PREVIEW: Can Chelsea retain their domestic dominance | OneFootball

Sonia Bompastor made history by winning the domestic treble in her first season as manager. Her side had an incredible year domestically, becoming the first team to have an undefeated 22 game run in the Barclays WSL and remaining undefeated in all other domestic competitions.

They claimed their first trophy of the season in March, when they defeated Manchester City 2-1 in the Subway League Cup, kickstarting their first invincible campaign.

Chelsea continued to prove their domestic dominance throughout the rest of the season, claiming their second piece of silverware and their eighth WSL title, making it seven Super League crowns in a row. In the 2024/2025 season, Chelsea drew three games and won the other 19 making them almost untouchable in the competition.

The Blues secured their third and final trophy of the season when they beat Manchester United in the FA Cup final, winning 3-0 at Wembley.

Despite their success in England, Chelsea are still without the longed-for Champions League trophy, losing 8-2 on aggregate to three-time winners Barcelona in the semi-final round of the competition.

Chelsea have made some strong signings in the transfer window as they hope to strengthen their team in Europe, bringing in a mix of experience to support the longevity of the side. However, with Arsenal starting the season as Champions League winners and teams like Manchester United and newly promoted London City Lionesses making huge signings it will be interesting to see whether Chelsea will finally claim all four trophies this season.

Transfer Period

As previously mentioned, The Blues’ women side have been using their prize money to make some key signings that will help strengthen the few weaknesses they showed last season.

Firstly, the WSL champions made strong signings in the opening weeks of the transfer period, signing German forward Mara Alber from TSG Hoffenheim on four-year deal, and Swiss Goalkeeper Livia Peng, who represented Switzerland during Euro 2025. Both of these players are incredible young talents, and shows the clubs commitment to nurturing young talent and retaining their dominance for years to come.

Goalkeeper Becky Spencer’s loan move was made permanent after she joined from Tottenham Hotspur towards the end of last season.

Arguably one of the most intriguing signings of the 2025 transfer window is Australian defender Ellie Carpenter, who joined on a four-year deal from Lyon. Carpenter has lots of international experience, winning two Champions League trophies and five domestic titles in France. Her European success will bring more experience to Chelsea’s back line, hopefully helping them to threaten their opposition in their UWCL campaign, especially when current Blues player Lucy Bronze could be out for a while with injury.

The team have made impactful signings, but their distinct lack of incomings in their attacking positions could prove problematic when trying to challenge against stronger defensive teams such as Barcelona, who they have only beaten once in five years. Lauren James’ injury could also prove to be a hinderance in the opening weeks of the campaign.

Leaving Players

Despite not making many signings, Chelsea have made a few sales that make the treble winning squad from last season look a little different. Several of Chelsea’s younger, academy signings will be out on loan this season, gaining valuable minutes. 17-year-olds Lola Brown and Vera Jones will be joining the WSL 2, with Brown joining Crystal Palace and Jones joining Bristol City. Young Lioness Katie Cox will also be out on loan after spending most of her first year with a professional contract on the bench; she joins the season with Aberdeen in the Scottish Women’s Premier League.

Chelsea legend and Welsh international Sophie Ingle announced her departure from the club in early May after spending all of last season out with an ACL injury. It was later announced that she would be joining WSL 2 team Bristol City, who she had previously spent time with on loan.

Canadian international Ashley Lawrence left the club on a swap deal with Ellie Carpenter this July to join Lyon, and Mia Fishel left the club after 2 years to make her NWSL debut with Seattle Reign. After only one year at the club, 22-year-old Maelys Mpomé leaves the club to join WSL team Brighton and Hove Albion. Perhaps the most shocking departure from the club this season is Swedish goalkeeper Zećira Mušović, who joined the club in 2021. In February she announced her pregnancy and she stepped away from first team duties. Despite being offered a one year extension, Mušović decided to end her contract and start a new chapter elsewhere.

Second season under Bompastor

This is Bompastor’s second season with the club and with her having an invincible season and winning the treble, there is a lot of pressure for the Ballon d’Or nominee to deliver again after making history last season in her first year at Chelsea.

She made some key signings in the January transfer window last season with English Midfielder Kiera Walsh and US International Naomi Girma joining the squad, helping to strengthen the squad and maintaining domestic dominance, showing her experience in management.

Being the second manger to win the WSL in their first season, the pressure for Bompastor only continues as fans wonder if she will be the first manager to win the champions league title for Chelsea, but both the supporters and players are behind Bompastor as manager after she had great success last season.

