After making a perfect start to her Chelsea career, Sonia Bompastor is refusing to rest on her laurels., saying that to win matches means nothing if they do not lead to trophies.
Bompastor had huge shoes to fill after taking over from the hugely successful Emma Hayes in the summer, but her squad has hardly skipped a beat, starting the new season undefeated in six matches. After putting five goals past Tottenham, seven past Crystal Palace, and winning a London Derby at the Emirates, she is setting her sights on silverware.
Sunday’s 5-2 win over Tottenham at Kingsmeadow Stadium saw her become just the third manager in WSL history to win all her first four league matches, a feat only previously achieved by Birmingham City’s David Parker and newly out-of-work Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall.
Speaking after Sunday’s match, she said she was not aware of the statistic.
She said: “I did not know that information, but I am so happy about that. I want to thank my players because they are the ones on the pitch and making me look good!
There was a caveat to her reaction, though. For Bompastor, simply winning matches is not enough.
“This is just the beginning of the season,” she said.
“At the moment we have not won anything. We have a lot of ambitions and we just need to make sure we continue like that to make sure we win some titles.”
Speaking on the match itself, Bompastor criticised the assistant referee’s decision to award a goal to Tottenham after Hannah Hampton dropped the ball on her goal line, calling for the addition of goal line technology the women’s game.
She said: “In that type of call you have to be sure, 100%. From Hannah’s attitude I think maybe the ball was not in, but it was too difficult for me to say, I was too far away.
“I just think if you have the technology in the men’s game you should have it in the women’s game. It has been now 10 years for the men’s game, so if we want to look more professional we need to look for that.”
Chelsea overcame the frustration which came with the decision though, with Bompastor admitting that ultimately it was “A really great win for sure… high performance, I think. My players were able to play with high intensity and I really enjoyed the game.”
Featured image credit: Harry Murphy/Getty Images via OneFootball
