A number of players looked to be nursing sore heads from two consecutive days of partying following their triumph over Barcelona in Lisbon while head coach Renée Slegers appeared to be losing her voice.
This was a day many had not seen coming, not least those who support the club that had landed a domestic treble just a week earlier. It was a not so subtle dig from Alex Scott, who was hosting the event at the Emirates, that would have hit a nerve for any Chelsea fans who may have switched on the news at the wrong time.
“There are other teams, not mentioning names, who have been trying to do this and trying to get their name on that \[Champions League\] trophy,” Scott said. “But it’s the Arsenal name once again.”
It is no secret that Chelsea are desperate to win the Champions League. They made the final in 2021 but were beaten 4-0 by Barcelona and they have lost to the Spanish side in the semi-finals for the last three seasons.
Chelsea have won the last six Women’s Super League titles. This season they also won the League and FA Cup. Arsenal’s victory in Europe does not diminish that achievement, but watching their rivals celebrate lifting the one piece of silverware that has evaded them will undoubtedly have left a bitter taste.
Arsenal were inconsistent in the WSL this season, that is why they finished 12 points behind Chelsea. But against Barcelona they were almost faultless. Every player gave the performance of their lives. Does that victory suddenly make them a better team than Barcelona or Chelsea? Probably not. But what it has done is give Arsenal’s players a taste of success and that is often infectious.
“You win once and you’re like, now we have to defend it,” defender Steph Catley said. “We have to stay Champions League winners. There’s so much we want to win in the league. We want an FA Cup, we want the League Cup again, we want the league. We feel like we could have done better this year, the way we built up momentum, but this is something amazing to build on for next season. We’ve got a taste of the ultimate success, so we definitely want more.
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“Next year, we want to go up another level, we want to build and we want to be even better than we were this year. So I think combining it all together, we’ll hopefully be a beast next year. That’s the goal.”
Slegers and her players have repeatedly talked about wanting to end Chelsea’s dominance in the WSL and the club has held meetings about where they need to close the gap.
“It’s funny because leading up to it \[the final\] you think, ‘Oh, just get this’ and like that’ll be it,” Leah Williamson, one of the standout performers in Lisbon, said. “Then as soon as you do it, you get hungrier and then you see the capabilities as well. Now you have the belief, you have the evidence, so who’s to say there’s not more to come?”
After the players had departed and Slegers was giving the remaining supporters one last wave, the crowd broke into a chant of the well-known “Allez, Allez, Allez” song. Within the verse there is a line about how Arsenal are “the only in the land (not Chelsea)” to have won in Europe.
Being the only English club to have won the Champions League is a badge Arsenal wear with pride and something they remind their rivals of on a regular basis.
“I’m proud of that and that we’re only in team in the land (to have won the Women’s Champions League),” Williamson said. “It’s a thing to be proud of. I don’t play football to make other people unhappy, I play to make people happy and I care about my people.
“And anybody that’s Arsenal − red and white − is going to have a summer to remember now.
“I’m so proud of what we do off the pitch, who we are, how we lead and how we carry ourselves. I’m so proud of that but I want to win and Arsenal should be winning. I’ve looked at that legacy all my life.
“I’ve been aware of that all my life and I wanted to contribute to it. I didn’t want to end my career just being loyal. Loyalty is great but loyalty with trophies is just something else. This week I’ve spoken to Tony Adams and Thierry Henry, people I watched and they were incredible and they won and that’s why they are remembered the way they are.”
McCabe, who was leading most of the celebrations, gave the Arsenal fans a customary “what do you think of Tottenham?” chant. But it is Chelsea, not Tottenham, who are Arsenal’s rivals in the women’s game. After this weekend, that competition is only likely to get stronger and more fierce.