The latest dose of Chelsea revelry had only just softened into a celebratory buzz at Select Car Leasing Stadium, but Sam Kerr was already dealing her club a new target.
“The next step for us is to play like that in the Champions League,” the striker told Sky Sports. “To win two trophies is amazing but it would have been great to have brought two more back to Chelsea."
Such is the ruthless mentality fuelling serial champions Chelsea, that even a freshly secured WSL title –a fourth on the bounce, along with a consecutive third league and FA Cup double –does not suffice, not even momentarily.
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"I think we weren't far off [in the Champions League],” added Kerr. “We went toe to toe with Barcelona for parts of each leg, and we have had some big players missing, Millie Bright, and Pernille [Harder] wasn't fully fit. So it's tough and the league is getting tougher, but we aren't far off, we really aren't."
Kerr’s brace in the 3-0 victory over Reading secured another Blues’ title defence and sentenced the Royals to WSL relegation. The striker opened the scoring shortly before the 20-minute mark as she nodded home a cross from Guro Reiten. The header was conspicuously more difficult than the one the Australian spurned not five minutes earlier from the opposite flank, but the question of whether Kerr would find the back of the net was less one of if but when.
Provider Reiten turned scorer two minutes from half-time to double Chelsea’s advantage over Reading, and a dominant second-half performance in which Chelsea hardly edged out of second gear was deservedly given its goal as Kerr slotted home Chelsea’s third and final goal in the 88th minute, rebounding her original shot that parried off the far post.
And Kerr insisted post-match that the final result came with little shock. "I think at the end of the day it was always in our hands, right?” she said. “Of course there is a bit of pressure but it was the same last year. We knew that if we won every game and took care of ourselves then [we would win].
"I think we like it that way. We play better like that, under pressure.
She added: "I think we've shown over the last few years that in the last few games of the season, we're a different team. It sounds bad, but once you get knocked out of the Champions League, it is easier to be fresh and to prepare for games.”
Even so, the air of inevitability did not take away from a riveting title race. Manchester United finished the season two points behind Chelsea, forcing their champagne celebrations into a pause until the final day of the season. And Kerr admitted that emerging victorious in the WSL is becoming a more difficult task.
"I think [title wins] get better each year," she added. "They definitely get harder. It makes it so much sweeter when it is so tight at the top. It's my fourth but it is some people's first, so we'll all celebrate it like it's the first.”
Kerr’s brace lifted her goal tally to 28 in all competitions this season, 12 in the league. It is a heady tally, yet one that has managed to come under scrutiny by some camps with Kerr’s clinical edge questioned in light of previous seasons.
Not that the striker pays much notice.
"People are never happy, right? If I'm scoring they say 'it's not about the stats', but when I'm not scoring they then say 'well it's about the stats', so I keep doing whatever wins trophies,” she added.
“I don't really care about what people say about me honestly, I'm with the greatest team in England. I'm happy, the team is happy, so it's not about me, it's about the team.”
