7 months ago
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Chelsea boss Emma Hayes wants to "enjoy this week as much as possible" as she prepares to bid farewell to the club.
The Blues face Tottenham in the Women's Super League on Wednesday in a match you can watch live on BBC Four from 19:00 BST, before travelling to Old Trafford to play Manchester United in their season finale on Saturday.
Hayes' side are second behind Manchester City but will head into the final day top of the WSL if they win their game in hand at Spurs.
"I’m going to enjoy being in this position," Hayes said when asked about the emotion heading into her penultimate game in charge of the club where she has spent the last 12 years.
"You don’t often get into a position where you are competing for a title going into the last two games of a season. For those of us who have won titles, we know how hard it is.
"I’m happy to be in the position we’re in. I know we have two tough games but I’m looking forward to them."
It wasn't long ago that Chelsea were fighting on four fronts and hoping to win a WSL, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup quadruple.
But with disappointment and exits in all three cup competitions, winning silverware in her final campaign hinges on the league and a potential seventh domestic title.
"You can’t win everything all of the time," said Hayes, who is leaving Chelsea to manage the United States women's national team.
"But to be in a position to compete for our fifth title in five years, I’d like to see another team do that over the next five years. The reason I say that is nobody really understands how hard that is to keep winning.
"To be in a position to compete for that, that’s all I wanted the team to be in. I just want them to enjoy the next two games."
Hayes previously said the WSL title race was "done" after her side suffered a shock 4-3 defeat by Liverpool.
But after Manchester City slipped up by losing 2-1 to Arsenal in their last game, just hours before Chelsea hammered Bristol City 8-0, Hayes said Gareth Taylor's side "opened the door for us again".
"If you ask Man City they know they were in a commanding position," she added. "They just had to get a result at home and they didn’t. A week is a long time in football."
Spurs boss Robert Vilahamn praised Hayes as a "a big role model for women's football" when speaking in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
But there is no room for sentiment and, after a 4-0 defeat by Manchester United in Sunday's FA Cup final, Vilahamn sees this as the perfect game for his players to bounce back in.
"I like that this game comes now," he said. "I like that we can bounce back, hopefully play some really good football and make sure we finish in a good way.
"In one way it’s good that we get this game so close to the other game. Sometimes you want to play and see if you can get back on the tracks. It’s Chelsea and it’s a big game for us."
Chelsea were 2-1 winners when the sides met in October's reverse fixture and Vilahamn believes his side are closing the gap between the WSL's top sides.
While Wednesday's game will have no bearing on Spurs' league position having already secured a sixth-placed finish, Vilahamn is hungry to beat his London rivals.
He said: "When we get a chance to play against Chelsea and we can play without any pressure, in one way because we already know where we are going to end up in the table, that makes me even more brave to play the way we want to play.
"But we want to win this game, we want to compete and do everything we can."
