone Hayes knows well from her time coaching in the U.S. and believes can help the team continue to progress forward. The appointment firmly highlights Chelsea's ambitions on the European front, as Bompastor has won the Champions League title this club craves - as both a player and a manager. They will hope she can provide a missing ingredient in that quest.

But continued domestic success is also very important. Chelsea are the team with the target on their backs after five successive league triumphs and both Manchester City and Arsenal have made some impressive signings this summer as they once again try to knock the Blues off their perch.

Can the champions of England make further progress in Europe? And does that have to come at the expense of some of the domestic success they've enjoyed? Or can Bompastor deliver both at the same time? We're about to find out...