MANCHESTER, England — They may be European champions, but Arsenal’s hopes of rekindling some domestic glory after a six-year drought in the Women’s Super League (WSL) may already be in tatters after Saturday’s 3-2 loss at Manchester City.
This was meant to be the season that Arsenal proved they could compete in the league. Chelsea have claimed every title since Arsenal last won it in 2019, and though they have claimed the League Cup trophy twice since then, the Women’s Champions League victory was a statement that the Gunners should be considered one of the best in Europe.
But this defeat in Manchester now leaves plenty of questions for coach Renée Slegers’ side who have dropped seven points from just five games, more than Chelsea dropped all last season. The Blues only dropped six points as they won the 2024-25 title, from three draws, and Sonia Bompastor is yet to lose a WSL game at the helm of the west London club.
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Chelsea were held to a draw at Manchester United on Friday — two months earlier than when they first dropped points last season. But assuming they continue their invincible league form under Bompastor, you cannot expect Chelsea to lose significantly more points than last term, leaving Arsenal already trailing behind.
Across Manchester on Saturday, the visitors were the architects of their own problems. It was a beautiful team move finished by Khadija “Bunny” Shaw that opened the scoring for City, but Arsenal’s Caitlin Foord had failed to track Kerstin Casparij and Shaw was left open in the box despite two red shirts tasked with stopping her.
Then some sloppy defending from the visitors meant it did not take much for Casparij to poke home at a set piece. Bodies were on the line, but goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar was on the floor and ultimately, Arsenal were left vulnerable.
The winning goal, the sucker punch for Arsenal, came in the 88th minute when summer signing Iman Beney was given far too much time and space on the edge of the area to take her time and pick out exactly where she wanted to place the ball. It was as though Arsenal’s defence, AWOL throughout much of the afternoon, moved in slow motion to close her down.
It has been a theme for Arsenal to concede first — they did so against London City Lionesses and West Ham United — but they always found a way to come back and win big. The Gunners did look like they were willing to fight until the end, twice cancelling out City’s lead. First Mariona Caldentey got the second half off to the perfect start for Arsenal to make it 1-1, and then substitute Chloe Kelly looked like she had grabbed the headlines on her return to her former club in the final 10 minutes with a stunning curled finish from outside the area. But they were creating too many issues for themselves and City had too much for them to grapple with in the end.
On paper, Arsenal had the better game. More possession, more passes into the final third and more touches City’s box. But their attacking feats — only seven of their 16 chances were on target — were outmatched by City’s nine efforts on goal from 18 shots in total.
It may seem too early to speak about the title race but, in a 22-match season, falling short in just a handful of games early in the campaign is something that teams have never managed to come back from. It happened to City in the 2022-23 season, United faced back-to-back draws and barely clung on to finish in the top three as last term progressed and even Arsenal were always on the back foot following their slow start in that campaign.
As a caveat, Arsenal’s first loss this season has come at title rivals City, and one of their draws came at United, who are equally vying for a place in the top three. But sandwiched between the two games was the 1-1 home draw to Aston Villa, which has cemented a negative narrative and has left fans bitterly disappointed with the start of what they hoped would be a dominant campaign.
Last season, they began their WSL campaign with two draws and a home loss to Chelsea in their first four games. Those results, plus the 5-2 thumping by Bayern Munich in the Champion League, led to Jonas Eidevall’s departure as manager in mid-October. Arsenal promoted from within, appointing Slegers full-time after a spell as interim, yet some of the issues that existed a year ago and contributed to Eidevall’s axing have resurfaced again.
Having learned from her predecessor and adopted many of his tactics, it should not be too surprising that Slegers is operating in a similar manner. Similar errors have persisted under her leadership and were all on display against an organised and aggressive City: a lack of intent and precision in the final third, haphazard defending, leaving opposition players free to roam and full backs leaving too much space behind.
It will take some impressive work to catch up and avoid dropping any more points — they’re yet to face Chelsea — and their fate will likely rest their rivals dropping points elsewhere. That is the last place they would want to be this early in the season.
Slegers will have bought herself a lot of credit following Arsenal’s European triumph, but less than five months after that triumph over Barcelona in Lisbon they are already facing the prospect of another domestic campaign without a title.