I still believe this is one of the most effective ways to grow an audience. Committing to this kind of schedule has undoubtedly been the major contributory factor to being in a position where women’s football is my full time job. It is something that I feel extremely privileged to get to do but it comes with its own downsides. I am terrible at taking time off, often have to work long hours and basically allow it to permeate every aspect of my life.

This is partly because I am a freelancer. I have internalised the maxim that I must constantly do as much work as possible lest one or many of my jobs suddenly disappear. However, I am increasingly aware that this attitude does not help me create my best work. I end up spreading myself too thin, without the space to think more creatively.

Given all this I am trying to create that space for myself more going forward. I am really lucky to be in the two best jobs I’ve ever had in football, both of which push me every week to be better at writing and talking about football. So I want to give myself some time back to make the most of that.

That means Flying Geese isn’t going to exist in the same format anymore. I will be turning off paid subscriptions and moving away from any kind of regular posting timetable. I want to thank everyone who has subscribed or read any of my work here over the past couple of years. It has been hugely appreciated and given me the motivation to work as hard as possible to create good content to justify that support. I have just reached the point where I don’t feel like I can regularly do that, in part because Flying Geese achieved its purpose of exposing my work to more people.

I am not sure how often I will write here but I’m not going to disappear entirely. I have become quite attached to these little geese that are my Substack persona. But instead of it being a space where I feel pressure to write frequently, I want to turn it into a space where I can explore the topics that might not be the right fit for the other places I write. I want to make Flying Geese a space to write and think about football in a broader way, something I have fallen out of the habit of doing in the effort to write as immediately as possible. 

So much like the geese themselves, I am going on a migratory journey. But you can expect to spot me back here soon.

The match itself was pretty even which probably should have been more anticipated given that Barcelona won 2-1 at this stage of the competition last year across two tight games. Over the past two seasons, Barcelona have recorded three of their four lowest expected goal totals in individual matches against Chelsea. Last weekend’s defensive performance was the best of the lot, with Chelsea only really allowing one good chance for Barcelona, which Alexia Putellas missed in the final moment of the match.

Chelsea will know then that they can defend against Barcelona but that is not the same as saying they should defend against them. In fact the most instructive game for Chelsea going into the second leg is probably not the games they played against Barcelona last year, but their quarter-final against Lyon.

As with this semi-final, Chelsea had got a 1-0 win in the first leg which was away. However, after missing some good early chances in the second leg, they ended up sat further and further back with Lyon scoring twice to make it seem almost certain that Chelsea would be knocked out. Only a last minute Maren Mjelde penalty, and subsequent penalty shoot out, kept Chelsea in the competition.

Barcelona are far more relentless in attack than Lyon as a team so that temptation to try and defend must be resisted by Emma Hayes and her team. Part of what made Chelsea so effective in the first leg was the structure of their press. Even though they were playing a back five, they focused on recovering the ball in midfield areas.

By still positioning their wing-backs relatively high up the pitch, they were able to progress the ball when they won it back, thus relieving pressure on the backline.

Hayes’ game plan worked to perfection so the key question this week will have been whether to stick with it or iterate. Chelsea had no midweek game this week, meaning there was plenty of time to evaluate what worked and what didn’t. 

“This is a game that is played in the head first and foremost,” Hayes said, speaking at her pre-match press conference.

“We know that we absolutely have to be perfect to progress.”

“We’ve had more build time, more prep time, more reflection, more analysis.”

Hayes played a back three in both of last year’s matches against Barcelona, and only made one change between the two legs - replacing Jelena Cankovic with Jessie Fleming. 

There are no obvious personnel tweaks to make here, although the return of Millie Bright and Nathalie Bjorn may well be tempting even if neither are realistically match fit. The biggest question mark might be whether Catarina Macario would get a nod to start over Lauren James, but James’ record at Stamford Bridge has been impeccable this season. Sometimes you want to rely on those little intangibles as much as the tactical big picture in games of this magnitude.

“It just feels like a longer half time,” continued Hayes. 

“Because that’s all it is. We are at the halfway stage of a game that’s minimum 180 minutes long.

“So we’ve made the adjustments for half time and we’re ready for the second half.

“That’s how I present it to the players and they know the cycle of how we work. We’re ready. We want to be in this position.”

It is still a unique position for Chelsea to be in. They have never been leading after the first leg of a Champions League semi-final before, having won one of the previous four they have participated in. They are far more used to attempting to overcome deficits, as opposed to kicking off in positions of strength. 

Equally Barcelona are not used to having to come from behind. The last time they lost the first leg of a two-legged knock-out tie in the Champions League, it was against Lyon in the 2017-18 quarter-final. They went on to lose 3-1 on aggregate having lost the first leg 2-1 at home. 

There is certainly something fairytale about the tie with Emma Hayes having one last shot at winning a Champions League final with Chelsea. But football rarely cares for fairytales and Chelsea will have to pull out a display as impressive as the one last week if they are to win on aggregate. It is telling that the bookies still have Barcelona as favourites to go through. But regardless, we should be set for a fascinating battle.

Chelsea dropped Guro Reiten and it was probably the wrong call

The fact that Chelsea and Arsenal had played each other only a couple of weeks ago made this meeting an intriguing test of how managers Jonas Eidevall and Emma Hayes altered their teams. Midfielder Lia Wälti picked up an injury since that match so Eidevall used Kim Little, Victoria Pelova and Frida Maanum in midfield whilst Emily Fox came in at right-back allowing Katie McCabe to revert to left-back. Alessia Russo had been unwell in the week so Stina Blackstenius started as she had at Stamford Bridge. Cloe Lacasse replaced Caitlin Foord.

Chelsea meanwhile had Mayra Ramirez back fit and chose to start the Colombia striker up top, with Sjoeke Nüsken continuing her second striker/number 10 role. That meant Guro Reiten was dropped on the left wing to make room for Lauren James. 

Reiten has played a variety of roles for Chelsea during her career but has predominantly been used this season as an inside forward. This means that she normally positions herself slightly off the flank with Niamh Charles given the freedom of that whole left hand side. It also allows her to contribute in midfield. With James used in that area instead, she drifted around to pick up the ball, whilst Nüsken remained alongside Ramirez. This meant that Arsenal found an overload in midfield as Melanie Leupolz and Erin Cuthbert were left to deal with Arsenal’s trio.

When asked about the tactical implications of the decision after the match, Hayes demurred. 

“I felt that going forward, we didn’t use the ball well enough in the first half.

“That was our biggest problem. They locked us off to play down the right. We didn’t switch it enough. I thought we didn’t take care of the ball in the right ways.”

Arsenal continue to look ponderous in attack

The match itself was pretty even with Arsenal probably having the better of the first half with Chelsea looking slightly more up for it in the second half. Yet despite Arsenal getting the ball into dangerous positions, and exploiting some of Chelsea’s issues, they lacked threat in front of goal.

Failure to score has been an issue for Arsenal all season. Some of that feels like a protracted run of poor luck. In the league, they are massively underperforming their expected goals and a number of their forwards are having career-worst finishing seasons. But in this match, it was more reminiscent of some of their games against low blocks this season, with the exception that Chelsea were not playing a low block.

When players got into dangerous situations, they often took too long to make a decision about what to do next, allowing Chelsea to get back in position or close them down. In many cases, it was not even about not having options. They just simply looked static as a team.

Arsenal lack the profile of a winger who excels at going past players on the outside, which has often been pointed out when they have struggled against teams with set defences. But this felt more like a coaching problem. Given that the Continental Cup final effectively marks the end of their season, Eidevall has five more matches to try out new ideas in-game. How he uses that time will be an intriguing indication of what we might be able to expect next season.

Hannah Hampton is essential to how Chelsea play

Chelsea have used Hannah Hampton to solve their build-up issues in the second half of the season, with her distribution key to how they play out of the press. However, with Hampton looking more than a bit nervous starting in what was the biggest match of her career, Chelsea struggled to progress the ball.

Normally Chelsea wait until the press has been triggered, which in this case was when Jess Carter received the ball, before playing back to Hampton who then chips the ball out wide to Charles. The problem was that Hampton, who is normally excellent with her feet, kept failing to find her mark. That forced Chelsea to come up with new solutions in build up during the match.

Hampton has exceeded expectations since coming into the Chelsea team and still made a handful of good saves during the game, although she should have done better with Blackstenius’ goal. If anything, how much Chelsea struggled with her not being quite at her best only demonstrated how crucial she has become.

Fresh legs decided the game

Given Chelsea had played eight games in March compared to Arsenal's five, Emma Hayes’ reticence to use substitutes was surprising. Hayes’ only meaningful substitutions were to bring on Guro Reiten in the 77th minute and Catarina Macario in the 96th. Meanwhile Eidevall used all five of his subs, although two were enforced by injury. 

As the game ticked towards extra time, it became even more transitional and it was clear that freshness was going to play a big role. Arsenal notably retooled their entire left hand side with Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord coming on to play up against Kaneryd and Perisset. It felt unsurprising that the goal came from there. Meanwhile Chelsea had two right-sided players in Fran Kirby and Ashley Lawrence who stayed firmly on the bench.

Hayes insisted after the game that reaction around this was outcome bias, pointing to Chelsea’s opportunity to win the game themselves through Lauren James mere minutes before Blackstenius scored. But the outcome matters, and Chelsea lost. Even during the match, it felt apparent that Chelsea players were tiring with any benefit from their cohesion being lost as a result of their on-ball ability declining. It was a strange call from Hayes who is normally remarkably proactive when it comes to making changes, and one that ultimately cost her team.

How did Manchester United initially limit Manchester City?

Manchester United completed their trio of 3-1 away defeats against the top three in the WSL as they lost to Manchester City at the Etihad over the weekend. Jess Park had given City a two goal lead by half-time with Bunny Shaw scoring within a minute of the restart to ensure the game was dead and buried. But Manchester City did not have a shot until the 27th minute of the game.

United did what a lot of teams have looked to do recently and focused on blocking off Yui Hasegawa as City built up from the back. The fact that Laia Aleixandri had to withdraw from the starting XI close to kick-off helped United in this regard with Aleixandri being a key part of City’s build-up. Parris focused on pressing either Alanna Kennedy or Alex Greenwood leaving Toone free to just sit on Hasegawa. It is telling that the first time City managed to get a shot off it was because Toone had jumped to press the centre-backs, leaving Hasegawa free to get away from her.

