By Catherine MacKenzie (16/05/2025)
Above: The FA Cup at Wembley. Photo: The FA Website.
Chelsea and Manchester United: contrasting histories
For fans of Manchester United women, this time last year was a special one. Captain Katie Zelem lifted the club’s inaugural major trophy at London’s Wembley stadium, having bulldozed past Tottenham Hotspur 4-0 in the FA Cup final.
Since that day, there have been many changes for United. Zelem is no longer at the club; she, alongside other key players such as goalkeeper Mary Earps and World Cup winner Lucia Garcia, left United for pastures new.
United have a bunch of new players: Grace Clinton returned from loan with bestie Celin Bizet from Spurs, Wolfsburg’s Dominique Janssen was brought in to bolster the central midfield, and Brighton’s top scorer from the 2023-24 season was added to the mix (Norway’s Elisabeth Terland). In goal, Phallon Tullis-Joyce has taken over the reigns from Earps with style, sharing the 2024-25 golden glove with Chelsea’s Hannah Hampton.
Head coach Marc Skinner has repeatedly referenced that United are a “young” team – both in terms of personnel and in being one of the last of the big Premier-League affiliated clubs to establish a professional women’s side. Whilst Chelsea have had a women’s team competing in the top division since 2004, United’s history has been more tumultuous: a women’s team has been in place in some form since the 1970s unofficially, and the club formed an official partnership with them in 2001.
However, new owners the Glazer family disbanded the team in 2005, stating that it was “never their intention to become involved in women’s football at a high level”, adding that it was not a part of the “core business”. That team were gifted water bottles as leaving presents and wore hand-me-down kits from the men’s side. They were reformed in 2018 under the guidance of Casey Stoney (now head coach of Canada’s WNT) – and were promoted to the top tier after their first season.
Chelsea’s journey has been a different kettle of fish. The side’s origins are also in the 1970s, overseen by Chelsea men’s player John Hollins as president. Since the beginning, their legacy has been one based on winning trophies – they won the London Women’s Football Challenge Cup in 1974, beating Millwall Lionesses in the final 4-2. The team were officially formed in 1992, and since then, the story has been glittering: despite a struggle to rise to the top tier, they won the County Cup in 1999, retaining it the following year and adding the league cup and the league title.
They have played in England’s top tier since 2004 and come into this final as one of women’s football’s most successful teams – enjoying a great run under current USWNT head coach Emma Hayes. Hayes departed last summer and whilst many pundits predicted a readjustment period, the team have gone the league season undefeated.
Whilst United celebrated their first major trophy in 2024, Chelsea have won eight Women’s Super League titles, five FA Cups, three League Cups, and one Community Shield.
One of those five FA Cups came in 2023, after beating United 1-0 via a goal from Australia’s Sam Kerr. The lineups from both teams for that game are vastly different than the twenty-two who will take to the field on Sunday: Chelsea’s team included Germany keeper Ann-Katrin Berger, Bayern’s Magdalena Eriksson, Canada’s Jessie Fleming. United’s team included the current golden-boot winner and Arsenal striker Alessia Russo, Brighton’s Nikita Parris, Zelem, Earps, and Barcelona’s Ona Battle.
Sunday’s final will be a different battle, however – United have won a major trophy, and are coming off a successful season of their own. Establishing Champions League football for next year and under the leadership of new captain Maya Le Tissier, the Red Devils are looking strong.
Chelsea have recently announced that Serena Williams and her husband Alexis Ohanian have invested £20 million into Chelsea Women specifically, which head coach Sonia Bompastor has called a “game-changing endorsement”. The two will attend Wembley, prompting reflections to last year when United’s own major shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe chose instead to watch United men play Arsenal in Manchester. It is unknown if he will make the journey to London this time around.
How have the teams fared against each other?
Chelsea and United have played each other 14 times (since United’s 2018 reformation). Across the 15 games, Chelsea have 12 wins; United have one (last year’s FA Cup semi-final), and there has been one draw.
In the fixture, Chelsea have scored 35 goals, United have scored 10. The last three meetings have all ended in a 1-0 victory for Chelsea, with the goals primarily coming from set pieces.
United head coach Marc Skinner has been talking about the narrow losses and how he hopes his team can bridge that gap: “We are going to have to have strategies as coaches to help the players manage momentum when they’re in the moment, especially for set pieces. It might be visual aids; it might be visual cues. It’s about you being adaptable for every player on that pitch because they’re going to have to make decisions that might go against any plan that you have made.”
What do the stats say?
Across the WSL season, Chelsea have scored 56 goals (compared to United’s 41) and conceded 13 (compared to United’s 16). However, goal conversion is on the red side: United have a 14% shot-to-goal conversion rate compared to Chelsea’s 13%. United are also fonder of headers – eight of their goals have come from headers compared to Chelsea’s five.
A key part of the game on Sunday may be physicality. Both teams have a host of players across the pitch that like to play a physical game, particularly in attacking areas. For example, comparing United striker Elisabeth Terland with Chelsea forward Aggie Beever-Jones: Terland has more shots-per-game (3.3 compared to Beever-Jones’ 2.1, although this could be due to positioning, as the Chelsea forward has been played in different positions up front), and has made more tackles per game (1.3 compared to 0.9). Both players have recovered an average of 2.7 balls per game.
Grace Clinton is another United player who enjoys the physicality of football: making four tackles per game, she also wins more duels (around 50%), and makes more ball recoveries (7.6) from her position in midfield.
In his pre-match press conference, Skinner referenced physicality: “It will be vital, Chelsea can beat you on physicality. Where we’ve been before – I remember last game of last season at Old Trafford, we were beaten on physicality. We were beaten on motivation, whereas, we’ve improved that massively this year.”
Form
From their last five games in all competitions, United have one win, two draws and two losses – although it must be considered that this was a period where they faced Manchester City twice, Chelsea, Arsenal, and a resurgent West Ham. They have scored seven and conceded seven.
Chelsea come into the final following four wins and one loss – beating Tottenham, Liverpool, and United all 1-0, whilst beating Crystal Palace 4-0 and losing to Barcelona 4-1. They have scored eight and conceded four.
What do the managers say?
Marc Skinner: “To beat Chelsea in the final I think is something that is another step for us. It’s a big team, a big game, and it’s gonna be tight, there’s no doubt it’s going to be a tight game. So we have to be prepared for that.”
“I’m really happy with how we’ve performed this season and where we finished. But there’s also the competitor in me that wants to win these games.”
Sonia Bompastor: “We want to go into the game showing pride, but with the exciting news [new investment], you also want to feel responsible for the result we get on Sunday, and show our best version”.
“We have been really focused on that one last game, it’s a very important game for us, a final….we have the opportunity again in one game to win a trophy which will be something exceptional for the team and for the club.”
Chelsea v Manchester United kicks off at 13:30 UK time on Sunday, 18th May 2025. The game will be broadcast on BBC One in the UK.
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