Take a look at the top six places in the Women’s Super League (WSL) table and you could be forgiven for thinking it was the Premier League standings from any point over the past decade.
Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur — the Premier League’s established ‘Big Six’ — occupy positions one to six in the WSL with seven games remaining. Never before have they all finished in the top six in the same season.
Is that good or bad, exciting or boring? One thing is for sure, it is a far cry from the first WSL season in 2011. Independent sides Doncaster Rovers Belles and Lincoln Ladies were among the eight teams involved. Of the founding members, only Arsenal (2011 league winners), Chelsea (sixth) and Liverpool (eighth) remain in the WSL. Manchester City Women relaunched in 2014, Manchester United in 2018 and Tottenham were renamed Tottenham Hotspur Women in 2019. Top-six finishers in recent years have included Birmingham City and Reading (2018-19), Reading and Everton (2019-20), Everton and Brighton & Hove Albion (2020-21), West Ham United (2021-22), and Aston Villa and Everton (2022-23).
Today, every WSL side is affiliated with a men’s team and the top of the table has a very familiar look to it.
The mirror image of the…