Going forward, United put City under pressure by looking to either build-up by using Toone or Lisa Naalsund as a pivot to play the ball out wide from central midfield. Bunny Shaw did a similar job on Katie Zelem to what Toone was doing for Hasegawa, cutting off passes to her. But United also focused on playing long balls in behind quickly, in particular for Geyse, who firmly got the better of Leila Ouahabi going forward to run onto. 

United looked pretty settled in their game plan until Mary Earps played a ball out that simply was not on and nearly generated a costly turnover on the edge of the area. In reaction, Earps ended up kicking long twice and both times poorly. The turnover, aided by Bunny Shaw coming back from an offside position, allowed City to attack with United out of shape as the team had pushed up to the left hand side of the pitch for the goal kick. United tend to lose their shape pretty easily and that was the case here as Geyse failed to track Leila’s run and Zelem lost Jess Park, who volleyed home. From there, we saw United’s familiar collapse.

If United had higher quality forwards, maybe they would have generated better chances from the areas Geyse was able to get them in. As it was a lapse in concentration in both build up and out of possession led to that first concession, which they struggled to come back from.

How did Chelsea adjust tactically to deal with West Ham?

Chelsea were somewhat fortuitous to come away from a trip to the Chigwell Construction Stadium with three points after a dogged West Ham team caused them a large number of problems. Rehanne Skinner’s side had a goal wrongly called offside whilst there were also good chances for Kirsty Smith and Vivianne Asseyi in the first half.

West Ham caused Chelsea problems with their shape. Despite setting up in a back three, when building up from goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold, Shelina Zadorsky peeled out to the left back position with left wingback Kirsty Smith tucking in. This gave West Ham a natural overload in the midfield where Jelena Cankovic and Melanie Leupolz were playing for Chelsea. Cankovic did not know whether to track Hayashi or Smith, with more space being generated by Vivanne Asseyi dropping back to drag Ashley Lawrence out of position at right back.

These overloads meant that West Ham could progress the ball down their less congested right hand side before capitalising on runs coming from those central areas where they had a player advantage.

Chelsea dealt with this at half-time by simply switching to a back three themselves. Niamh Charles became a left-sided centre-back with Johanna Rytting-Kaneryd moving to play as the left wing-back. This gave Lawrence the freedom to follow Smith’s movement with Kadeisha Buchanan behind her to mark Asseyi. 

Aided by the fresh legs Chelsea brought on in the second half, the shift in system limited West Ham to three low quality shots and attempts to play the ball quicker in behind. 

Looking at the ties it is understandable to feel like perhaps this round of fixtures is set to be a bit of a walkover for the four teams who finished top of their group. Yet given that last year all four teams who topped their group reached the semi-finals, that is not exactly a new concept at this stage of the Champions League.

The four fixtures taking place are: Ajax vs Chelsea, Benfica vs Lyon, BK Häcken vs Paris Saint-Germain, and Brann vs Barcelona. 

The names that reached the last eight in 2022/23 were much bigger. Regardless of where the teams had finished in their groups, there was a sense that all of them could give each other a game. 

And so it mostly proved. Lyon ended up playing out that extraordinary penalty shoot-out against Chelsea after being surprised by Arsenal to finish second in their group. Arsenal themselves lost their first leg to Bayern Munich before coming back to win 2-1 on aggregate. 

With four undeniably smaller teams taking on the mantle this year, it is understandable that most people will look at the ties and think these games will not even be close.

Despite the immediate and justified outrage over the European Super League, fans still want to see historical big teams play each other. There are often similar comments around the Champions League when clubs with less history in the competition progress. It is the strange paradox of football. We want a meritocracy but often games are better when teams have a shared history that prompts rivalry.

It is funny that the Champions League quarter-finals are taking place after a weekend where both Arsenal and Wolfsburg lost. Neither team made it out of the qualifiers after they both lost to Paris FC, who then did not make it out of their group. Yet despite being semi-finalists last year, on recent form, it is hard to argue from a footballing perspective that either team in the quarter-finals would make particularly compelling watching.

Perhaps the combination of Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Roma and Ajax in one group was more unfortunate in this regard. But it also led to the most exciting group stage climax the Champions League has ever had.

That was partly a result of Ajax’s incredible success, a reminder that the big clubs within the women’s game are far less entrenched than they are wtihin men’s football. Names that have not contributed or even existed in the past may well go on to be perennial achieves in the next five to ten years. 

Benfica’s appearance in the quarter-final stage is testament to that progression. Having participated in three previous Champions League editions, and two previous group stages, their arrival at the knock-outs is a result of year on year improvement. 

They also might fancy themselves to spring an upset. Lyon have blown hot and cold this year. Recent results saw them exit the Coupe de France at the semi-final stage on penalties against Fleury as well as just about scraping a draw with Paris Saint- Germain. Their group stage fizzled out too as they drew against Brann and Slavia Praha. 

Even if the outcome from last year is the same and all of the first placed group stage teams reach the semi-final, it is reasonable to expect that the games might not be quite as close. Last season, only Roma vs Barcelona was won by a greater than one goal margin, and all four ties were in the balance after the first leg. 

At the same time, all of the second placed teams are going to gain valuable experience from these ties. Ajax and Benfica, in particular, look like clubs who will continue to feature in and around the latter stages of the Champions League in the future. Meanwhile BK Häcken and Brann have provided an intriguing rebuttal to the suggestion that Scandinavia’s influence on women’s football in Europe is waning.

There is only one more season of this specific format before the Champions League moves to the Swiss model. Perhaps that will lead to ties more reflective of what the perception of the upper echelons of women’s European football is. But at the same time, all eight of the teams in the quarter-finals competed to get there. The enthusiasm among them is clear - you only need to look at the ticket sales.

Manchester City have the fewest offsides

Manchester City have only had 15 offsides this season in the WSL. That is more than 30 less than league leaders Manchester United who have had 48. 

With Lauren Hemp and Chloe Kelly on the wings, it is easy to imagine a team’s natural inclination might be to put quick balls out wide in order to generate space in behind for the duo.

But City value patient build-up when they play, as well as backing their players to take on more set defences in 1v1 situations.

They are right to do so. City lead the league when it comes to both successful take-ons (161) and attempted ones (304). 

It is not Hemp or Kelly who have the most successful take-ons at City though. Instead it is Bunny Shaw. Shaw ranks fourth overall in the league with 28.

She regularly drops into space to pick up the ball, often with her back to goal, before turning and running at defences. This allows her to then lay off the ball to one of City’s wide options before continuing her run into the box.

City’s patience on the ball is clear when looking at their direct speed. Direct speed is a measure of how quickly a team progresses the ball up the pitch, and at 1.23 m/s City’s is the slowest in the league by quite a significant margin.

It is clearly not a bad approach given they are level on points with Chelsea at the top of the league. But recent losses to Chelsea in the Continental Cup semi-final and Tottenham in the FA Cup quarter-final have shown a need to occasionally mix it up.

Opposition presses are looking to block off Yui Hasegawa in midfield, leaving City’s centre-backs to try and progress the ball without Hasegawa’s help. Khiara Keating is often used to kick long - only Liverpool goalkeeper Racheal Laws attempts more ‘launched’ passes than Keating on a per 90 basis - but trying to get Hemp and Kelly running into space more often would force teams to adjust.

No team has picked up more points from losing positions than City this season. On three separate occasions they have come back from a goal down to win.  Normally they predominantly rely on their original game plan coming good. But recent results suggest some more variety is needed.

Aston Villa make the fewest tackles

With only 250 tackles attempted and 161 won, Aston Villa make the fewest tackles in the league. Carla Ward’s side are currently in 8th having failed to build on their successful season last year. 

These tackle numbers are consistent with last season’s with both versions of Villa averaging around 16 tackles per 90 and winning 11 of them. But last year, they made the fourth fewest tackles, with all three of Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City making less than them.

Rather than being a reflection on Villa, could this potentially be a reflection on the league as a whole? Measuring if the WSL is getting ‘closer’ always feels tricky. The oft-repeated statistic that a winner of the WSL has never lost more than two games in a single season could well end this year with all three of Chelsea, City and Arsenal having lost two or more matches.  An increase in tackles from the best teams in the league suggests they are being put under more pressure and having to win the ball back. 

For Villa, it should still be a mark of concern that they are making so few tackles, particularly in their defensive third given they are not one of the best teams in the league. It is notable that the two teams at the top of the table for tackles are Liverpool and Tottenham, two sides who have impressed this year.

Arsenal have the lowest percentage of their shots ending up on target

Arsenal’s shot on target % is currently the lowest in the WSL, sitting at 29.4%. This means that despite taking the second most shots in the league (282), they are only fifth when it comes to shots on target (83), behind Tottenham.

Clearly Arsenal have struggled in front of goal this season. This is not a chance generation issue per se. Their expected goals tally is the second highest in the league but they have underperformed their xG by more than any other side in the league.

Digging into the players themselves, it is Arsenal’s top scorer for the season Stina Blackstenius who is underperforming the most when it comes to xG (-1.7), although she is not starting for the Gunners. Russo (-1) and Mead (-0.3) are also underperforming but not hugely significantly.

What is intriguing is almost all of Arsenal’s attackers are having very poor seasons when it comes to shooting on target. Russo’s 27.9% is far below her career average of 36.3%, Mead is on 33.3% below an average of 40.1%, Foord is on 30.8% off 44%, and Blackstenius is on 24.1% off 39.5%.

It is hard to deduce exactly what is going on here. It could be a run of bad luck, but for it to extend across all the players makes it feel less plausible. 

A technical explanation also feels unlikely given that it applies across all of them. Arsenal do have notable goalscorer Kelly Smith on their coaching staff and potentially she could be trying to develop their shooting technique which is causing an initial downturn as they adjust. 

It could also be mentality. It is notable that of Arsenal’s six lowest shot on target % games they only won two - 3-0 against Brighton and the comeback victory against Aston Villa. In games where Arsenal were losing, it seems reasonable to think perhaps they are panicking and being less precise with their shots. But it also is somewhat circular - were their shots bad because they were losing or were they losing because their shots were bad? 

With a short season, runs of luck do get exacerbated in the WSL. It was the case last year with Manchester City who finished the season with the highest xG in the league of 48 but only scored 47 goals. Only Leicester had a bigger underperformance.

