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The sight of Millie Bright lifting a piece of silverware in Chelsea colours is not a new one.Her League Cup medal, received on Saturday following a 2-1 win over Manchester City, was her 14th major honour as a Chelsea player, and her second while club captain. But the victory also represented a new chapter for the club, with it marking the start of a new section of the trophy cabinet, under Sonia Bompastor’s management.
For all of Chelsea’s unparalleled success in domestic football, the League Cup was a trophy that has eluded them more often than they would have liked. They had lost the previous three finals, and the 31-year-old Bright admitted after the match that it was something that had weighed on her.
“Things like that sit in the back of your mind,” she told the BBC. “It’s certainly been doing my head in for a long time.”
Bright was crucial to her team’s win with the match resting on each defence’s ability to deal with the physical presence of the opposition’s striker. A bobbly playing surface — described as “disappointing” by Bright — at Derby County’s Pride Park left both teams unable to showcase their full range of technical ability.
It further heightened the importance of Colombia striker Mayra Ramirez for Chelsea and Jamaica striker ‘Bunny’ Shaw for Manchester City. The tone was set within the opening minutes when City looked to play a ball up towards Shaw only for Bright to come charging past her to head it upfield.
It was Ramirez who opened the scoring for Chelsea, after she was played in behind City’s defence by Lauren James and she should have had a second in a similar one-v-one scenario when Chelsea decided to boot the ball long. Laia Aleixandri looked particularly unsettled but at the other end of the pitch, Bright was doing her best to do the opposite to Shaw, in tandem with her defensive partner Nathalie Bjorn.
Bright is clearly someone who relishes a physical battle against one of the few players who can actually match her for size. “Tackle after tackle, that’s what we’re here for,” she told journalists after the game. She did not time everything perfectly — there was a crunching challenge on Shaw seven minutes in which required treatment — but she never backs down, even when it doesn’t go right. Her “bodies on the line” approach was summed up when she hauled her team-mate Sjoeke Nusken off the floor following a corner in order for her to get back to her tactical duties as quickly as possible.
It might seem strange to say it given the season she is having but there was no guarantee Bright would play the same role she did under her former manager Emma Hayes. She was named Chelsea captain at the start of last season before missing almost all of it with a knee issue that had its roots in an injury sustained against Bompastor’s Lyon in March 2023. In her absence, Hayes relied on younger leaders like Erin Cuthbert and Niamh Charles, who memorably captained one half each of the final in this competition last year.
But there never seems to have been any doubt that Bright would continue in this role under Bompastor, and her new manager’s trust in her is emphasised by the amount she has played. She has been ever present in the league this season, a feat only matched by goalkeeper Hannah Hampton.
“Since I joined, Millie is doing really great on the pitch, but also outside of it,” Bompastor said in her post-match press conference.
“She’s really having an impact on the team and I’m pleased for her because she is a good player but also a good person.
“It’s always positive when one of your leaders, the main leader at Chelsea, is performing at that level. She sets the tone for everyone else. As the captain, she led by example.”
In the lead up to the match, Bompastor emphasised how much had changed at the club since she came in during the summer. But Bright is one of those key elements of continuity that has provided such a strong base for this remarkable season. Their unbeaten run now extends to 27 games across all competitions, and they have an eight-point lead at the top of the WSL table.
“Today is just what we’re about,” said Bright in the mixed zone after the match.
“It’s who we are as Chelsea and what we’re prepared to do as players.
“We can play the pretty football. We can go straight to goal. We can play scruffy. We’ll defend forever and we’ll keep attacking and pushing to get our chances. Any type of game we’ll be up for it.
“That’s the beauty of being part of such an amazing team and club is we’ll do whatever it takes to win. That’s been our magic gift over several years. It’s something that’s within our DNA. We’re certainly not going to lose that.”
Bright signed a contract extension on March 6, keeping her at the club for at least a further season. From Bompastor, the message was clear. In a video posted on club social media she was filmed telling her players this was their first trophy “in the pocket”. This one might have been banked but there are still three more on offer and she intends to win them all.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Chelsea, Soccer, UK Women's Football
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