When Emma Hayes lost this trophy for the third consecutive time last March, just mere months after announcing her departure from west London, few would have believed that it would take less than 12 months for Chelsea to be in this position, dominating the English game the way that they are.

But that is the job that Sonia Bompastor has done since arriving on these shores. 28 games later, 28 games undefeated. 26 wins, 2 draws, and not a defeat yet to add to her CV.

Of course, she has been helped by some generous purse strings at the club, adding the likes of world-record signing Naomi Girma and two-time Champions League and Euros winner Keira Walsh to her ranks in January.

But she has also added self-belief and determination to this side. They do not go down without a fight, which they demonstrated here, even without Girma and Walsh in their ranks.

For City, they made the boldest gamble by sacking their head coach Gareth Taylor just five days before this final, with former manager Nick Cushing coming in to take over until the end of the season.

Whether or not this will backfire will be told in two weeks’ time, when the last of these two sides’ four consecutive meetings concludes with the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea won the Women’s League Cup on Saturday by beating Man City 2-1 at Pride Park

Sonia Bompastor won her first trophy since replaced Emma Hayes as manager of Chelsea 

Chelsea have now won the Women’s League Cup an impressive three times in five years

The game itself wasn’t as straight-forward as Bompastor would have liked it, necessarily.

Chelsea took the lead in the opening ten minutes through former club-record signing Mayra Ramirez.

Lauren James sent a line-cutting pass through to Ramirez, the Colombian striker managing to shrug off her nearest defender, Laia Aleixandri, and play the shot, which was sent pinging off City keeper Ayaka Yamishita’s knee and another City defender before landing at her feet. She coolly tapped in, sending the travelling Chelsea crowd behind the goal into a frenzy.

But Manchester City responded well. Bunny Shaw was characteristically City’s major threat in attack, but Chelsea, aware of the Jamaican’s powers both aerially and with her feet, were quick to mark her out of the game.

Cushing, sporting a black armband in honour of Poppy Atkinson, the 10-year-old footballer who lost her life earlier this month in a car accident, cut an animated figure on the touchline. A marked difference from Taylor, who would spend the first half in the stands due to his preferences to analyse the game from higher up.

Cushing’s side dominated possession in the first half, enjoying 60 per cent of the share and going into the break with 21 touches in the opposition’s box to Chelsea’s seven.

Mayra Ramirez scored the opening goal of the game for Chelsea in only the eighth minute

Aoba Fujino equalised for Man City when she found the net 19 minutes into the second half

But Chelsea went on to win Saturday’s game thanks to a late own goal by Yui Hasegawa (left)

A wonderful save from Yamashita denied Johanna Rytting Kaneryd at the beginning of the second half as Chelsea started to go through the gears in an attempt to put the game to bed. They were pressing more aggressively and winning the ball higher up the pitch.

And then, against the run of play, Aoba Fujino drew the score level in the 65th minute with a wonderful strike from the just inside the penalty area. Questions will be raised whether Hannah Hampton should have done better, but City got what they deserved after a sustained period of dominance.

Shaw should have given City the lead a few minutes later when she found herself one-on-one with Hampton, but she failed to direct her shot beyond the England international. Miedema had a go a few minutes later with a tame shot also at Hampton.

Fujino’s compatriot Yui Hasegawa undid all of City’s hard work less than ten minutes later, with an unfortunate own goal to restore Chelsea’s lead.

The goal had come as a result of some hard-earned work in the build-up from Lucy Bronze, who managed to poke the ball to substitute Aggie Beever-Jones, who laid it off for Mayra Ramirez.

The goal scorer squared the ball into the box, attempting to find the pass back to Beever-Jones, only for Hasegawa’s clearance to loop over her goalkeeper and into her net. It was an unfortunate way to lose the lead, and an especially unfortunate way to lose the final.

But there has been a sense of inevitability following this Chelsea team since Bompastor took the reins, and the French coach will be relieved that the first available cup is already hers.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Hampton 7; Bronze 8, Bjorn 7.5, Bright 7.5, Baltimore 7 (Charles 87); Cuthbert 7.5, Nusken 7.5; Kaneryd 7 (Beever-Jones 74, 8), Macario 8 (Hamano 74, 8), James 7.5; Ramirez 9 (Kaptein 79)

Scorer(s): Ramirez 8

Booked: Bronze

Manager: Sonia Bompastor

Manchester City (4-3-3): Yamashita 7; Casparij 6.5, Prior 6.5, Aleixandri 6, Ouahabi 6; Roord 6.5, Hasegawa 5.5, Miedema 6; Fujino 7 (Park 81), Shaw 6.5 (Kerolin 81), Fowler 6

Scorer(s): Fujino 64, Hasegawa (OG) 77

Booked: Miedema, Shaw

Manager: Nick Cushing

Referee: Emily Heaslip 6

Attendance: 14,187