The WSL returns

And so do the geese

Hello!

I hope you all have survived the month without European women’s football and weren’t forced to resort to waking up at 2am just to catch a glimpse of Chelsea playing in America like I was. Fortunately, the Women’s Super League is back this weekend and I have decided I will be too via the medium of this newsletter.

Okay not every day this time. I think that would make me keel over, but once a week (at least to start with).

Some of you might know that I used to write a column called ‘Five Things We Learned About the WSL’. I’m going to migrate a version of that here. The intention is to give everyone a quick and easy round up of the weekend’s WSL fixtures on a Monday with some thoughts about what is going on in the league.

I have written about a gazillion long form previews on the WSL, some of which are here and here, all of which are now out of date because I wrote them before Keira Walsh was announced at Barcelona. So instead I thought I would give you a quick one sentence primer for every team in the WSL. Enjoy and I’ll see you Monday.

Arsenal - Jonas Eidevall has a massive second season on his hands as he attempts to end Arsenal’s longest ever trophy drought with a settled squad

Aston Villa - A team full of player profiles with ‘time for one last job’ energy; striker Rachel Daly could prove to be the signing of the summer

Brighton - Lost even more players than Manchester City this summer with a big rebuild on Hope Powell’s hands

Chelsea - Emma Hayes’ side have won four of the last five WSL’s, and with a bumper transfer window, look set to make it five of the last six

Everton - Were almost impressively bad given their squad last season and seem to be taking a scattergun approach to recruitment but new manager Brian Sorensen has plenty to work with

Leicester - Hard not to feel a bit concerned about a Leicester team who struggled last season and haven’t really strengthened over the summer

Liverpool - Finally returning to the WSL after appallingly being absent for the past two seasons, Matt Beard’s side look ready to slot straight back in

Manchester City - *sighs in Gareth Taylor*

Manchester United - Marc Skinner is building an impressive squad and may finally have the depth to break into the top three if everyone can stay fit

Reading - Their ability to maintain their top-flight status is consistently underlooked and without much turnover at the club, expect it to continue

Tottenham - Proved themselves to be a competent defensive team last season but they really must add goals this year with two new attackers in Nikola Karczewska and Celin Bizet to help them

West Ham - Now managed by Paul Konchesky (yes that Paul Konchesky), they have plenty of stars but will they all still twinkle without Olli Harder?