She has years of experience in European football, both as a player and a manager, and it will be interesting to see if she continues to dominate successfully and finally get the quadruple win they heavily sought after last season, or has something got to give to gain Champions League success?

Pre-season

Coming out of a long season, Chelsea have had a fairly quiet pre-season with only two games to prepare them for the 2025/26 season.

A 26 person squad traveled to the Netherlands for a training camp where they faced Dutch club AFC Ajax who play in the Eredivisie Vrouwen league, the top league in the Netherlands. They secured a 1-1 draw over the Dutch side with Guro Reiten scoring Chelsea’s only goal of the game.

The squad played a strong 90 minutes of football, making several attempts at goal, showing strong attacking and defensive skills during the game. New signings also had a chance to showcase their talent with Peng making some very impressive saves before being subbed off in the 62nd minute.

The Blues almost secured the win but Ajax secured a stoppage time equaliser. It is important to note that several of Chelsea’s key players were missing from the squad list. Lionessess Aggie Beever-Jones, Lucy Bronze, Niamh Charles, Hannah Hampton, Lauren James and Kiera Walsh and Brazilian national Maya Ramirez, were all missing from this pre-season camp as they had performed international duties during the break and weren’t available for selection. This was also the first time that several players had played in blue with new signings Peng, Carpenter and Alber making their debut.

The second and final pre-season friendly was against Italian team AC Milan. The game was played at Chelsea Women’s homeground Kingsmeadow a week before the season kicks off. This game showed what Chelsea were really about. They won the game 4-1 with a hat-trick from Chelsea’s top goal scorer last season Aggie Beever-Jones and a goal from Swedish international Johanna Rytting-Kanyerd.

This friendly also saw some familiar faces return to the squad, with Lionesses Hannah Hampton, Aggie Beever Jones and Keira Walsh in the starting XI. The Brazilian forward was also back in the squad. This game showed how strong Chelsea are as a team, and proved that this season they will be fighting hard to challenge in Europe this season. It seems that Bompastor’s new signings are settling well into the team and Chelsea will begin the season being undefeated in their pre-season.

Player to watch: Sam Kerr

A player that was missed massively by Chelsea last season was Matilda’s Captain Sam Kerr, who was out with an ACL injury she sustained in the 2023/24 season. Kerr is a prolific goalscorer for Chelsea and has been key in a lot of Chelsea’s previous winning campaigns due to her strength, speed and goalscoring abilities. Chelsea fans have been eagerly awaiting her return to the squad, and she was named in the travelling squad for Chelsea’s pre-season training camp but wasn’t listed on the game-day line up. She has been seen in training and it’s looking promising that she’ll be making an appearance for the start of the 2025/26 season.

Returning from an injury is always tricky as it will be a while before she is performing to her best and playing the full 90 minutes, particularly after having over 18 months away from the game. It’ll be interesting to see how Kerr plays under the new management of Bompastor and how she will utilise Kerr’s goal scoring abilities to help the club across all of their campaigns this season.

Key Signing: Livia Peng

The 23 year old Swiss goalkeeper is definitely one to watch this season. Peng was signed from Werder Bremen after keeping 12 clean sheets in 41 appearances.

She was also Switzerland’s starting goalkeeper in their Euro 2025 campaign, being eliminated by Euro 2025 runners-up Spain in the quarter-final round. Peng is particularly good at one-vs-one situations, saving two penalties in their Euros game against Spain.

She had a great first game for Chelsea, keeping a clean sheet for 62 minutes of their friendly against Ajax, coming up trumps in several one-vs-one attacks.

It is unlikely that Peng will be Bompastor’s first choice goalkeeper with two-time Euros champion Hannah Hampton also in the squad but with loan signing of Katie Cox and Swedish goal keeper Zećira Mušović leaving the club, it will be interesting to see some rotation in goal and having two goalkeepers with huge international success could really aid in Chelsea’s Champions league campaign.

Final Thoughts

With the overall strength and dominance of the club it is likely that Chelsea will finish the season with some silverware. However, with local rivals and 2025 Champions League winners Arsenal having their first full season with Renee Sleger, this feat may be more challenging as there will be more competition at the top.

Since their invincible season, other teams are out for blood and will do anything to break that winning streak, and their first loss (if they do lose) will be a hard one for the squad to take. This season could change everything for Chelsea Women. They could win their tenth WSL title, continue their dominance in England and challenge in Europe to win the Women’s Champions League.

Investment in the women’s game is growing, which is a positive overall but could prove problematic for Chelsea who have dominated on top for so long and it could bring the unrivalled winning streak to an end.