But this season, the situation has flipped with City now the highest over-performing team in the league. This feels like the most realistic outcome for Arsenal too.

Aleixandri has been one of City’s stand out performances over the past 18 months and has looked comfortable whether in the inverted full back role or at centre back. With her currently preferred alongside Alex Greenwood, Leila Ouahabi is being used at left back and Kerstin Casparij at right back.

With neither of these players really inverting, both full backs are offering more support to Hemp and Chloe Kelly. Casparij in particular has been noticeable in terms of what she offers City in both progression of the ball and as an additional option in attack. WIth 3.68 progressive carries per 90, she has the third most in the team after Hemp and Kelly. She is also receiving the most progressive passes per 90 of any non-attacking player, showing how advanced up the pitch she is. 

The goal City scored against United in their Continental Cup group stage demonstrated exactly the benefit that can be found playing Casparij alongside Kelly. With Kelly driving towards the penalty area on the ball, Casparij underlapped and although her fierce shot was saved by Phallon Tullis-Joyce, Hemp was available to tuck the ball home.

Speaking after Casparij talked about how that was something they had specifically worked on.

“I know the space is there when we counter attack, I know that’s the space to go and run so once Ippa [Angeldahl] was driving forward and Chloe was wide, we’ve spoken about it so much, to do the underlap.

Whilst there has been a lot of focus on how Taylor has altered his side’s set up in the absence of Jill Roord following her ACL injury, this tweak has also been notable in supporting City on their strong run of form.

Chelsea’s merry go round midfield

Since the start of 2024, Chelsea have used a pretty fixed midfield shape with Erin Cuthbert and Melanie Leupolz as a double pivot with an attacking player ahead of them as a number 10 - either Fran Kirby or Lauren James. Against Leicester City, however, with James suspended and Kirby not fit enough to start, Emma Hayes used Sjoeke Nüsken and Jelena Cankovic with Cuthbert.

It was a far more fluid midfield than we were normally used to seeing with Chelsea as all three of the players rotated round. Given all of Nüsken, Cankovic and Cuthbert can play in any of the midfield positions, in some ways this offered a useful unpredictability to Chelsea’s build up play. But at other moments, there was a hole left in the middle of the pitch with Jess Carter nervously pushing forward with the ball to fill it. 

Another trend that was exacerbated by this was the way Guro Reiten tucked in. Reiten has been playing far more narrow for Chelsea this season with Niamh Charles given responsibility for holding all of the width on Chelsea’s left hand side. Against Leicester though it was less that Reiten was an inside forward and more that she was given the freedom to find the ball wherever she fancied. That element of freedom has been a key component of Emma Hayes’ sides over the past couple of years with Lauren James the one who usually has that honour. 

Reiten has struggled to find good form after an exception last season for Chelsea, her best at the club. The shift in what she is being asked to do is no doubt related. It remains to be seen whether this formation was a one-off based of availability, or a development from a Chelsea team who have struggled to impress in big games.

England looked much better in their two friendly matches since missing out on the Olympics. They comfortably beat Austria 7-2 followed by Italy 5-1. To score 12 goals against two nations in the world top 20 is not bad going. Defensively there were still wobbles in both games - from set pieces against Austria and in transition against Litaly - but the Lionesses look far less goal shy.

So how much do England actually need to change?

They have not yet qualified for the European Championship in Switzerland but with the Nations League format, they stand a very strong chance. England will be seeded second in a League A group whereby the top two teams will automatically qualify for Euro 2025. There are certainly some potential banana-skins in the third seed pot, including Sweden and Norway, but even if England were to finish third, they would have a play-off match against a League C team. Top-seeded sides in that League include Slovenia, Greece, Belarus, Romania and Albania. Given all this, we can fairly safely look ahead to that tournament I think.

For all the interest in England developing, the starting XI for Euro 2025 feels quite predictable.

Providing there are no significant injuries, I suspect we will see this:

Seven of these players were in Wiegman’s set starting XI at Euro 2022, whilst two others played the super sub role. Only two - Niamh Charles and Lauren James - have properly broken into the team in the past two years.

The concern with this is that it has made England too predictable. It is a charge that has been levelled at Wiegman before, although her switch to a back three during the World Cup showed she can be versatile when required.

There were two positions that really did not work for England during the World Cup and that was their two wing/full backs, Lucy Bronze and Rachel Daly. The Daly half of this has already been sorted. Niamh Charles’ progression has seen her become Chelsea’s starting left back and one of their best players this season. It has been relatively uncontroversial to see her repeatedly start at left back.

The Bronze portion of the problem is harder to solve. There is no obvious replacement for Bronze in that role, and Bronze’s pedigree means she is more firmly entrenched than Daly. Despite this, she was also one of England’s biggest liabilities at the World Cup, including being responsible for the goal that they conceded in the final. 

There is a possibility that someone makes a big leap forward in the next year or so, much like Charles did, but it is harder to see who. Maya Le Tissier has been used at right back by Wiegman but plays at centre back for her club Manchester United. Esme Morgan is more often used at right back by Manchester City but is played at centre back by Wiegman. Jess Carter could be an option and is clearly very trusted by Wiegman but she also is playing as a centre back for her club. It feels like there is a high chance that Bronze remains as England’s starting right back by the time we get to 2025.

Despite a couple of errors recently, I don’t see Mary Earps being unseated as England goalkeeper anytime soon. Equally any concerns about Alessia Russo’s goal scoring will be outweighed by her all-round ability. The fact that neither Daly nor Beth England are having a great season is helping her case. Nikita Parris may be on a hot streak in front of goal but her overall game is nowhere close to Russo’s level.

Keira Walsh and Georgia Stanway are bankers in midfield and I suspect Lauren James will be first choice as the number 10. Grace Clinton started both matches in this international break and what she offers off the ball is clear consideration for Wiegman. James’ talent however is too high for her not to start.

Lauren Hemp is also obvious and the only tricky attacking choice is whether to start Beth Mead or Chloe Kelly on the right. Kelly is having an immense season but, a bit like Earps, Mead finds a different level when she plays for England. Either is obviously a very strong option.

Centre back is the area of the field that England have the most depth. All of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United have first choice English centre back pairings whilst Manchester City have Alex Greenwood as a nailed on starter. That is seven English centre backs playing regularly when fit in the top four English teams. The development of Lotte Wubben-Moy and Jess Carter has caused an interesting problem for Wiegman because of the temptation to start a settled club duo, either Williamson/Wubben-Moy or Bright/Carter. However if Bright and Williamson do make it to Euro 2025 fully fit, I think we will see a reversion to the Euro 2022 pairing. 

In terms of current form, Greenwood and Wubben-Moy are probably the two best English centre backs, although both are playing on the left side. Wiegman did play Greenwood and Wubben-Moy together against Italy but it does feel like Wubben-Moy is sat behind Greenwood in the pecking order.

Given all this, what reinvention actually needs to happen for England? Bronze is the only player who probably should not be starting for England by 2025 but something needs to shift markedly with the options England have available in order to change that. Even at under 23 level, there are no obvious candidates there.

The area of England’s squad which is less clear are their super subs. In the heady summer of Euro 2022, the super subs were much focused on but it obscured how blunt England looked at points until they came on. All three of England’s knock out matches relied on their subs helping  get them across the line. Determining and developing that handful of players feels like the key task from here to next summer. 

Whichever one of Mead or Kelly who does not start will be an obvious first substitute. But the other two or even three are less clear. There are a number of good options for a substitute number 10. Obviously Ella Toone played that role at Euro 2022 and it is hard to argue against her record in international tournaments for England. But both Jess Park and Clinton will feel like they have the opportunity to grab those minutes. For Clinton, it is particularly fascinating as she will presumably be back at Manchester United competing with Toone in the 2024/25 season. 

Park and Clinton can both play out wide so perhaps their versatility will help them get the nod, with James also able to take on that role. Katie Robinson seems to have fallen down the pecking order significantly since going to the World Cup whilst if Aggie Beever-Jones continues to impress, she could also be an option out wide, particularly if Wiegman still feels like Lauren Hemp is an option through the middle. 

What really worked for England was having those changes nailed down, and that is the biggest development that needs to happen over the next year. At the World Cup, it was clear that Wiegman was not certain about how her starting XI developed over the course of a match, particularly after James’ red card meant that Toone had to start. Nowhere was that more obvious than the World Cup final where Daly and Russo were hooked at half time for Kelly and James in a demonstration that Wiegman felt like she had got it wrong but left England without a striker on the pitch.

Realistically, the key starting XI for England is relatively set. So developing the substitutes and finding clear roles for them is the most important decision for Wiegman to make over the next year.

Admittedly, we are looking at a sample size of effectively two matches. Their 1-1 draw with Manchester City was massively influenced by Alex Greenwood’s sending off in the first half with City’s attempts to defend their 1-0 lead more in keeping with playing a lower table team who were willing to sit in a deep block, albeit with far more talented players. Realistically, the two games Chelsea have played against really good sides have been their 4-1 loss to Arsenal away and this 1-0 loss to Manchester City at home. 

There is no doubt that the loss to Arsenal was far worse than this one against City. Chelsea should have had a penalty in the first half and Sjoeke Nüsken missed a big chance to equalise late on. City were pushed further and further back as the game went on, unlike against Arsenal where Chelsea looked completely unsettled for much of the game. 

At points this season, Chelsea have played some incredible attacking football but it is clear that new signing Mayra Ramirez is still taking time to gel. She struggled to get involved against City even though she clearly had the physical beating of Alex Greenwood, receiving only one progressive pass in the entire match and having one shot. The absences of Millie Bright and Sam Kerr have also left Chelsea without as many leaders on the pitch, and it is particularly telling in tight games such as Friday night’s one.

The next opportunity Chelsea will have against a good side will be their Continental Cup semi-final away against Manchester City. The Conti Cup is probably lowest on Chelsea’s list of title priorities this season and prior to this weekend’s WSL match, they might have been willing to take a more laissez-faire attitude to it. But with this lingering concern that we are yet to see a convincing performance against a top side from Chelsea this season, it might become more crucial as part of the season as a whole.

Will Cloe Lacasse start more for Arsenal?

