New Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor has enjoyed a dream start to life at the Women’s Super League champions. Wednesday’s 3-0 win over Celtic saw the Blues qualify for the Quarter Finals of the Champions League with two games to spare.
In addition, Saturday’s win over Manchester City saw them move to the top of the WSL table having won all seven of their matches so far. They have a two point lead over City with a game in hand, which they play on Sunday at home to Manchester United.
English fans will take any opportunity to mock other leagues such as France and Scotland in the men’s game for being uncompetitive, but is the WSL going the same way?
Chelsea’s current title winning run
When Chelsea retained the title on the final day of last season with a 6-0 thrashing of Manchester United, it was their fifth successive title. They also won the 2017 Spring Series and 2017-18 WSL, meaning in the seven seasons since the league switched to a winter league Chelsea have been crowned champions in six of them.
The mastermind behind the club’s success was manager Emma Hayes, who had been in charge since 2012 but left the club at the end of last season and has since become manager of the United States national team.
Some did wonder if losing their legendary boss could lead to a changing of the guard at the top, but with Chelsea now moving top after beating the only side looking capable of challenging them a win on Sunday would take them five points clear and has left those same people struggling to see beyond a sixth straight title.
What have Chelsea’s title winning margins been?
Whilst the WSL trophy has taken up permanent residence at Kingsmeadow over the last five years, none of the titles in that period have been won before the final day of the season. In 2019-20, Chelsea were actually a point behind Manchester City when the campaign was curtailed by the pandemic.
However, they had a game in hand and when the final table was decided on points per game, Chelsea were crowned champions by 0.1 points. The 2020-21 and 2022-23 titles were both won by two point margins from the two Manchester clubs. In 2021-22 they only finished a single point ahead of Arsenal.
There were two things unique about their title win last season. Not only was it decided on goal difference, but it was also the first time that any side had won the title having lost more than twice during a season.
Who could realistically challenge Chelsea?
Despite their defeat at Stamford Bridge at the weekend, Manchester City probably remain the most likely side to challenge Chelsea for the title. The top two go head to head again on 23 March at Etihad Stadium.
Arsenal are six points behind after a difficult start to the season which saw the resignation of manager Jonas Eidevall. The Swede’s final game in charge proving to be a home defeat to Chelsea. Form has been improved under interim manager Rene Slegers, but it would take quite a turnaround for the Gunners to win their first title since 2018-19.
Similarly Manchester United go into their clash at Kingsmeadow six points behind. Should they be the side to end the champions perfect start that would halve the gap and blow the title race wide open, but the Red Devils’ recent run of three straight draws and performances which have drawn criticism mean they are heavy underdogs.
Can anyone stop Chelsea?
Following the win over Celtic, Bompastor said she wants her side to ‘make winning become easy’ and at times it has felt like they already have. They have easily the best attack in the league having scored 25 goals. Manchester City are the closest with 16.
Similarly they have only conceded three goals. Manchester United are the only side to have conceded fewer with just two. Even at this very early stage of the season, Sunday could prove to be pivotal.
While it is asking a lot to expect Chelsea to go unbeaten for the entire season, victory over United would see them move nine points clear of both them and Arsenal, and five clear of City. That is a pretty sizable margin after eight of 22 games.
One winner, but fine margins
Overall it feels fairly easy to say that the WSL has become an uncompetitive league given that the current leaders are the same side that have ended the season lifting the trophy for the past five years.
However, not only have they been pushed to the last day of the campaign every time, but in that period three separate clubs have been in the position of closest challengers so the league seems to be more competitive at the top than many may think.