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WHAT HAYES SAID
, Hayes said: "It's emotional. I have had a lot going on thinking about it [her departure]. I have spent a third of my life doing this with Chelsea. It has been my home, my family. My family have been here with me, my son has been born here. I experienced my dad dying in the last year in a club that has been my entire heart.
"It has felt strange for me in the last couple of months but I am grateful. I look out tonight and see the fans and I feel the love and I feel the love for the team and it is all I have ever really wanted.
"These are my people, this is my community, I'd go to war with them and I have done. I wouldn't change a single day and I am grateful to have been given the honour to be manager of this team."
THE BIGGER PICTURE
It has been a mixed second half of the season for Hayes and Chelsea who, going for a quadruple, were knocked out of the Conti Cup, FA Cup and Champions League in the space of just over a month.
"We've had some disappointments, no question, but I think the players wanted to put in a performance that was worthy of what champions look like," Hayes explained. "We didn't want to go out on a whimper, for Fran [Kirby], for Maren [Mjelde], we wanted to make it a game to remember for the fans."
With just the WSL title left up for grabs, Chelsea needed a miracle to catch leaders Manchester City, who could have gone within one point of all-but-sealing the WSL title on Sunday.
However, a late Stina Blackstenius brace for Arsenal snatched victory away from City. Chelsea's eight goals then put the title back in their own hands after overhauling City's superior goal difference.
Hayes could not believe Sunday's events. She said: "What are the chances of that? That at the beginning of the day that Arsenal would beat City late on and we would win 8-0, what are the odds of that? That shows you what you can do when you have belief.
"I said to the players that we have to be ready. If Man City slip up, we have to be ready. Today was another opportunity for us to get closer to something that was slipping out of our grasp quite honestly. I am super proud. Everything Chelsea represents was shown there today."