Cloe Lacasse made just her 4th WSL start of the season in Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Manchester United but demonstrated exactly why so many people had been calling for her to start. Up against an out of position Hannah Blundell, Lacasse found plenty of joy running at and beyond her fullback. She led the team for progressive carries (6) as well as attempted and successful take ons (5 and 3 respectively). Only Kim Little had more shot creating actions then Lacasse.

Given Arsenal’s struggles against deeper blocks, it has been surprising to not see Lacasse used more given her carrying and take-on ability. The numbers that saw her shine hold across her WSL performances. Her successful take-ons p90 of 1.96 is the highest of any of Arsenal’s forwards, and her progressive carries p90 of 5.43 is the highest in the squad (both for players with more than 360 WSL minutes). She is now heading off for the Gold Cup with Canada, meaning she will likely miss Arsenal’s next two matches against Tottenham in the league and Aston Villa in the Continental Cup. But her qualities and performances mean she deserves to see more minutes in the final third of the season.

How did Bristol City become one of the most clinical teams in the WSL?

When Bristol City were promoted to the WSL, many assumed that they would likely go straight back down. Having kept hold of most of their Championship squad, it looked unlikely that they would be able to truly compete in the league. Yet they have refused to go down without a fight thanks in part to their clinical edge in front of goal.

Against Leicester City on Sunday, Bristol City fought back twice to get the match to 2-2 before eventually capitulating and losing 5-2. It was the sixth time this season that they have scored two goals or more, and their 17 goals means they have scored more overall than three other WSL sides. 

Their goals per shot is the best in the league at 0.15, and their shot on target % (the percentage of shots that they get on target) is the fourth best at 38.8%. Of course, lots of this is probably a hefty dose of luck. Their non-penalty expected goals is the lowest in the league at 9.4 and they have the third biggest non-penalty xG overperformance after Manchester City and Manchester United. 

And even after all that, it might not be enough to keep them up anyway. But it is incredibly fun to watch them try.

Kang has been widely lauded for her purchases and in truth is probably the most recognisable business figure within women’s football, if not women’s sport as a whole, right now. 

Kang’s stated intention is to build a global multi-club group and she now has three teams all in separate markets. The challenge she faces is navigating those markets which all have very different demands and risk calculi. Washington Spirit play in the closed NWSL, Lyon are dominant in France and London City Lionesses are towards the bottom of the very competitive English second division. 

Kang is a hugely popular figure within women’s sports predominantly for her purchase of Washington Spirit which took place at a time of immense hurt within the organisation. Kang had originally come in as a minority investor but when the existing ownership was accused of nepotism and retaliatory behaviour in the fallout from Richie Burke’s sacking for abusive behaviour, they were eventually forced to sell. By becoming the first woman of colour to be a majority owner of an NWSL club, she represented a changing of the guard as women’s football in America reckoned with the revelations of abuse and misogyny coming from across the league. 

At the end of the day, Kang is a businesswoman and it is going to be intriguing to see how she maximises profit with these clubs.

It is clear that she sees attendances as low hanging fruit in this regard. Lyon, for example, attract one-off crowds of around 15-20000 for bigger games such as the recent match against Paris Saint-Germain. But for regular home matches this season, they play at a training ground pitch which only holds 1200 and rarely fill that. Only six matches across the entirety of the WSL this season have had lower attendances than 1200.

Kang is looking to construct a new stadium to bridge the gap between the training ground and the main Groupama stadium, but incentivising fans is not a foregone conclusion. Clubs like Barcelona and Arsenal have seen attendances sky-rocket in recent years but Chelsea have demonstrated that there is no silver bullet. All three have stronger existing fan bases and better built out marketing teams than Lyon.

Lyon have also shown that a team playing well and winning a lot is not necessarily a guaranteed sign of people taking notice. But beyond the improved training facilities and marketing strategies, running football clubs well is becoming increasingly important. Right now, Kang’s ability to make good footballing decisions is still unclear.

There is no doubt that prising Jonatan Giraldez away from Barcelona to become head coach of the Washington Spirit was an incredible PR move. But it will be interesting to see how his style of football adapts to the heavily transitional NWSL, particularly given he has never coached outside of Barcelona. It looks like Kang will also be seeking a new manager for Lyon, with Chelsea having made Sonia Bompastor a contract offer to take their vacant managerial role, although The Guardian are reporting that Kang wanted to make a change at the end of the season anyway.

London City Lionesses is probably the most testing purchase of all for Kang’s nascent multi-club model. Washington Spirit play in a closed league which minimises risk given there is no relegation whilst Lyon look unlikely to be dethroned as the best team in France any time soon, meaning guaranteed annual trophies and a UWCL group stage spot. London City Lionesses are a long way off any of that. 

Currently 10th in the Women’s Championship, the second division in England, they will be in the relegation spots if bottom of the table Lewes win their game in hand. Even if they do manage to stay up this year - manager Carolina Morace was bizarrely sacked during their called off Continental Cup quarter-final against Arsenal - the Championship has become a very competitive league with more men’s teams investing heavily. The success of sides like Newcastle, Burnley and Nottingham Forest further down the pyramid means this will only intensify. 

Will Kang be able to provide a level of investment that seriously moves the needle for London City Lionesses? The side notably signed a number of WSL players this summer on presumably high salaries already to little effect. Getting London City Lionesses to the WSL feels like it will require more than just money, but also intelligent football decisions. Kang recruiting people who are able to do this is crucial, because plenty of teams have demonstrated that once you reach the WSL, it is exceptionally hard to establish yourself there. 

The criticisms of multi-club ownership groups seem to get rather lost within women’s football with everyone so willing to cheer investment. It is hard to argue against the validity of Kang’s ‘woman-first’ approach to training, but how the relationship between these three clubs develops will be key. Can Kang keep Lyon at the top within Europe as investment accelerates from other clubs in Europe which will undoubtedly have more money? Will London City Lionesses be able to genuinely break into the WSL or do they end up as Lyon’s strange little sister? Is it fair that teams like Lyon and Washington Spirit might be able to preferentially loan players across different season calendars? Only time will tell on these kinds of questions. Kang’s ownership model is the first of its kind in the women’s game - and is worth keeping a close eye on.

The pressure for Arsenal to win will be heightened following their 2-1 loss to West Ham last weekend. With their Continental Cup quarter-final against London City Lionesses called off, Arsenal missed out on the chance to bounce back against lower league opposition and will instead be forced to show up against City. 

On recent form, it is hard to look past City as favourites, but they have struggled to get results at Meadow Park. The last time City won away at Arsenal was back in February 2021, when a late Lauren Hemp winner gave them all three points. 

“In my first season, we played Arsenal three times and we won 2-1. It always seems to be 2-1,” said Gareth Taylor speaking at his pre-match press conference.

It was 2-1 earlier in the season but for Arsenal this time as a Khiara Keating error gifted Jonas Eidevall’s team the win despite City being on top for large portions of the match. Arsenal created very little from open play in that match with a penalty that was missed by Kim Little and Stina Blackstenius’ winner as a result of Keating’s mistake, accounting for more than 75% of their xG of 2. City had 17 shots on target and Arsenal only had 41% possession, their lowest of the season.

“I think we have been very very good when time and space has been presented to us so far this season,” said Jonas Eidevall, speaking in his pre-match press conference. 

“I think there is not a way when you play against Man City where you can only be in a low block because they are a very very good crossing team. Probably the best crossing team in the world at the moment in women’s football. So if you allow them to cross the ball too many times against you they will eventually score.”

“So you need to restrict those moments in some ways which means you also need to spend more time defending higher up on the pitch and of course we are a team that also wants to have the ball. We definitely had too little of the ball in that game against them at Meadow Park earlier on in the season for both mine and the team's liking. 

“Like I said on that day, when things progress like they did in the game then we thought let’s roll with that state of game and let’s punish them on transitions which we were successful on. But as a team, we would definitely have liked to have more of the ball than we did in that game.”

Manchester City are the team in the WSL who like to spend the most time on the ball, with an average sequence time of 11.25 seconds (the longest in the league) and a direct speed of 1.25 m/s (the slowest in the league). 

Opta’s Team Sequence Styles chart shows that Arsenal are much further closer to the average WSL team when it comes to metrics that allow us to approximate team style. They attack far more directly than Chelsea or Manchester City, with a  league leading 22 direct attacks.1 Arsenal have also made 65 fewer 10+ pass open player sequences than Manchester City in the league, who themselves are seven below Chelsea.

This directness might be what has allowed teams lower down the league to defend so effectively against Arsenal. They have been either unwilling or unable to play the extra passes that allow pressure to build or to find the opening that will create a genuine good opportunity. 

Despite those results, however, Arsenal have a higher open-play expected goals than City this season, of 23.49 to their 20.3. This is because Arsenal are very good at attacking in a direct manner when those opportunities are available to them. Case in point would be their 4-1 demolition of Chelsea where they were able to transition quickly and put their backline under pressure. It crucially also helped that they finished low-value chances in that match. 

Arsenal’s strong ‘back against the wall’ mentality might be an advantage here with us yet to truly see a kind of ‘win at all costs’ effort from Manchester City. If City were able to vanquish their Meadow Park hoodoo, it would be a statement of intent for a team who tend to get overlooked due to their recent underperformance. Anything but a win for Arsenal, on the other hand, would surely see Eidevall under significant pressure once again.

In truth, it feels quite hard to exactly pinpoint where Arsenal are going wrong in some of these matches. For the handful examples of where they could not get goals back, you also have the matches against Aston Villa and Leicester where they did. The West Ham result had one of their lowest successful take-ons of the season but the Tottenham one had their highest.

In the matches against Tottenham and West Ham, Eidevall made four attacking changes from between the 60 minute mark and the end of the match. Arsenal have regularly made substitutes throughout this season with Frida Maanum, Cloe Lacasse and Stina Blackstenius being the three key players to come off the bench. The more intriguing substitute in those matches has been Kyra Cooney-Cross.

Cooney-Cross has made three WSL starts this year in a run of matches where Lia Walti and Kim Little were both unavailable through injury. Of her four substitute appearances, only one has taken place when Arsenal were winning; she came on against Chelsea. Against both Tottenham and West Ham, Cooney-Cross came on for Victoria Pelova for the last thirty minutes. It is clear that the Australian midfielder is very talented but she is still finding her feet in the league. To have disrupted the midfield to turn to her twice in games they were losing, without having boosted her minutes in games they were winning, has placed an awful lot of faith in her. When, as was the case in the West Ham game, a veteran midfielder like Kim Little is available off the bench, the boldness of the decision is further exacerbated.

