City complete title-winning campaign with comfortable West Ham victory

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Manchester City Women

·16 de mayo de 2026

City complete title-winning campaign with comfortable West Ham victory

Barclays Women’s Super League champions Manchester City equalled our best-ever points-haul with a 4-1 final day win at West Ham United.

Jade Rose grabbed her first WSL goal for City to hand us an early lead, with Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw’s close-range strike doubling our advantage before the hour.

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West Ham responded soon after through Seraina Piubel, but Shaw pounced once again with a clinical finish from Laura Coombs’ pass.

Coombs then rounded off the scoring in her final WSL match before retirement to close the book on a special league campaign for Andrée Jeglertz’s side.

What happened

City had already sealed the WSL title with a game to spare but started strongly to end a special league campaign on a high.

A beautifully worked move involving Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw and Mary Fowler set Hemp on her way in behind the West Ham defence, but Szemik made an excellent stop to keep the scores level.

But the Blues would take the lead from the resulting corner, with West Ham failing to clear their lines and Rose pouncing on a loose ball to smash home.

Despite City controlling large spells of possession, it remained a relatively even contest after Rose’s opener, with Szemik making another excellent save to deny Fowler early in the second half.

She could do nothing to stop Shaw just before the hour mark though, with the Jamaican meeting Aoba Fujino’s pinpoint cross to tap home.

In doing so, our No.9 became the first player in WSL history to reach the 20-goal mark in three separate seasons and also brought up 100 goal contributions in just 93 appearances.

The hosts, buoyed by successive WSL wins before our visit, hit back when Piubel pounced in the City penalty area soon after, but Shaw once again showed her predatory instinct with a 21st goal of the campaign.

And the victory was sealed when Coombs, who’d set up the Jamaican for our third, made it four with a deflected effort, before being mobbed by her team-mates after recently announcing her retirement at the end of the season.

A fitting WSL farewell to one of City’s finest servants, though Eartha Cumings did brilliantly to prevent the hosts from a late consolation with a smart double save.

Chart Toppers

Our title triumph was further underlined by some impressive individual records which were sealed on the final day.

Shaw’s scoring exploits had seemingly assured her of a record third successive WSL Golden Boot well before the final day, and the Jamaican finished the campaign with 21 league goals to her name – equalling her best-ever campaign in front of goal.

Kerstin Casparij also finished the campaign with the most assists in the top flight, level on seven with Aston Villa’s Lynn Wilms, while she became only the third defender in WSL history to reach ten goal contributions.

Ayaka Yamashita’s seven clean sheets weren’t quite enough for the Golden Glove though, with Chelsea’s Hannah Hampton pipping her to the post after picking up a clean sheet against Manchester United.

WSL Champions

There was a party atmosphere at the Chigwell Construction Stadium, with a sea of sky blue supporters making themselves heard across the afternoon.

City didn’t let the celebratory occasion affect our performance though, with Rose handing us a deserved early lead when pouncing in the area from a corner, before Shaw doubled the advantage before the hour.

We were made to work for the win by a tenacious West Ham side, but held on to pick up an 18th win of the final 22-game WSL season.

The Blues’ ability to shut out the noise and focus on picking up results has been central to our WSL success in 2025/26, and it was on show again.

How we lined up

West Ham XI: Szemik, Yajima, Siren (Gorry 83’), Belloumou (Hanshaw 78’), Ueki, Zelem, Nystrom, Asseyi (C), Morgan (Bose 77’), Cascarino (Zadorsky 66’), Piubel (Wandeler 78’)

West Ham Subs: Walsh, Hansen, Tennebo, Martinez

City XI: Cumings, Rose, Greenwood (C) (Prior 46’), Ouahabi, Beney (Wienroither 81’), Blindkilde Brown (Lohmann 46’), Hasegawa, Hemp (Kerolin 28’), Fujino (Coombs 62’), Fowler, Shaw

City Subs: Keating, Clinton, Casparij, Murphy