Sport

Tom Maher / 3 September 2026

Preview

The WSL 26/27 season preview

Everything worth looking forward to in this year's WSL season – including the teams, players and signings making waves across 2026/2027

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The new WSL season reaches us at long last, bigger and better than ever. The expansion means more fierce local derbies, the return of an automatic relegation spot and, of course, beer in the stands (unrelated to the expansion, we just like talking about it).

So strap in for a season with intrigue aplenty up and down the table and up and down the country. Here is our WSL season preview for 2026/27.

The Contenders

Manchester City

When Manchester City lifted the WSL title for the first time back in 2016, few thought it would be a decade before they raised it aloft once more. The vital ingredient for success last year that had eluded them for so long? A Swede named Andrée. Andrée Jeglertz’s maiden season in Manchester could hardly have gone any better. After losing the opening match to then champions Chelsea, the Swedish head coach masterminded a 13-match winning run in the league that lasted from September to February. A run that included victories over Arsenal, Manchester United and a stunning 6-1 demolition of Chelsea. City won the domestic double lifting both the WSL and the Adobe Women’s FA Cup in May.

Golden Boot winner Khadija “Bunny” Shaw was the undoubted star, scoring 21 goals in 22 games and becoming the first player to score more than 20 goals in three different WSL seasons. A pivotal element of City’s title winning success last term was set pieces, scoring 17, with the next most in the league on just eight. As well as boasting the best striker in the league, City have some of the best wide players. Lauren Hemp created the most chances in the WSL last season and nobody got more assists than Kerstin Casparij. Captain Alex Greenwood and midfield metronome Yui Hasegawa are also vital cogs in the machine.

One star who won’t be returning this term is Kerolin. The Brazilian who scored a hat-trick against Chelsea last season failed to report to training this summer, with her wish to move to Barcelona reluctantly granted. The Cityzens have recruited well in her stead as Beth Mead comes in from Arsenal and Niamh Charles arrives from Chelsea. The key question for the champions this season is how the squad copes with the added pressures of UEFA Women’s Champions League football. In Jeglertz they have a head coach who has won the competition before; if they can find a balance between their domestic and European ambitions, they will be difficult to stop.

Chelsea

After six years of dominance on the domestic front, Chelsea were finally toppled from their perch last term. The Blues might be licking their wounds but don’t expect them to stand still. Sonia Bompastor’s side have been aggressive in the transfer market, Arsenal legend Katie McCabe dropped jaws by swapping red for blue over the summer while French striker Melvine Malard did the same from Manchester United. The signing of Italian youngster Guila Dragoni also looks like a smart slice of business.

Many will have seen last season as an inevitable transition after the Emma Hayes dynasty. Stalwarts of the Hayes era, Millie Bright, Guro Reiten and Sam Kerr all retired or moved to New York last year. In Bompastor, Chelsea have a head coach with a proven track record, after all, she guided the Blues to a treble and an unbeaten domestic season at her first attempt. Chelsea will play all their WSL home games at Stamford Bridge in 2026/27, a welcome move that can only motivate the players and swell the fanbase.

Arsenal

Arsenal only lost once in the league last season, but it was six draws that killed their title chances. On their day they can beat anyone, as proved with victories against Chelsea and Manchester City. Keeping captain Kim Little and vice Leah Williamson fit, both of whom missed chunks of the campaign last year, will be essential to any hope Arsenal have of their first WSL title since 2018/19. As will the form of Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo, both of whom are expected to challenge for the Ballon d’Or this year.

Arsenal had the meanest defence in the WSL last season conceding just fourteen goals. That is a sturdy foundation upon which head coach Renée Slegers hopes to build. Despite losing McCabe, Arsenal have another world class full back in Ona Battle coming in from Barcelona. Georgia Stanway also arrives from Bayern Munich having already evidenced her loyalty with an Arsenal tattoo. Géraldine Reuteler, Selina Çerçi and Lisa Baum are lesser exalted names also coming from the Frauen Bundesliga with proven track records. The Gunners will need to shake their penchant for a slow start if they are to realistically compete this term. Early tests will come against Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United in their first five matches. Emerge unscathed from that run and they might just feel like it could be their year.

The Best Of The Rest

Manchester United

Last season was a mixed one for the Red Devils. United reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League in their first season in competition proper and competed in the final of the Subway Players Cup for the first time. However there was a crushing familiarity to the disappointments of the campaign. They faded badly in the WSL, failing to secure European football, and were knocked out of both domestic cup competitions by Cheslea. Marc Skinner was the longest serving head coach in the division last season but his reign came to an end over the summer. Both a lack of investment from owners INEOS and a change of direction for the women’s team were reportedly key contributors to Skinner’s exit. The club have signalled a greater focus on developing youth talent, a risky strategy with clubs strengthening around them with ready-made talent. They need only look to their own backyard for an example as star striker Melvine Malard departs to Chelsea.