It is entirely possible this is just outcome bias. There are many factors behind Arsenal’s struggles in these games, and it is impossible to boil it down to one factor. But the role Cooney-Cross plays in the rest of Arsenal’s season is one to ponder. It seems as if right now she is Eidevall’s Hail Mary player, with little evidence of success yet.

Is Nikita Parris Manchester United’s new number 9?

Marc Skinner is a man who has been frustrating a lot of people recently. Ultimately, two things can be true in this situation - Skinner had a tough task replacing Alessia Russo up top for United and he has also not done a very good job at it. The player who was brought in, Geyse, has so far got one goal all season in the league. But Nikita Parris now has eight, having scored another brace

Parris’ form needs to be caveated with the fact that she is running very hot in front of goal right now. Her eight goals have come from an xG of 3.2 and 14 shots on target. But if she is the player who is converting at the moment, it makes sense to have her being the player who gets the shots off. When starting up top, Parris is averaging 3.75 shots p90, in comparison to 1.2 off the wing. With Geyse averaging only 2.4 shots p90 when she’s further forward, it feels like a natural upgrade. Geyse playing off the right has also made her carrying more effective as she has someone in the middle to actually cut back to. 

Manchester United must have felt like Champions League football might have already slipped from their grasp but thanks to Arsenal’s loss, they are now only four points behind them. In two weeks time, they meet at the Emirates.

How do Aston Villa approach the rest of this season?

Aston Villa had a chastening start to the season, losing their first five fixtures, but they have been firmly out of any risk of relegation for a couple of months now. Their 2-2 draw with Bristol City over the weekend was probably the most accomplished they had looked going forward all season, against a side who are no pushovers defensively. However, Villa’s own defensive issues remain. Both goals they conceded came as a result of errors from their own players carelessly passing the ball to Bristol City. 

Villa have had a lot of turnover throughout the year with Lucy Staniforth the latest player to be ruled out for the rest of the season. That has seen their defence and midfield constantly being shuffled, and Laura Blindkilde-Brown being sold to Manchester City has not aided this. That has obviously made it harder for Carla Ward to build relationships within her team. But crucially, they also need to be thinking about next year. Bringing in players like Freya Gregory (who returned from a loan at Reading) and Ebony Salmon will set them up much better for next season, which is what they are playing for at this point.

“This is not a decision which has been taken lightly,” said Technical Director David Weir “but we feel is vital for the progress we want to see in the Women’s Super League.”

“We have invested heavily in the women’s squad and infrastructure going into this season, and results and performances have not been at the level we had expected, given that investment.”

The decision has largely been met with outrage. Phillips took the job in April of last season and helped keep Brighton in the division with two wins and a draw in their last seven fixtures. This summer Brighton recruited a huge number of players, many of whom were very high profile, but currently find themselves in 10th, six points off the bottom with three wins and two draws from twelve games.

It is fair to say that the timing of the sacking is bizarre. Phillips had done her press conference for Brighton’s weekend match against Manchester United just two and a half hours before she was let go. Reports suggested that the players were surprised by the decision and that Phillips was seen as well liked.

The general feeling seems to be that Phillips did not get enough time in a job which had involved a huge amount of player turnover and that Brighton expected too much too soon. Brighton have long had ambitions of rising up the table and clearly with the money that has been spent on bringing players in, are willing to invest in that vision. Unfortunately, the past seasons have had a significant amount of upheaval both on the pitch and on the sidelines.

When Hope Powell left in October 2022, Brighton appointed Jens Scheuer but his time in charge lasted just 68 days. Phillips did come in at a critical point of the season and ensured they were not relegated but the question is were Brighton’s expectations at the start of the season reasonable based on what Phillips has achieved?

As a club, Brighton have had huge success on the men’s side based on being very data-lead and that is a crucial context in which to understand Phillips’ sacking. Despite being two points off seventh position in the table, the underlying numbers are pretty damning. Brighton have the worst expected goal difference per 90 of any team in the WSL, averaging -1.26 per match. That is a result of having the worst expected goals allowed and second worst expected goals totals.

They have managed to keep just one clean sheet this season, in a 1-0 win away at Manchester City. If we simulate the potential outcomes from that match given the chances that Brighton gave up, City were more than 95% likely to score at least one goal in that game. They were almost twice as likely to have scored five goals in that match than they were to score zero. It is hard to seriously point to that result as evidence of Phillips improving this side given it was basically luck.

When looking at Brighton’s team profile as a whole, it shows how much they are struggling in almost every area of the pitch. The below radar chart compares them to teams across the world in top divisions and demonstrates how far below average they rank. Phillips is not only a long way off making this Brighton side one that can challenge the top four, she is a long way off making them even average. 

Phillips has also struggled to integrate new players. Pauline Bremer is one of the few summer signings who has played a lot, but has scored just once this season which is hardly surprising given she averages only 3.11 touches in the box per match. Both Tatiana Pinto and Li Mengwen have been in and out of the team. Whilst bringing through a lot of new players is an understandably tough task, the tendency to bring players in and then drop them out makes it feel unsurprising that Brighton have lacked consistency on the pitch.

Given all this, it is hard to argue that Phillips genuinely deserved to stay in her job. Brighton’s rolling xGD/90 has not gone above -1 this entire season and with twelve matches played, there is little to suggest that time alone is going to change that. Squad selections have been inconsistent with new players rotating in and out of the team seemingly at random.

Plenty of women’s teams wait far too long to sack managers, and perhaps that is why this has come as such a surprise. But when you take a look under the bonnet at Brighton, it is hard to find any evidence that Phillips was genuinely going to be able to turn these performances around.

Manchester City’s hopes of winning a first WSL title in eight years have taken a blow after the club announced that Jill Roord had suffered an ACL injury. The Dutch midfielder has been a revelation after signing for the club in the summer, having seemed to finally found a team that suits her after inconsistent spells at Arsenal and Wolfsburg. Now, however, City will have to find a way to replace her for the rest of the season as they look to keep up the pressure on Chelsea.

City manager Gareth Taylor started the season pairing Filippa Angeldahl with Jill Roord before more recently switching to Laura Coombs. In his sides 2-0 win over Tottenham at the weekend, it was Angeldahl and Coombs who lined up together but City did seem to lack impetus in midfield as a result. City had their lowest xG of the season since their 1-1 draw with Chelsea where they ended up playing with nine players, managing just 0.7 from 12 shots.

Roord’s ability to crash the box later on into moves allows her to generate high quality chances with defences distracted by City’s threatening front three of Lauren Hemp, Chloe Kelly and Bunny Shaw. Neither Coombs nor Angeldahl are that kind of player with both of them having the ability to shoot from range but not in the kind of repeatable way that has allowed City to come to rely on Roord’s goals.

City do have other options when it comes to replacing Roord, but they are somewhat untested within the City system. Mary Fowler has played in this kind of deeper role in the past but has predominantly been used by City in the front three, whilst Jess Park will be more familiar to WSL viewers as playing on the wing even though she was brought on for Coombs against Tottenham.

City have also been linked to a deadline day move for Laura Blindkilde-Brown. The Aston Villa midfielder has long been highly thought of but in her career so far has looked closer to the profile of someone like Angeldahl than Roord.

Throughout Taylor’s time as City manager, he has preferred a settled starting XI than looking to rotate. Roord had started every WSL match for City this season, playing 912 minutes. Finding a solution may require being brave and using a younger player because the more familiar options look far less dynamic.

Should Tottenham be playing Martha Thomas and Bethany England together?

Martha Thomas started the season in great form, scoring six goals in her first four matches. Since then she has scored once more, and although it was an important goal that secured Tottenham’s first ever win over Arsenal, her effectiveness seems to be wearing off. With Bethany England now back in the team after recovering from surgery on her hip, Spurs manager Robert Vilahamn has been playing the two together.

Out of possession, they work as an extremely effective pressing front two but in possession, how their roles are supposed to work is less clear. Against Arsenal, Thomas dropped to play more as a 10 but in the weekend’s match, they found themselves much closer together. At points, this left them very isolated from Tottenham’s midfield who were understandably cautious to push up against a City team that had inflicted a record defeat on them back in November.

Tottenham’s formations have been hugely affected by injury with all three of Olga Ahinten, Evelina Summanen and Drew Spence being out towards the end of 2023. Spence is the only one still not to return but it feels like Spurs are missing her ability to drive up the pitch. Clinton has been able to offer that same skill but with her collecting the ball from deep areas on the wing, it is not always easy to get the ball into dangerous central ones.

One option which might be worth exploring is using Jess Naz more. Naz has started only three games this season but Vilahamn has emphasised that he sees her as a striker even though she has played previously on the wing. In his press conference before the City match, he specifically emphasised her threat in behind and speed. It is that kind of dynamism that with the pairing of Thomas and England, Tottenham seem to be missing.

Who will end up as Arsenal’s first choice midfield three?

It is notable that as opposition teams in the title race have seen key players succumb to injuries, Arsenal are seeing their players return to full fitness. The intriguing challenge for Jonas Eidevall this year has been to rotate his squad in a way that makes them harder to predict and allows them to enact different game plans. 

With Vivianne Miedema now looking back to her old self and Kim Little also back on the pitch, Eidevall faces an intriguing decision in his midfield. Victoria Pelova has been one of Arsenal’s stand out players this season in her right hand-sided 8/10 role whilst Miedema looks set to be first choice in the more free 10 position. But club captain Little has long been a much relied upon piece in the midfield. 

Further up the pitch, there is a clear focus on starters and finishers. Stina Blackstenius has looked far more effective coming on later in games than she did as a starter, even if her finishing still does leave something to be desired. Similarly, the signing of Emily Fox has allowed Steph Catley to come on as a fresh pair of legs in defence. How and if Eidevall implements something similar with his midfield is something to keep an eye on.

The demand for good managers within the women’s game is fast intensifying. As more clubs and nations invest resources into their teams, simply being the biggest spenders is no longer enough. But the managerial market is still restricted - elite jobs are few and far between and very few managers have a level of experience that justifies them as shoe-ins for a top job. The ones that do tend to be held onto very tightly by their current employers.

