Chelsea's Emma Hayes facing a difficult 'farewell tour'

Chelsea women's team manager Emma Hayes is enduring a difficult 'farewell tour' after the Blues were knocked out of the FA Cup at the semi-final stage on Sunday.

Lucía García and Rachel Williams put Manchester United 2-0 ahead in the semi-final at the weekend at Leigh Sports Village with Lauren James pulling one back for the current holders. Yet despite a second half of Chelsea constantly attacking as United defended desperately, the London side couldn't find a way back into the fixture.

That result comes just a few weeks after Chelsea lost the Conti Cup final to Arsenal at Molineux with Emma Hayes having a similar high-profile final season at her club as Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool.

Both managers had a potential quadruple on their hands but have endured tough recent weeks.

While Klopp's side already wrapped up the Carabao Cup, they were recently knocked out of the FA Cup by Manchester United (much like Chelsea), slipped up in the league (although they remain just two points behind Manchester City while Hayes' Chelsea are three behind City in the WSL), and their European fate hangs in the balance.

For Liverpool, that means having to overturn a 3-0 deficit against Atalanta in Bergamo. And for Chelsea, it means facing by far the best women's club team in Europe, Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals.

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Hayes gave Eidevall a shove after the final whistle and accused the Gunners' boss of 'male aggression' for the previous incident with Cuthbert. Eidevall said he fought such an accusation was 'irresponsible'.

The future US women's national team manager has been incredibly successful with Chelsea but she is not always known for being graceful in defeat – we can draw another parallel to Klopp here.

In the press conference before the weekend's FA Cup clash with United, Hayes responded to her critics by quoting the Robert Frost poem 'Choose Something like a Star': "So when at times the mob is swayed / To carry praise or blame too far / We may choose something like a star / To stay our minds on and be staid."

It was a strange press conference to be sure, but Hayes sounded far more steely after the United game despite seeing defeat in a second competition in as many games.

While bemoaning some refereeing decisions and her own side’s inability to get on level terms (despite 70% possession and having 26 shots in the game), she was already focused on the next game at home to Aston Villa before the return to the Champions League shortly afterwards.

"We have to get on with it, we've got a lot of games to go. As always I'm reflective on what I need to do. Everyone is competitive so of course they will be disappointed."

Hayes will need to use all of the managerial experience that got her to this stage to get her team back on track.

With Barcelona on the horizon and five more league games ahead (including a trip to Old Trafford on the final day of the season), there is a real danger that Chelsea's season could go from a potential quadruple to absolutely nothing.

That would be far from a poetic ending for Hayes' trophy-laden spell as Chelsea manager.