Marc Skinner sounds rebel yell to Manchester United before Chelsea cup clash | OneFootball

“Rebel” Marc Skinner has challenged his Manchester United players to “go through hell” in their quest to retain the Women’s FA Cup at the expense of Chelsea’s invincibles.

The holders will face Sonia Bompastor’s WSL champions and League Cup winners at Wembley on Sunday knowing they will have to upset the odds to get the better of a team who went through the league campaign unbeaten.

However, they did just that at the semi-final stage last season and Skinner wants more of the same when it matters most.

He said: “Results-wise, Chelsea are the best team and the hardest team to come up against. If you know anything about us, we are rebels and we don’t like just accepting this is the case.

“I am a rebel, my nature is rebellious so for me, it is about not accepting that just because they have the best resource, they have to be the best team on every occasion.

“When you set yourself up for that challenge and you know you will have to go through hell to get the victory, if you prepare for that, then I believe you can do something special.

“That is something we want to do and something I want this team to do. Of course I believe in our quality to deliver that.”

United finished two places and 16 points behind Chelsea, who dropped only six points all season, in the league, a reflection of the distance they still have to travel to compete with the Blues on a level playing field.

However, while Skinner may be envious of the club’s spending power – Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian this week bought a reported 10 per cent stake in the club for around £20million – he insists that simply piles more pressure on Bompastor.

He said: “You are funding to win Champions League and go domestically unbeaten. Their task becomes harder in my opinion because they are going from they’ve got to achieve that 0.5 per cent, not one per cent, it is even smaller.

“For us what that does is, if you are a sports person, it just makes you compete better. The reality is you’re not playing Chelsea every week.

“You play them in two events – or maybe three if it’s FA Cup final – but if you can maximise those, you can beat them anyway because they are still human.”

Skinner, who will be without defender Jayde Riviere through injury, but will otherwise have a fully fit squad from which to choose, knows Chelsea are favourites to claim a third trophy of the campaign, but wants his players to embrace that challenge.

He said: “If we embrace it, we can beat anyone. We have no doubt about that. We expect the most difficult of challenges, but what is a final for otherwise? If it was easy, what is the point?”