Even what counts as significant experience can feel very overstated. Take Casey Stoney, for example. Stoney was probably the stand-out candidate for the Chelsea job. She has a personal link to the club, having been part of their academy and playing for them as an adult where she was briefly player-manager. She has twice demonstrated her ability to build teams from scratch with first Manchester United and now San Diego Wave. But she has only been in management for five seasons and in that time has won just the English second division and the NWSL Shield.

There is no doubt that Stoney is extremely talented but for her to be seen as pretty much the number one candidate says a lot about the paucity of potential names available. It also highlights the fact that teams are forced to look beyond CVs - not necessarily a bad thing.

The plausibility of the story that Chelsea were targeting a female manager based off of the wishes of their senior players demonstrates a recognition of this. Despite it being revealed that this was not actually the case, the way that Emma Hayes has created a football culture that centres women, rather than treating them as ‘small men’ makes it understandable that both Chelsea players and the club would want to preserve this.

In a recent interview on Counter Pressed, former Washington Spirit and Netherlands Women’s National Team manager Mark Parsons also talked about the importance of being able to connect with players in a way that goes beyond simple gender essentialism but instead reflects a different approach to the one that is sometimes seen in the men’s game. This makes the assessment of who is prepared for the role also much more complex, as well as limiting the realism of being able to go and recruit from within the men’s game, where high profile appointments have often looked underprepared and out of their depth. 

Less impressive CVs is also a result of the relative lack of elite jobs within the women’s game in which to prove yourself. Realistically, there are about ten or so clubs who are seen as being in the very top tier in Europe. NWSL jobs are also highly thought of but concerns around the differing styles of play between Europe and America seems to have limited cross-Atlantic pollination. That is changing, however, with Juan Carlos Amoros’ success in winning the NWSL Championship with Gotham FC neatly highlighting this development. Jonatan Giraldez’s recruitment to the Washington Spirit is set to take the tactical focus in the NWSL to an even higher level. 

There are also more European sides becoming seen as feasible steps towards bigger jobs.

As more teams invest further, managers are being given resources that allow them to really show what they can do. As more clubs reach a reasonable level, their successes become easier to identify. Ajax is an interesting example of this. Their manager Suzanne Bakker has not had her contract renewed for the end of the season but their performances in a tough Champions League group will surely make her an attractive prospect for other clubs at that level. But in past years, a manager like Bakker would not have had the resources at her disposal to even really compete at that level.

It is telling right now how many teams have been keen on giving coaches more time. Manchester City hastily gave Gareth Taylor an extra year on his contract despite a disappointing season where they finished fourth and failed to make a domestic cup final. Arsenal quickly tied down Jonas Eidevall to a three year contract which was announced even as it coincided with a tough start to 2023/24. Canada are keeping Bev Priestman regardless of their embarrassing group stage exit at the World Cup. Eidevall’s situation is slightly different to the other two given his injury asterisked second season in charge but women’s football is obviously a lot less trigger happy than men’s.

Managerial appointments will offer risks of some kind, especially for big clubs, but currently in the women’s game, the risk feels particularly high. With Stoney and Laura Harvey out of the race, Chelsea look likely to appoint someone relatively unheard of to what is close to the biggest role in club football. Barcelona are going to hire internally, as they did after Lluis Cortes departed. And the examples of Jean-Luc Vasseur at Everton and Jens Scheuer at Brighton show that CV is not everything. It makes an already complex process even more difficult, and means it is also important to analyse managerial choice with that in mind.

How is Sam Kerr’s injury affecting Chelsea?

Sunday’s match was obviously Chelsea’s first WSL game without Sam Kerr, after she ruptured her ACL on a pre-season training camp in Morocco. A lot of focus has been placed on how Chelsea adapt without her with conversations around the suitability of Lauren James to playing as a false 9 vs Mia Fishel’s readiness to step into the role. Chelsea’s reported move for Mayra Ramirez suggests they are not entirely happy with the options currently available to them.

But Kerr’s injury is affecting the team in other ways too. Hannah Hampton made only her second appearance for Chelsea in the game at Stamford Bridge with the 23 year old goalkeeper having seemingly been third choice for most of this season. Chelsea’s former no1 Ann-Katrin Berger has been left out of both of Chelsea’s squads in January despite warming up with the team, suggesting she is fit. 

After the match, manager Emma Hayes revealed that the decision to start Hampton was specifically linked to Kerr’s injury.

“I’ve made it clear that I want to build up [with the ball] better. Every goalkeeper has been given the opportunity to do that.”

“Without having a stretch nine, I knew [Manchester United] were going to be aggressive. So Hannah [Hampton] gave us a different option. Because without Sam [Kerr], who is able to run a little bit longer, we have to find a different way.”

“I knew we had to have composure in the deepest space and Hannah [Hampton] is the best goalkeeper at those things. And that was a decision I took in light of Sam [Kerr’s] injury and the fact that she’s the best build-up goalkeeper of the three of them.”

Hampton has long been lauded for her ability with her feet which is a big factor as to why she has proved so popular in the England set-up and it seems like right now that talent is worth the possible drop off in shot-stopping that has been present in her game in the past.

Is Manchester City’s squad big enough to last the title race?

It is hard to look past Manchester City as the form team in the WSL right now. The second placed side have scored an average of 4.2 goals per game over their last five matches and their surprise 1-0 loss to Brighton feels a long way back. Right now it feels like they are heavily benefiting from having an incredibly settled squad, with the front three of Lauren Hemp, Chloe Kelly and Bunny Shaw all flourishing. Shaw in particular feels unstoppable, scoring at a rate that means she is on course to break the single-season goals record of 22 set by both Vivianne Miedema and Rachel Daly. This is now the second proper season where they have all started together regularly and those relationships are really paying off.

What is interesting is how thin City’s squad actually is. With Julie Blakstad’s departure to Hammarby being announced this week and Deyna Castellanos rumoured to be heading to Bay FC, City only have 21 senior players in stark contrast to Chelsea and Arsenal who both have full squads. Players like Jess Park and Mary Fowler offer cover across the front three but Park has only featured for 120 minutes in the WSL this season whilst Fowler has not started a match since that Brighton loss in November. If City can keep all of Kelly, Hemp and Shaw fit for the rest of this season, it is impossible to look past them as having genuine shots at all three domestic competitions (although they do have to play Arsenal in the FA Cup Fifth Round). But any kind of injuries could leave them in the lurch with Gareth Taylor seemingly reluctant to rotate.

Is the growth of the WSL going to affect the loan market?

Grace Clinton played a key role in Tottenham’s 4-3 win over West Ham with two goals and an assist further cementing her place as one of the stand out stars of the WSL season. Asked after the game whether Tottenham would be able to keep her, Robert Vilahamn was pessimistic about their chances and hinted that this is why he wanted to move away from using the loan system.

“I would be stupid to not want to keep her here. But she is a United player and I am developing their player, which I am happy for at the moment as we get to work with her.”

"In the future, we will not loan so many players, instead we will try to develop our own players. I am happy to work with Grace at the moment but she will go back there at the end of the season... Unless we find some way to sign her."

His answer reflects the way that the ambitious smaller clubs do not want just to act as feeder clubs to the top four, which is even more pertinent given that Tottenham and Manchester United are currently both on 18 points. 

Teams like Chelsea and Manchester City in particular have benefited from their younger players going on WSL loans but it is notable that across both clubs, there is only one WSL loanee this year. That in itself is a unique situation given it is Brooke Aspin who Chelsea signed only to immediately loan back. As mid-table teams look to develop their own talent, bigger clubs might have to be more inventive as to how they bring their own players through. 

West Ham have never really embraced the upwardly mobile ideology that other WSL teams have looked to. Sides like Brighton, Tottenham and Aston Villa have had mixed results in their approach to improved WSL success, but they have all made clear attempts over the past couple of years to try and challenge the status quo. How long can a team that seems content with drifting along realistically stay in this league that is constantly pushing the standards?

During the summer, West Ham lost two of their key central defenders as Grace Fisk and Lucy Parker departed for Liverpool and Aston Villa respectively at the end of their contracts. That both these teams had been promoted to the WSL more recently than West Ham tells you something about the ambition the club have managed to show in their six seasons in the top division.

Regardless, neither defender was replaced. Instead Riko Ueki, Jessie Stapleton, Emma Harries and Megan Walsh were brought in. Of the four, only Harries and Walsh had WSL experience although Ueki is a well-established international. West Ham have previously looked to recruit from markets off the beaten track, particularly focusing on Ireland and Japan. The sales of Yui Hasegawa and Katerina Svitkova have shown it has the potential to be a savvy move, but the failure to replace with the same level of experience has led to a young (cheap) team who are struggling to deal with the demands of the league.

The recruitment has also ignored the areas where reinforcements were required. West Ham’s midfield has struggled with the summer departure of the ever reliable Kate Longhurst further exacerbated by the announcement that captain Dagny Brynjarsdottir was pregnant with her second child.

Part of the explanation for the thin recruitment was to do with the appointment of manager Rehanne Skinner. Paul Konchesky left the club on May 28th with Skinner appointed 20th July. The implication is that West Ham wanted to be led by Skinner when it came to recruitment, as opposed to identifying their own targets regardless of who the manager was. But even then they had close to two months with her in position and the transfer window open. 

It seems apparent that West Ham see Skinner as a long term answer to the coaching role after a period of upheaval following Matt Beard’s departure. To be fair to the job Skinner is doing, West Ham’s underlying numbers are not bad, regardless of their league position.

In fact, based on their expected goal difference per 90, West Ham are the sixth best team in the league. But this is a strange pattern with Skinner. She had similar issues at Tottenham where despite having fairly mid-table underlying numbers she went on a nine game losing run. 

It is hard to pinpoint exactly why Skinner’s teams keep running into these issues. On the one hand it could just be continued bad luck. Neither team she has coached has exactly been blessed with stand out players, ones who can take games by the scruff of the neck. Indeed, Tottenham tried to solve their Skinner issue last January by buying her Bethany England for a British record fee. 

Part of the reason Tottenham needed England is potentially another reason behind Skinner’s teams’ regular underperformance. They simply do not create that many good chances. So whilst their expected goal differential is good - they don’t give up many good chances either - there are very narrow margins for error. Opposition teams only need one freak chance to go in to have a good chance of not losing the game. Indeed West Ham have only scored eight goals this season, the fewest in the league.

