Things we learned from the weekend’s WSL matches | OneFootball

Barely two months ago, everything about the Women’s Super League seemed so clear.

Chelsea, champions in each of the past six seasons, would be the team to beat. Arsenal, basking in the warm afterglow of Champions League glory, would mount a serious title challenge for the first time since 2019. Manchester City had work to do to reclaim a European place, while the appointment of Gareth Taylor signalled a determination on the part of Liverpool to push for an improvement on last season’s mid-table finish.

It would be fair to say things have not worked out entirely as anticipated so far. Events in the league this weekend underlined why.

City retain their Knaak for winning in the Women’s Super League

Local bragging rights, a spectacular strike from the returning Lauren Hemp and an eighth consecutive WSL victory. Yes, life is good for Manchester City head coach Andrée Jeglertz, whose attempt to mark his first season in charge by delivering the club’s first WSL title since 2016 could hardly be going better. Unencumbered by the demands of European football, City have rediscovered their form and consistency under the Swede, with Saturday’s resounding 3-0 victory over Manchester United merely the latest evidence of the range and potency of their attacking options.  

“We have so many different ways of attacking: crosses, central plays, set-pieces,” said Jeglertz. “We have qualities in every position. We’ve arrived in this state quicker than I hoped for.”

Inevitably, the main focus afterwards was on Hemp’s stunning long-range effort into the top corner. But while the 25-year-old England international could not have chosen a better way to celebrate her first start in almost two months, after recovering from a lingering ankle injury,  the foundations for that bold strike were laid in more prosaic fashion, when she sent in a far-post corner to Khadija Shaw, who nodded the ball back across goal for Rebecca Knaak to head home the opener. 

It was City’s eighth goal from a set-piece this season – no other team has scored more – and it gave them freedom to get the ball down and play, as evidenced by Hemp’s narrow failure to convert a gorgeous lobbed effort after the break. As Jeglertz suggested, the range of City’s attacking options has been key to their success so far this season.

Consistency proves elusive for Arsenal

Having won the Champions League last season, Arsenal might struggle even to qualify for it next term if they continue in their current vein.

A drab draw against Tottenham on Saturday marked the fifth time this season Renée Slegers’ side have dropped points and, with eight points now separating them from league leaders Manchester City, talk of a title challenge has dissipated. Arsenal are now without a win in three games across all competitions and, while they are hardly in crisis, their lack of cutting edge on an afternoon when victory would have lifted them into the top three was an obvious area of concern for Slegers.

“The Champions League win showed how good we are when we’re at our very, very best,” said the Dutchwoman, whose second-half introduction of Olivia Smith brought greater threat but no tangible reward. “That’s something we need to keep on building on. How can we be consistently at our best? And how do we get things over the line when things are hard?”

They are questions to which Slegers will hope to find answers before Real Madrid and Liverpool come this week. 

Liverpool show signs of adapting to Gareth Taylor’s methods

It takes time for a team to establish a new identity, especially in a season touched by tragedy. That reality has been keenly felt on Merseyside this season, on both sides of the gender divide. But the signs are that the Gareth Taylor revolution is slowly gathering momentum. After starting the campaign with six straight losses, Liverpool picked up a point for the second weekend in a row, and while nobody at the club will be getting carried away just yet, the fact that the latest point came courtesy of a resolute performance against league champions Chelsea suggests the former Manchester City manager is making headway. 

Things did not look promising for Liverpool when they fell behind after just nine minutes, but there was a spirit about their performance that augurs well for the survival scrap ahead. Defending in numbers, Taylor’s players showed togetherness and determination in equal measure, ensuring Alyssa Thompson’s early strike was the last effort Chelsea would get on target all afternoon. West Ham’s victory over Everton ensured Liverpool remain bottom of the WSL for now but, if they continue to perform with the same level of intensity, they will not remain there.  

Liverpool undoubtedly rode their luck at times – inevitably, given the visitors’ quality and depth – and Catarina Macário will still be wondering how she failed to convert a gilt-edged opportunity from the edge of the six-year box just before the break. In Beata Olsson, however, the Merseysiders’ have a gifted forward of their own. The manner in which the 24-year-old Swede scored her third goal in as many games, gathering a lovely through ball from the excellent Lily Woodham before outpacing the Chelsea defence and slotting coolly past Livia Peng, highlighted the threat Liverpool can pose on the counter-attack. 

It was a markedly different finish from the poacher’s goals Olsson produced against Brighton and Tottenham, and offered a useful blueprint for Taylor’s team as they seek to pick up more points while adapting to his possession-based style. If Liverpool continue to press and defend as they did against Chelsea, while making the most of their pace and potency on the counter-attack, they will surely start to climb the table.

Should we be worried about Chelsea’s Women’s Super League title defence?

In Alyssa Thompson, Chelsea had the best player on the pitch at St Helens Stadium. But despite a brilliant solo effort from the 21-year-old United States forward and an unbeaten WSL record that now stands at 34 games, Chelsea have drawn three of their past five games and now sit three points behind league leaders City. Is it a blip, or something more serious?

It might seem faintly absurd even to ask that question, given that we are not even half way through the season. Yet for all the individual quality on show against Liverpool – underlined by a lively second-half cameo from Aggie Beever-Jones – there was, as Thompson acknowledged, a lack of cohesion about the Blues that might just worry manager Sonia Bompastor. 

“I feel like we just need to be a little more connected on the field, defensively and offensively,” said Thompson. “I think you saw that a little towards the end, we were able to keep it a little more, but we need to do that throughout the game.”

After mustering just a single shot on target, Chelsea’s worst return in five years, it is an issue Bompastor will want to fix sooner rather than later, what with a Champions League showdown with Barcelona looming on Thursday.

West Ham enjoy the rub of the green in the Women’s Super League

Given events at St Helens, West Ham could not have picked a better moment to claim their first win of the Women’s Super League campaign. A 3-1 victory at home to Everton lifted them off the foot of the table, denying Liverpool the chance to inch away from the relegation play-off spot. Luck is always welcome in such circumstances and Anouk Denton’s opener, a misplaced cross that fortuitously crept inside the near post, provided West Ham with the impetus to claim a vital three points. 

Like Rebecca Knaak’s opener for Manchester City, Denton’s strike eased the pressure on her team-mates. So too did the header from Amber Tysiak, nodded home from a Vivianne Asseyi corner, that followed nine minutes later. 

It all meant that when Shekiera Martinez collected a cut-back from Riko Uek shortly after the break, the 24-year-old German was able to avoid the close attention of two Everton defenders and tuck home a neat finish without having to worry about the potential repercussions of missing. Forwards thrive on confidence, and scoring for a third straight match across all competitions can only help Martinez as she seeks to recapture the form of last season, when she found the net 10 times in 12 matches.