This game was everything an FA Cup semi-final should be. It had a scarcely believable start, controversy, scuffles, goalkeeping heroics, nerve-shredding tension, one preternaturally gifted villain and an upset that blows Chelsea’s season further off course.
As April approached, there were growing whispers that Emma Hayes could win the Quadruple in her farewell season. Yet after Sunday’s defeat by Manchester United in the FA Cup last four, the Chelsea manager bowing out with no silverware this campaign is now genuinely possible, if not probable.
Faults in the Chelsea machine emerged in the Continental Cup final two weeks ago, as Arsenal won and Hayes caused a storm with her “male aggression” comment towards Jonas Eidevall, her opposite number. On Sunday United ended Chelsea’s FA Cup hopes