Column: A four-way WSL title race?
Wins for Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal, plus a first loss since the opening day for Chelsea has blown the WSL title race wide open.
Do we have a first ever four-way title race in the Barclays Women’s Super League? Quite possibly, largely thanks to Manchester City beating Chelsea on Sunday, along with Arsenal and Manchester United both picking up big wins too earlier in the weekend.
In an alternate universe, had Emma Hayes’s side won out on Sunday, Chelsea would sit top of the league, two points clear of United with a game in hand and five points clear of City, also with a game in hand, effectively ending any title hopes for Gareth Taylor.
But as it is, the two Manchester sides now lead the way, but both London sides have a game in hand as we look ahead to another very intriguing weekend of action. While the run-in is now under way, when you look at the amount of fixtures remaining in all competitions, there are so many more twists and turns to come with three of the four sides having either/or FA Cup and Champions League matches remaining.
This was always the hope when Manchester United arrived into the WSL, that three would become four and add even more excitement, jeopardy and drama to the title race. With three Champions League spots for England, it seems surreal one of these title contenders won’t just miss out on the main domestic crown, but won’t even make it as far as a Champions League qualifier next season.
Brutal, right? At the moment, that’s Arsenal, but they have a game in hand on two of the sides above them and their new-look attack appears to be clicking into gear. Manchester City are potentially the ones to watch though as both over both the last five and 10 games they are the in-form team and also the only one with no commitments outside of the WSL, meaning they only have six games remaining this season.
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Current champions Chelsea are at the other end of the spectrum and could conceivably play another 13 games this season if they were to make the finals of both the FA Cup and Champions League. With a 1-0 lead over Lyon heading into Wednesday’s second leg, there’s every chance Chelsea are heading for at least two more games, which means games against Leicester City and West Ham United will have to be rearranged somewhere into two midweek slots.
Arsenal are in a similar position but trail 1-0 to Bayern Munich, though still have every chance of going through. They though don’t have the FA Cup to think about and the last thing Hayes will want is back-to-back trips to Aston Villa after another match against Lyon this week.
Next week’s league clash is a huge banana skin given Villa are the only team to match City’s form over the past five games, scoring 16 goals and conceding just four. They have beaten Man City twice this season and drawn away and will not be an easy task whatsoever for a Chelsea side in the midst of a busy schedule and have key players potentially dropping like flies.
Hayes is currently unable to shake up her attack too much with Pernille Harder and Fran Kirby long-term absentees and they were dealt another potential blow when Erin Cuthbert went off injured at the CFA on Sunday.
A European departure would get rid of one headache, but both sides will be eager to advance. All four sides have games against each other to contemplate too. City go to Arsenal this weekend and in my opinion, a win really sets them up for a second title given the rest of their fixtures and the lack of distractions elsewhere, but getting a result is easier said than done.
The penultimate day of the season towards the end of May also should offer some form of chaos, as all four face off against each other, with United hosting City and Chelsea hosting Arsenal in a weekend which one way or the other is going to prove absolutely decisive in both the title and Champions League race.
There are also banana skins everywhere, with several teams fighting for their lives at the bottom who will give everything to take points off those at the top. Funny things happen towards the end of the season and we’ve seen such shocks before.
Skinner’s United also have to go to Villa, while the final top half side Everton will also play a big part as they play Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City before the end of the season. One extra complication is if Chelsea and Man United were to make the FA Cup final, their one week off in May is gone and they would face off in a major cup final just one week before that drama-filled penultimate day of the season.
Chelsea may also head into that final month off the back of what would be a draining semi-final against probably Barcelona (or possibly Roma) while Arsenal would be taking on either Wolfsburg or PSG should they progress past Bayern.
It’s unlikely all four will be in with a shout come the final day and that penultimate weekend may well narrow four to two, but it’s also not unthinkable for it to happen, it’s even possible they could all be level on points come the final day, which sees Chelsea go to Reading, United go to Liverpool, Arsenal host Villa and City host Everton, all four potential banana skins in their own way.
We’ve never seen a four-way title race in the WSL, especially on the final day. Long-term fans of the sport will fondly recall 2014 when three teams could win it on the final day, and it was third-place side Liverpool who won out when both Chelsea and Birmingham City slipped up.
What of a repeat almost a decade on?
I am not writing Villa off just yet of finishing in 4th place, they are an excellent side, bang in form.
If they can beat Chelsea, which is definitely not out of the equation at all, as Daly is definitely the most in form striker currently (when did Shaw last score???), so I think that could definitely be on the cards.
Arsenal look very vulnerable to finishing in 5th place right now.
If that happens, surely that is Viv off out of there then, as what motivation would be for her to stay in that scenario??
Still lots of twits to come no doubt, so it is very hard to predict anything at this stage.