This Women’s Super League weekend threatened to be far more interesting than it was.
Chelsea demolished Crystal Palace 7-0 on Friday night before Manchester City and Arsenal held onto their 1-0 wins against Brighton & Hove Albion and Leicester City. Most of the excitement stemmed from a 2-2 draw between Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur that saw three goals in the final 18 minutes.
However, as the weekend’s fixtures reached their conclusion, the news cycle was already being overtaken by a story about next weekend. At 4pm on Sunday, the Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL, which had been informally known as ‘NewCo’) announced it was postponing the following weekend’s game between Chelsea and Manchester United.
The match was set to be Sky Sports’ showcase fixture on Sunday lunchtime, with Chelsea’s home ground Kingsmeadow sold out. But with Chelsea having their opening Champions League match scheduled for the following Tuesday night, the 48-hour turnaround was deemed insufficient.
The WPLL cited “player welfare” as its priority when deciding to postpone the game, something Chelsea also said they had raised with the “relevant parties”. Player load has been a concern in the women’s game due to the prevalence of serious anterior cruciate ligament…