The decision to lean towards experience in this transfer window feels like the right one. Whilst neither Kristie Mewis nor Katrina Gorry have played in the WSL before, both are massive coups. Shelina Zadorsky has fallen down the pecking order at Tottenham but had excelled under Skinner who will be hoping she can refind her past form.

The Mewis deal obviously has some factors outside of the lure of playing Rehanne-ball in Dagenham. It is helpful when a USA international wants to live in London with her fiancee. And whilst Mewis’ injury record is a bit of a concern, she offers a creativity and confidence that is sorely missing from the West Ham side.

Katrina Gorry is arguably an even better recruit. Gorry showed during the World Cup what an effective midfielder she can be whose experiences in Sweden should leave her well-prepared for the WSL. She has been incredibly reliable in terms of her availability and will complement Mewis well. 

The concern if you are a West Ham fan is that this is all a bit ad hoc. There is no doubt that these players will be a big boost to the second half of the season but how long will they actually stay at West Ham? All three are over 30 and Zadorsky is a loan deal. West Ham might stay up this season as a result but the long term goals of the club are unclear. There is the continued issue that they were the only WSL side not to play at least one game in their men’s ground last year and that does not look set to change this year. 

The sad reality seems to be that unless something drastic changes in the way the club is run, they are simply staving off the inevitability of relegation.

Keira Walsh joining Barcelona for a world record fee in the summer of 2022 might have been the headline grabber but what clubs are really latching onto is the growing frequency in fees being paid for players. Both Arsenal and Chelsea paid six figure sums for young midfielders this summer, and Tottenham’s willingness to drop a British record on Bethany England last January showed that this trend is not exclusive to Champions League sides. 

FIFA’s 2022 transfer report showed that the annual year on year growth in terms of transfer revenue was an increase of 62%. 65 different clubs outlayed money on transfers. Even if it has now been 18 months since the world record was last broken (not for Arsenal’s want of trying), the market for women’s players is only going in one direction.

This context is crucial to understand why Chelsea and Barcelona have zoned in on recruiting extensively in younger age groups. As two of the best sides in the world, neither team has much issue in attracting players of any age. In Catarina Macario and Ashley Lawrence, Chelsea landed two of the most in-demand free agents last summer, whilst Barcelona did not have to try very hard to bring Ona Batlle home. 

They also have thriving academies, with Barcelona’s undoubtedly being the best in the world having produced Alexia Putellas, Aitana Bonmati and Claudia Pina over the past decade. Chelsea have been a bit slower off the mark on this front but the flurry of contracts handed out to players like Ashanti Akpan, Alexia Potter, and Aimee Claypole has shown they see homegrown players as a valuable pipeline too. Aggie Beever-Jones is their first bona fide academy product in a long time to nail down a proper role in the first team squad.1

Clearly neither Chelsea nor Barcelona need to recruit a load of teenagers. So what has been the impetus here? That lies in the growth of the transfer market.

As clubs with such strong reputations, both Chelsea and Barcelona are able to attract talented youngsters, develop them, and then either see them come good and incorporate them into their first team, or bank on getting a fee for them. The latter part of this is something that realistically has only become a possibility in recent years but it is already showing dividends. Barcelona have made approximately a quarter of a million Euros off selling academy trained players to Arsenal alone, thanks to sales of Gio Quieroz and Laia Codina.

This is hardly a risk free strategy though, with both teams going down different routes to pursue it.

Barcelona have a B team which many of these younger players play for. For example, last season Vicky Lopez, who signed from Madrid CFF in 2022, played 15 times for the B team and 7 times for the first team. Unsurprisingly, Barcelona’s B team are pretty good. They finished top of the Spanish second division last season.

In England, B teams do not exist. Instead, younger players participate in the Professional Game Academy League, an under-21 league with a Northern and Southern Division. Tellingly then, Chelsea have opted to leave many of their signings on loan at their former clubs. Brooke Aspin has stayed at Bristol City with Wieke Kaptein continuing at FC Twente.2

This means they are continuing to play first team football in environments with which they are familiar, rather than either struggling for first team minutes or participating in a youth environment. Chelsea have also been quick to loan out their academy players when they turn 18, following a pattern of a year at a Championship club followed by a year at a WSL side.

Aggie Beever-Jones is the most successful example of this. She had a good loan with Bristol City followed by one with Everton where she did not always shine, but clearly Chelsea felt she had shown enough to get a chance to compete with the senior squad. Jorja Fox has done similar, having gone to Charlton and then Brighton, but an ACL injury at the end of last season makes it impossible to know whether she would have been given the opportunity at Chelsea this year. 

Youth development is not a perfect process, however, and loan moves do not always work out. Charlotte Wardlaw had arguably the most successful season of Chelsea’s 2021/22 loanees as she starred in Liverpool’s Championship title winning campaign. However, a failure to get minutes with them in the WSL meant she dropped back down to Lewes for the latter half of 2022/23 before heading to Glasgow City this season. Even staying at a club where you have previously made an impact is no guarantee of continued development.

This highlights one of the concerns around pursuing a strategy such as this. Making a move to a big club is a risk for any player, regardless of age, but younger players can understandably find it harder to deal with the mental strain. Playing time is also of paramount importance, as is being in a positive and supportive environment. On the one hand, the disparity in resources and facilities within the women’s game can make these early big moves more attractive from a developmental perspective. On the other hand, it is important to fight against viewing teenage players as balance-sheet opportunities.

A number of English clubs have complained about the growing trend of bigger teams snapping up their academy products as soon as they turn 18 (clubs in England are unable to offer professional contracts until this point). Aspin is one of those, whilst Manchester United signed highly rated defender Evie Rabjohn from Aston Villa when she turned 18. Under new compensation rules, clubs will be required to pay a maximum of £5000 per year a player has spent in the academy but that still falls far below what their market rate might be perceived as.

Chelsea and Barcelona’s continued success in recruitment might rest on what these players do. The example of Erin Cuthbert, who joined Chelsea as an 18 year old to become an essential part of the squad, taking the captain’s armband in a game just before Christmas, is instructive, whilst 19 year old Maika Hamano will be part of the squad for the second half of the season having impressed on loan at Hammarby.

Meanwhile, Barcelona repeatedly have shown that if you are good enough, you are old enough with 19 year old Salma Paralluelo going straight into the first team upon joining and consequently starring for Spain at the World Cup. The better pathway Chelsea and Barcelona can show young players, the more likely they are to want to join.

The financial issues around Barcelona are well-known and a need to make money to spend money is likely a lot more pressing than it is at Chelsea. But the desire to run a sustainable financial model at women’s clubs will only increase as the game grows and spending within it does likewise. It will not be long until plenty of other clubs start to see their players as assets as well as opportunities. Getting ahead of that curve could serve these two clubs very well in the long run.

At the bottom, Bristol City are in the relegation spot like many would have predicted but with potentially five more points than people would have assumed. Level with them are West Ham whilst Brighton and Aston Villa are three and four points above respectively. On the face of it, Brighton and Villa’s squads are far superior than Bristol City and West Ham’s but all of that could change in January.

Let’s take a team by team look at how everyone is doing so far. 

1. Chelsea (25 points)

Chelsea’s first half of the season was rocked by the announcement of Emma Hayes’ departure, released immediately after their most comprehensive win of the season, a 6-0 victory over Aston Villa. It has not seemed to overly perturb the four time consecutive champions and they find themselves top at Christmas. It looked like their early points advantage was going to be eroded as a result of their demolition by Arsenal at the Emirates but results in the North London Derby contrived to go their way and give them a three point buffer. 

Their season so far has been defined by a thrilling attack - they have scored six more goals than any other team and are yet to be awarded a single penalty - which is offset somewhat by a leaky defence. Defensive issues have not been helped by Millie Bright succumbing to the same knee issues that saw her miss the end of last season, but they have been boosted across the pitch by the uptick in form from players like Niamh Charles, Eve Perisset and Johanna Ryting Kaneryd. Lauren James is their top scorer with seven goals, her best ever return in the WSL, whilst Aggie Beever-Jones has been an entertaining super sub with five goals. 

2. Manchester City (22 points)

Back to back losses against Arsenal and somewhat more shockingly Brighton meant some had already begun to write Manchester City out of the title race.

With a settled squad allowing them to start the season brightly, they were unfortunate to drop points to Chelsea early on after Alex Greenwood was sent off for time wasting. The decision to start 19 year old Khiara Keating in goal has been a bold choice from manager Gareth Taylor. She has been statistically the best shot stopper in the league, saving 2.4 more goals than expected, but her error against Arsenal cost City three points. 

Bunny Shaw is continuing to score goals for fun, with two hattricks to her name already this season, and she leads the Golden Boot race with nine overall. Their only summer signing Jill Roord has slotted in seamlessly to their midfield, using her box crashing ability to great effect to score six goals. A big win in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford will have been a massive confidence boost but they do rely heavily on a set starting XI. We saw that serve Manchester United well last season but it will rely on players staying fit as the season goes on.

3. Arsenal (22 points)

Just when you think you might have got the measure of Arsenal, they confound you again. 1-0 down to Aston Villa at the Emirates as the clock ticked past 90, it looked like Jonas Eidevall was hanging on to his job by a thread, staring down the barrel of taking one point from their first three matches. But the turn around in this match kickstarted a seven game winning run, culminating in the spectacular win over Chelsea, their finest since a 5-0 victory back in 2018/19, incidentally the last time they won the title. 

It would be churlish to say all of that good work was undone with the 1-0 loss away at Tottenham, but certainly some of it was - not least the opportunity to go into this winter break level on points with Chelsea. A tendency to get frustrated in front of goal is a worry trend with a reversion to crossing or potshots the first signs of concern.

Beth Mead’s return to full fitness has been a welcome boost, although it remains to be seen exactly what role Vivianne Miedema is going to have in this side. There will also hopefully be the returns of Leah Williamson and Laura Wienroither in the second half of the season with Eidevall promising incomings in the January window too. Alessia Russo has blown a bit hot and cold as their first choice striker, but Lotte Wubben-Moy has blossomed in a regular starting role at centre-back, as has Victoria Pelova in midfield. 

4. Manchester United (18 points)

It was probably always going to be hard for Manchester United to repeat their efforts from last year where they were in the title race until the final day of the season. Based on the underlying numbers, they were the fourth best team in the league with an expected goal difference per 90 of 1.02, and they then went on to lose their two best players in the summer transfer window as Ona Batlle went to Barcelona and Alessia Russo to Arsenal. 

