Fifty years since the first Women’s FA Cup final, Emma Hayes’s
Chelsea showed the domestic game is in rude health
![Chelsea and ‘Kerrby’ combination set standards Arsenal cannot reach | Louise Taylor](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/589a665586bd508c887f58707f28192eb1e02a45/0_117_3545_2128/master/3545.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=3ac4236cfedde55f252b2bf5bd48a9a1)
A satisfying sense of symmetry surrounded a Women’s FA Cup final which, in some ways, seemed almost as much about the past as a reassuringly vibrant present.
One hundred years to the day since the
Football Association banned
Women from playing football on grounds belonging to affiliated men’s clubs on the basis that the game was “quite unsuitable for females”, Chelsea – and Fran Kirby and Sam Kerr in particular – thoroughly undid
Arsenal in a final postponed from last season.