Can Man United take Arsenal and Chelsea to the WSL title?

I recently talked about the state of affairs at the bottom of the Women’s Super League (WSL) and the four teams that look like they’ll be in jeopardy soon, but what about the top four?

Man United need time

“What a day that makes a difference,” as the song plays, and for football fans who watch the teams rise and fall, swapping positions as they score or concede, it’s is about 90 minutes less than 24 hours. Going into action on Sunday, the red half of Manchester are top of the table, despite holding only first place on goal difference. Now, less than 24 hours later, they have been dropped to third and will be rigorously tested as the league resumes from the international break with Arsenal’s home trip to Borehamwood.

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After United’s nervous 1-0 win over Leicester City last month, manager Marc Skinner, who has struggled to win over fans since taking charge of the Reds at the start of last season, wanted give the impression that football is not always glorious ” We will not always perform well, I will emphasize that to the fans. We want to perform excellently, but not always. Either way we will.”

Indeed, what people often forget about Manchester United Women is that the team was only four years old and they played in the second division for their first season – the only professional club in the Championship at the time. Compare them to an Arsenal team that won the title before some United players were even born, or a Chelsea team that spent a decade with only current coach Emma Hayes, or even was a Manchester City team led and enjoyed a fast investment just eight years ago.

In short, United have always played catch-up and fast; where Arsenal, Chelsea and City could all develop into non-professional leagues, investing at their own pace, the Reds tried to race to the top and stay there. As any decorated distance runner will tell you, it’s about race management and not going too hard, too soon; the analogy gets a bit murky when it comes to football, but success is quite simply something that needs to be looked at in the long run.

It also takes time. Women’s football is struggling with teams pouring huge sums of money in too quickly and soon going bankrupt – from Champions League runner-up Tyresö FF (2013-14) or possibly Italian side, ASD FC Sassari Torres, or any any of the 60% of women’s professional soccer (WPS) teams have been dissolved in the 5 years of existence of the forerunner of the top U.S. league, the National Women’s Soccer League.

For Skinner and United, the gap to the top two or three is narrowing, it’s already clear, but as seen at Leigh Sports Village last night, the hosts cannot be relied on to go 90 minutes with the WSL champion and finished top. It’s about the quality Chelsea can bring into the game, about the experience of those who have won titles many times; game over [and sloppy] one but the result is a fair one.

Man City is on the rise

If there’s one way to guarantee a reversal of fortune, it’s thanks to an ESPN journalist write about them – The Citizens have got 4 wins from 4 games (in all competitions) with 14 goals scored and 1 conceded since someone here hit them.

The football is slowly improving for the Manchester blue shirt team, but much of that depends on how their strikers are combining. The best example of a rotation between the attacking trio was their third goal against Reading over the weekend: Bunny Shaw’s complete integration into the central midfield role has greatly benefited a team. City team capital never failed to create wings.

That said, don’t believe anyone that Shaw is capable of monstrous goalscoring – the Jamaican is now up to 16 goals in 15 WSL games, including six so far – and it doesn’t. let a math prodigy tell you that not all of those goals came from this season. Like last year when Man City started to pull together results, it was about pre-existing partnerships and players that had settled into the hard work; this is the case again here, with newer players on the team and the federation still finding solid ground beneath their boots.

Furthermore, if we look at their last two games, although they dominated possession as we would expect, there is still a feeling that this is a team that is stuck on lower gear and just rattling loudly won’t stop. Arsenal and Chelseas overtake them on the track. Against Liverpool, the home side needed a Hayley Raso strike in the 15th minute to take all three points and against Reading, the match was decided by two Royals own own goals before Shaw added a third. at the end of the game.

The good news for City is that the most difficult part of this season, when they will face Chelsea and Arsenal next week, has to come in the spring, although the final two months will likely end their campaign. At that point, everyone will settle down and the team will play their best football.

Chelsea is still waiting to reach top gear

Like the two teams from Manchester, something is waiting for a “tick” from Chelsea to happen this season. They’re a team with great sparks, but often look like they’re going through the motions.

It would be too simplistic to say that the team simply lacked Hayes in the dugout while she left the team following a hysterectomy. As she said in her statement, “we’ve built a tremendous team over the years, and we’ve adopted a cross-disciplinary approach so that if situations like this happen, we can can meet the challenge.We have complete confidence in Paul [Green]Denise [Reddy] and all the staff. We also know the team is special and we will certainly do whatever it takes to maintain their high standards. “

While it may be true that everyone at Chelsea shares the same affinity and that the combination of Green and Reddy is enough to keep the team afloat, there’s also something to be said for Hayes’ success. long-term commitment to Chelsea like. throughout their success, and how she rarely stands on the sidelines. With the team not quite hitting the high notes they’re capable of, that charismatic presence on the track could be just what they’re missing; it could also be the simple increasing difficulties that come with integrating new players or more likely a combination of many factors.

The Blues took a 3-1 win over Man United on a cold and largely forgettable day in Leigh to overtake their opponents, but the game was far from their best – or United -. Instead, it’s littered with what we used to call “uncharacteristic bugs,” but bugs have increasingly crept into their matches. In addition to the jubilant 8-0 victory over Vllaznia in the Champions League, Chelsea have not really shown their quality on the field this season, instead they are dominating the matches; three points without showing the caliber that has helped them win five WSL titles over the past seven years.

Arsenal once again opened fire to win glory

Finally, we come to the first people on the table who have yet to make a mistake at home or in Europe. Meet the leaders of the group: Arsenal.

In early December 2021, less than six months since Jonas Eidevall took charge of Arsenal, the team began to wobble, their football often ranking on a sliding scale from shaky knees to earthquakes. aghast. The team finally hit a definite point of transition away from their old style, taught by former coach, Joe Montemurro, based on smooth possession and passing to elevate individuals on the team. . Now, they are easily recognizable in Eidevall’s more physically taxing style, boasting more toughness and wanting to win through pressing and high tempo play.

It was an obvious struggle for the Gunners to say goodbye to the old and step into the new, but after a series of uncomfortable matches – namely the one where Arsenal finally dropped enough points. to allow Chelsea to overtake them and win the title – they finally settled down. This season, the team has taken the next step, one of the rare people who cared more about their key signings last winter than summer; it ensured that at the start of this season, Stina Blackstenius and Rafaelle were settled in England.

From the diminutive technical players of the Montemurro era to the tall and built players Eidevall loved – for the still-small midfield – Arsenal looked so different from the team that won the title last season. 2018-19. It’s a style that allows the players Eidevall has brought in, like Frida Maanum and Blackstenius to flourish, a team that has been fine-tuned to punish their opposition. There is no better example of this than their Champions League game in Lyon, when they attacked with near-perfect precision. This team is becoming a stronger team than ever, but still has the near-surgical precision and precision from Montemurro’s time at the helm.

The biggest concern for Arsenal, like in history, is injuries. Indeed, when the Gunners lifted their final title, they had to somewhat crawl over the finish line. This season, things have not been too bad (so far), but they are without both starting centre-backs, forcing Eidevall to play full-back Steph Catley – who is in flying form – in the back with Lotte Wubben-Moy . It’s an easy solution, but also one that clearly weakens the team in both attack and defense and has the potential to signal a crack in what looks like a solid foundation.

Six games (or seven if you’re Chelsea) in the season, and so far, it looks like the title won’t be moving from London. Where in London is another matter.