While bolstered by the arrival of defender Andrea Medina and forward Jusu Bah, fans will justifiably be concerned about how the change of direction may affect the future of star players like Phallon Tullis-Joyce, Maya Le Tissier, and Ella Toone the latter of whom is out of contract in the summer.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and that head now sits square on the shoulders of Eva Olid. The former Hearts head coach led the Jambos to their first ever Scottish Women’s Premier League title last term. Olid took charge less than a month ahead of the new season, and United’s pre-season has been far from smooth. The Red Devils are yet to win a match, with big-spending London City Lionesses awaiting them on day one of the WSL. Only adding to the intrigue is the presence of former United number one Mary Earps, now in goal for London City.  Though it’s worth remembering the last manager to arrive from Scotland after winning the league with a club not named Celtic or Rangers who took over a Manchester United side that had finished fourth the previous season. He did alright, if memory serves.

Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur were one of the good surprises in the league last term. A best of the rest finish in fifth place, looking like a team that had regained some of the identity that helped them to the FA Cup final in 2023/24. Several key players helped push the side forward, Tōko Koga was up there with the best signings of the season and Olivia Holdt looked a player reborn under Martin Ho as their top scorer in the WSL. Signe Gaupset joined in January from Ho’s old club SK Brann with Spurs fighting off a number of Europe’s biggest names for her signature. Cathinka “Tinka” Tandberg, a lifelong Spurs fan, also became an instant fan favourite in North London, scoring six in the WSL.  While this summer has seen the departures of club stalwarts Beth England and Molly Bartrip, reinforcements arrive in  WSL Golden Boot challenger Kirsty Hanson, from Aston Villa, and French international defender Alice Sombath joining the backline from OL Lyonnes.

London City Lionesses

London City Lionesses have drawn eyes from all corners of the sporting world since Michelle Kang bought the club in the winter of 2023. That was never truer than when the Bromley based club announced the signing of two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas live on YouTube this summer. The club did not stop there, bringing in Putellas’s ex-Barcelona teammate Mapi León. León joins alongside iconic goalkeeper Mary Earps, after two years in Paris. Kadidiatou Diani, the only French woman to score a World Cup hat-trick, also signs for the club alongside out of favour Arsenal winger Rosa Kafaji and Danish wide player Janni Thompsen to name but a few.

As was the challenge last summer, Eder Maestre is tasked with gelling all these players into a single cohesive team. The Lionesses’ previous head coach, Jocelyn Prêcheur, was relieved of his duties just before Christmas last year, with the side he had managed to promotion sitting in sixth halfway through their first season in the top flight. Expectations are high, a top four challenge will likely be the minimum requirement. This is a club with resources aplenty, but patience is not one of them.

Three headline signings

Alexia Putellas

When it comes to transfers there is only one place to start. Putellas had just captained Barcelona to her third Champions League title with the club, but there was a clear tone of melancholic farewell to her celebrations. A World Cup winner and Barcelona’s all time top scorer in the Champions League, Putellas’s CV is among the most impressive in women’s football. How she will settle into life in England remains to be seen; her minutes have been few and far between in pre-season. Undoubtedly though, Putellas brings a level of talent the league has never seen, as the first Ballon d’Or winner ever to play in the WSL. Putellas will start the season as London City Lionesses’ club captain, a sign of the esteem she is held in at the club.

Katie McCabe

The will she, won’t she story of last season was very much Katie McCabe’s. While it was reported she was on the way out of Arsenal as early as February, she seemed indispensable, even filling in at centre back when required in the Champions League. McCabe played more minutes than anyone in the competition when Arsenal won the Champions League the season before last. So when the Irish captain was reportedly offered a new contract by Arsenal, fans had hope she’d stay in North London for a while yet. But, as the old adage goes, it’s the hope that kills you. McCabe was announced as local rivals Chelsea’s latest signing to no small amount of backlash. However, it seems clear that Sonia Bompastor offered her something Arsenal didn’t and, in a World Cup year, a place in the starting eleven of a top side was too good an opportunity to turn down. McCabe has been one of the best players in the WSL for close to a decade now and Arsenal may only realise her immense value in her absence.

Georgia Stanway

The Lionesses midfielder spent four trophy-laden seasons in Bavaria with Bayern Munich before returning to England with Arsenal this summer. The midfielder is fast approaching a century of England caps and was an integral part of both European Championship winning sides in 2022 and 2025. She is a versatile midfielder but has likely been brought in at Arsenal to play in the six role for Renée Slegers’ side with the goal of freeing up Caldentey and Little to be a little more adventurous in attack. A clinical penalty taker, her footballing hero is Alan Shearer.

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_{Header photo: Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images}