Emma Hayes can't avoid Jurgen Klopp comparison as perfect Chelsea finale in doubt

If Emma Hayes' Chelsea swansong promised to be the greatest show in town, it's fair to say that her curtain call might just leave some spectators scratching their heads.

Just a few short weeks ago, the Blues were in the hunt for the quadruple, having lost only two of their last 28 games in all competitions. Now, they have tasted defeat in both of their last two and find themselves at risk of turning the final few months of Hayes' tenure into a forgettable footnote in a stellar career.

Sunday's FA Cup semi-final exit at the hands of Manchester United means Chelsea are now enduring their worst run of form since 2021. The statistics say the Blues dominated their opponents in every conceivable metric at Leigh Sports Village - enjoying 70% possession and registering 26 shots to United's five - and yet, just as they did against Arsenal in last month's Continental League Cup final, they emerged from the clash empty handed.

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"No-one died, we lost a football match," was Hayes' pragmatic assessment of the contest. "As a team we have to be better and we gave ourselves too much to do."

The Chelsea boss speaks with the wisdom of someone who has been there, done it and won it all. She has claimed 15 trophies in her 12 years at Kingsmeadow and, even if she does not add to that haul this term, she will depart this summer as an undisputed icon of the women's game.

But, after winning each of the last four Women's Super League (WSL) titles and three consecutive FA Cups, it is hard to shake the feeling that ending the season without any silverware would constitute somewhat of an anticlimax for the Blues' longtime figurehead. "We have to go home, turnaround, and play again on Wednesday so we don’t get a choice," Hayes told club media on Sunday when quizzed on her side's appetite to bounce back. "We have to get over this."

Indeed, the small mercy of Chelsea's overstuffed fixture list is that it leaves little time for despondent reflection. Hayes and her team will have to dust themselves off and go again in Wednesday's WSL clash with Aston Villa if they stand any chance of finishing the campaign with a flourish.

After that, they will travel to Catalonia, where they will take on Barcelona in the semi-finals of the Champions League , before hosting Jonatan Giráldez's side in the second leg at Stamford Bridge on April 27.

It is those two games that will, in all likelihood, define Chelsea's season. It was Barcelona who handed Hayes one of her most bruising managerial defeats - a 4-0 reverse in the 2021 Champions League final - with the Liga F leaders also having dumped Chelsea out at the semi-final stage of the competition last term.

Should the Blues manage to exact their revenge on the Catalans in the coming weeks, you would not bet against them ending their European hoodoo in Bilbao on May 25. Certainly, that would feel like the fairytale end to Hayes' glittering Chelsea chapter.

Then there is the small matter of the WSL title race to negotiate. The Blues are currently three points adrift of league leaders Manchester City, though they do have a game in hand on Gareth Taylor's side.

If both teams win all of their remaining matches, the title will be decided on goal difference and, with Chelsea having scored more goals than anyone else in the division, there's every chance the reigning champions will once again be in pole position when the sun eventually sets on the season in less than five weeks time.

Still, there is a worry that the emotional maelstrom that has been steadily brewing since Hayes announced she would be swapping west London for a new gig as head coach of the US Women's national team is threatening to blow Chelsea off course at exactly the wrong moment. It's worth noting that, on the same afternoon the Blues' treble hopes were extinguished in Greater Manchester, another fanbase were left contemplating the agony of letting their totemic manager depart without a grandstand finale as Liverpool suffered a shock defeat to Crystal Palace in the Premier League.

In the months since Jurgen Klopp announced his eyebrow-raising decision to step down this summer, it has felt as if the Reds were riding on a tidal wave of emotion that has helped carry them through a punishing injury crisis, a packed out fixture list and a host of imperfect performances.

They, too, were being touted to win the quadruple this term, before Manchester United dumped them out of the FA Cup and Atalanta's stunning 3-0 win at Anfield put their Europa League dream on life support. While Chelsea were battling to come from two goals down at Leigh Sports Village on Sunday afternoon, Liverpool were toiling away against Palace in the hope of returning to the top of the table.

But, while both teams were odds-on favourites heading into their respective clashes, it became increasingly hard to escape the feeling that it was simply not their day. "We just want to win every trophy we can for (Klopp) and give him the best send-off we can," Reds defender Conor Bradley said when asked about Liverpool's ambitions just a few short weeks ago.

It is a sentiment that has been shared at Kingsmeadow in recent times, with Chelsea talisman Lauren James noting last month how "everyone has that little bit more in them for Emma." While such emotion can be galvanising, there is always a danger it can start to cloud the senses and weary the muscles at the precise moment where having a robust body and mind is most vital.

There is also a sense that the growing sense of occasion is starting to affect Hayes herself, with the Blues boss having made some uncharacteristic missteps in her recent dealings with the press. First came her comments on player-to-player relationships which sparked some mutiny within her own ranks, then there was her touchline spat with Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall and the rather unsavoury accusations of "male aggression" that followed.

That she opted to deflect from her own misgivings by bizarrely reciting a Robert Frost poem in a press conference last week points to a manager who is perhaps feeling the unfamiliar heat of being in the media firing line.

"I believe this team, over a number of years, has delivered so much success for this football club and these fans," Hayes said on Tuesday afternoon. "Sometimes I feel the players are taken for granted.

"I don’t care about (people on the outside) – I only care about the fans. I care that they realise the level of success we have had is difficult to do all the time, to keep winning and winning and winning. I’m proud that we keep doing that even if it doesn’t always go our way."

The Chelsea boss is right: she has blazed such a trail during her time in west London that there is little need to worry about silencing any critics at this juncture. Whatever comes next, her WSL legacy remains peerless. But, for the fans whose compassion she so craves, Hayes will hope that the last few weeks only serve to inspire her team to greater heights in the weeks ahead.