Their expected goal difference per 90 so far this season is almost exactly the same - 0.96 - suggesting that Marc Skinner’s team are not performing that differently despite the changes they have dealt with. It is just now the margins that went for them are going against them.

The problem United have though is a current of uncertainty running through the club. Logically you would say that, from here, Skinner’s best bet is to really nail down who his first choice starters are with lots of rotation having taken place in the midfield and the attack. But he is currently in the option year of his 2+1 contract, with no indication as to whether he will stick around. Meanwhile Mary Earps’ contract also expires at the end of the summer with the suggestion being that she will leave the club. Until United have a coherent way of running the club, it is hard to see them significantly improving on the pitch.

5. Liverpool (18 points)

If United might be disappointed to find themselves on 18 points, Liverpool will be delighted. It has been a long road back to this point for Liverpool who have actually won the WSL more times in the last decade than Arsenal or Manchester City have. Having failed to get a single away win last season, victories away at Arsenal and Manchester United were huge confidence boosts for the team. 

The new look back three of Jenna Clark, Grace Fisk and Gemma Bonner gelled immediately whilst Marie Höbinger has proven to be an excellent creator. Her expected assisted goals per 90 of 0.35 ranks her fifth in the league of players to have featured in more than 50% of available minutes. This team is certainly not the finished product but intelligent recruitment in combination with Beard’s practical management has seen them significantly improve this season. 

6. Tottenham (15 points)

It is possible that Tottenham might have already had their season highlight with a first ever North London Derby victory being a deserved reward for their commitment to the principles embraced by new manager Robert Vilahamn and his side. That dedication has come with lows too - the 7-0 loss to Manchester City was their largest ever in the WSL but progress is rarely linear. 

Martha Thomas has been revitalised in a Tottenham shirt with seven goals to her name, whilst Manchester United loanee Grace Clinton looks like she has been ready for regular WSL minutes for a while. It has also gone overlooked that Tottenham have reached their current position (they are only three behind last season’s entire points tally) despite a raft of injuries. Star striker Bethany England has only just returned from a hip operation and they are missing all three of what was their first choice midfield at the start of the season (Olga Ahtinen, Eveliina Summanen and Drew Spence). There is a high chance they only get better as the season goes on.

7. Everton (11 points)

Everton feel like they are in a weird situation right now, not helped by the off-field turmoil that has surrounded the men’s side. Losing Gabby George at the end of the transfer window was a big blow but manager Brian Sorensen has quietly ground out results. That is despite them having scored the second fewest goals in the league, something that was not helped by the ban striker Martina Piemonte received. 

Piemonte has seemed like the kind of personality Everton need, someone willing to fight for the ball and not be intimidated, but it remains to be seen if she has the poise to turn that energy into actual goals. Their attack will be weakened by Nicoline Sorensen’s absence in the second half of the season after she announced her retirement, and with a whole host of injuries, the squad needs strengthening in the January transfer window. Whether they will get that support remains to be seen but being six points off the bottom certainly does not yet feel like home and dry territory.

8. Leicester City (10 points)

Leicester City’s bright start to the season where they took seven points from their first three matches has faded fast, with Willie Kirk’s team failing to pick up a win since the 8th October. The intensity of their tactics (they are the fifth highest pressing side in the league) unsettled early opponents but many have now figured out how open they are at the back. No one did that in more devastating form than Arsenal who came from two goals down at half time to win 6-2. 

It is that openness in defence that is really causing them to struggle. They have scored in every game bar one this season (against Manchester City) and that includes twice against Chelsea, twice against Arsenal and once against Manchester United. The question Kirk needs to figure out is are they able to have that same attacking threat if they make things a little more secure defensively, because right now the balance is not working.

9. Aston Villa (9 points)

Aston Villa have probably been the most disappointing team in the league this season so far.  There was an expectation in some corners that they might push on from their fifth placed finish, but even people who were more sanguine about that possibility would have been surprised by just how much they have struggled. Failing to win any of their first five matches led Carla Ward’s job looking very precarious, although they had scored first in three of the five. In fact, Aston Villa have dropped more points from winning positions than any other team in the league. This has been partly to do with their tendency to sit back as soon as they go ahead, inviting pressure on themselves, and eventually capitulating. 

Their 1-0 win over Brighton to close off this half of the season was probably their best performance yet but Ward has to decide how she develops this team from here. They are still only four points off the relegation spots but have a very high quality squad. She needs to give younger players like Ebony Salmon, Laura Blindkilde Brown and Lucy Parker the opportunity to become firm fixtures in this side, in order to develop the team for the future.

10. Brighton (8 points)

Brighton’s poor start to the year seems to have gone a little bit under the radar. They have picked up half of their points in two matches against the Manchester clubs - impressive in isolation - but have the worst expected goal difference per 90 in the league. Given the quality of player who joined the club in the summer, this feels more than a little disappointing from Mel Phillips’ perspective. Bright sparks have included Elisabeth Terland’s continued fine form in front of goal and Maisie Symond’s continued development in the midfield but far too often the Seagulls seem to be unable to keep hold of the ball for any length of time. Given the array of technical midfielders they have available, it feels reasonable to have expected something a bit more developed at this point of the season.  

11. West Ham (5 points)

It feels unfortunately unsurprising to see West Ham languishing at the bottom of the table, with the club seemingly desperate to do the bare minimum to stay in the league. After correctly getting rid of Paul Konchesky, the appointment of Rehanne Skinner felt hopeful to say the least, given the nine game losing run she went on as Tottenham manager last season. So far at West Ham, she has only managed to wrack up a five game run of losses but she has also only won one match in the league this season. 

The squad is nowhere near as developed as some of those around them, and they failed to bring in replacements for key players like Lucy Parker and Grace Fisk this summer. Riko Ueki and Viviane Asseyi have looked dangerous at points but there is simply not enough support around them to turn those one-offs into full performances. Whether January recruitment turns that around remains to be seen; they have already been linked to Australian midfielder Katrina Gorry. But ultimately this team is being run with little care by those in charge.

12. Bristol City (5 points)

Despite being bottom at Christmas, Bristol City have plenty to feel positive about with Lauren Smith’s side having shown they are definitely able to compete in the league. That is particularly impressive given they have predominantly relied on the core of players that got them promoted and have played most of the season with their third choice goalkeeper. Tight defeats to Arsenal and Manchester United have shown how well-organised their 5-4-1 system is, and they have done well to stay in most of their games this season, making it easier to nick the odd point here or there. The risk for Bristol City is that other sides simply outspend them in January in an effort not to go down, but regardless of what happens, they deserve credit for their performances so far.

But regardless of the variance gods shining down on Tottenham, it was frustrating to see Arsenal continuing to look for low quality shots from the edge of the area as the game went on. Tottenham were happy to cede space out wide in order to defend the box, much like Liverpool did in the season opener at the Emirates. Instead of trying to move them out of shape, Arsenal resorted to poor efforts which only served to highlight how much Tottenham’s game plan was working. 

The Arsenal players were not alone in their disappointing decision making though with Eidevall’s substitutes also impacting Arsenal’s shape and limiting their ability to attack effectively. For the final twelve minutes of the match, Arsenal were playing with two strikers, three wingers and a number ten. Maybe the biggest surprise was that Eidevall did not turn to Jen Beattie to play as a third striker the way she has done very successfully in the past. Even if in another universe, Arsenal win this one, it demonstrated that Eidevall still has some way to go when it comes to using his newly plentiful bench effectively.

What did Chelsea learn from their draw with BK Häcken?

Chelsea’s visit to Bristol City looked on paper like it could have been a potential banana skin. Despite the promoted team being near the bottom of the table, both Arsenal and Manchester United had found them hard work on their away visits to Ashton Gate. On top of that, Chelsea had been unable to get past fellow low block side BK Häcken in the Champions League midweek. With Arsenal’s loss in the North London Derby opening up the opportunity to go three points clear of the Gunners again, there was pressure on Chelsea to make sure they got this result. 

In Chelsea’s match against Häcken, a number of their attacks had broken down as a result of Sam Kerr drifting out to the left and no one consequently being available in the box. After the match, Emma Hayes pointed to this being a result of Erin Cuthbert and Fran Kirby finding themselves in the wrong channels, meaning that Kerr had to move out to support Guro Reiten. All four of those players started against Bristol but Hayes took a different approach. Instead of Kerr moving out wider, Reiten came in narrower, with Lauren James brought in to play off the right instead of Johanna Ryting Kaneryd. This had the effect of disrupting Bristol’s normally well-organised back five, creating space out wide from which two of Chelsea’s three goals came from. Both Erin Cuthbert’s volley and Sam Kerr’s header were a direct result of balls from the left. It helped that Lauren James’ spectacular finish - her seventh of the season - had given Chelsea that initial breathing room, but Hayes’ tweak showed how Chelsea had adapted from Thursday’s 0-0.

Should Brighton be worried?

Brighton’s recruitment this summer was one of the most exciting in the league with a whole host of players joining with a real range of different talents. From a recent Champions League semi-final goalscorer to an impressive World Cup quarter-finalist, there was a mixture of experience and youth to make it seem like the South Coast side could genuinely push on. Yet with this weekend’s 1-0 loss to Aston Villa, Brighton head into the winter break in 10th. They have the worst expected goals allowed (22) and worst expected goal difference per 90 in the league (-1.21). Four of their eight points have come from a win and a draw against Manchester City and Manchester United respectively, the former certainly being more luck than judgement. And they were run ragged by a Villa side who have had an incredibly poor first half of the season themselves. Put simply, both statistically and visually, Brighton do not look anywhere near where they are supposed to be.

Manager Mel Phillips has had to construct close to a totally new squad with the incomings but with ten matches played you would expect them to look more composed against the teams in and around them. Villa found it far too easy to run through them on Sunday night and should have scored three or four. Brighton meanwhile relied on counter attacks that could potentially get the ball to Elisabeth Terland. 

They have been impacted by injuries, and only had three outfielders available to them on the bench, but they need to find a way to tighten up defensively and get more control of the ball. With players like Vicky Losada and Tatiana Pinto available to them in midfield, they have the personnel to do that. Phillips will have plenty to ponder over her Christmas dinner.