No additional pressure on Chelsea after Conti Cup final defeat insists Hayes | OneFootball

Chelsea manager Emma Hayes says that there is no additional pressure on her side following their recent FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup final defeat to Arsenal.

The Blues resume their pursuit of silverware on Sunday afternoon when they travel to Leigh to contest an Adobe Women’s FA Cup semi-final tie with Manchester United.

Chelsea suffered an extra-time defeat to Arsenal in the FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup final last time out but manager Hayes insists that the result hasn’t attracted additional pressure for the remainder of the season.

“Every game is a pressure when you’re the manager of Chelsea,” Hayes said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “There’s no particular exception to that based on a previous result.”

Chelsea could still win three trophies before manager Hayes leaves the club at the end of the season. She believes that her upcoming exit does not impact how the team view their challenges between now and the end of the campaign.

She said “The team want to win for themselves, they want to win for the football club, they want to win for their families, they want to win because they’re winners. They’re sick to death of what they need to do for me and that’s fair; it’s not about me, it’s about them and us as a collective maximising the situations that we are in.

“There are three pieces of silverware up for grabs and we are grateful to be in a position to be competing for them. We are looking forward to it.”

Winning this weekend’s tie would hand Hayes one final opportunity to lead Chelsea out in an Adobe Women’s FA Cup final, however, she again played down the sentimental aspect of qualifying for a Wembley showdown.

“I don’t think about it because in top level football, you can’t run away with those things,” Hayes said. “I want to do what I can for the team in whatever capacity.

“As a team, we’ve done so well over multiple years. I don’t think in the last five years any other team has played the volume of games that we have, let alone the number of finals we’ve reached. That takes it’s toll in so many ways. I just have so much admiration for the players to keep doing it again and again.

“I would really hate to be at this stage of the season and not be competing for anything, so I’m happy to be in a place where we are competing for FA Cup, Champions League, league. That keeps the group nice and motivated.”

Chelsea’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup semi-final tie at Manchester United kicks-off at 2.35pm on Sunday afternoon.