Rion Ishikawas head is in her hands before Bunny Shaw has even landed back on the ground, the Everton centre-back a mixture of anguish and chagrin at being undone by something so blatantly obvious as allowing the Manchester City striker to rise highest in front of goal because if there is one rule in this game worth heeding, its not to let the Jamaica international jump higher than you.
Of course, City are higher than everyone now: leading the Womens Super League (WSL) after eight matches, taking advantage of Manchester Uniteds stumble in losing at home to Aston Villa and Chelsea and Arsenals weekend of howling into a VAR abyss.
The travelling City supporters at Goodison Park made that abundantly clear as the full-time whistle blew on a breathlessly fun and agitated 2-1 away win on Sunday, chanting We are top of the league!.
At which point, its worth ruminating over whether the 2025-26 WSL title race is alive and well, or if were just living in an elaborate fantasy.
None of the big teams look consistently convincing, meaning most fans have consigned themselves to the high likelihood that serial champions Chelsea will eventually claw and clamber to the top of the scrap pile.
Theres logic in their fatalism.
A single point separates City and Chelsea. Both remain undefeated, with the Londoners not having lost in the WSL since Liverpool beat them 4-3 in May 2024.
The more war-weary WSL fans among us will recall that match for the way Chelseas then manager Emma Hayes publicly threw in the title towel afterwards, pointing to City being six points clear with three matches to go then famously grabbed that towel and twirled it around her head as she discoed goodbye to the WSL, having merrily strung us all along for her final joyride and Chelseas fifth title on the trot.
Yet, theres a swagger to this City team. Since losing 2-1 away to Chelsea in their WSL opener two months ago, they have built a nine-game winning streak in all competitions.
Not all of those displays have necessarily made them appear unassailable.
Head coach Andree Jeglertz admitted after the 1-0 home victory against West Ham United last weekend that his side were lucky not to have been two goals down in the first half. Then yesterday, City were repeatedly overrun in midfield, ultimately grateful that the Goodison grass under Toni Paynes orange boots was too slippery on two occasions, that Ornella Vignolas second-half effort nipped off the inside post at just the right angle, and that their goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita has cat-like reflexes.
Which is the trait that marks out most title-winning teams across all kinds of sports the ability to seize what you do not always deserve.
We struggled too much in our defending, Jeglertz said. They played through us a couple of times, and we struggled to figure out that in a good way. But if you have high ambitions for the end of the year, you need to win these games. There is no doubt about that. It shows something about the team that we managed to get three points, even though it wasnt the most beautiful game of the year.
Jeglertz deserves credit for City being title contenders. Since arriving in the summer, the former Denmark Women head coach has made a dogmatically possession-based side under predecessor Gareth Taylor more dynamic and unpredictable; he is willing to experiment with various formations and passing networks between and during matches, not just rely on possession.
Where City averaged having 65 per cent of the ball last season under Taylor, Jeglertzs side are at 55 per cent, while their sequences involving nine or more passes per 90 minutes are down from 20.4 then to 12.4 now. Their 4.3 big chances per 90 is an increase on the 3.1 of last season and 34 per cent of their passes now go forward (up from 31 per cent), even while considering the smaller sample (eight games to a full slate of 22).
In other words, there is freedom in not worshipping at the altar of just one way to play.
It is not perfect, as large parts of the performance against Everton exposed. But this is a work in progress, a car being assembled while simultaneously trying to drive it into the championship sunset, testing the gearbox as they go and waiting on that last box of parts to finally arrive.
England winger Lauren Hemp featured on Sunday for the first time since an ankle injury sustained in the 5-1 win at Tottenham on September 19. City are still without forward Mary Fowler following her ACL rupture in April and their captain Alex Greenwood is set to be missing from the defence for a number of weeks due to an unspecified injury. Sydney Lohmann, Rebecca Knaak and Grace Clinton are all returning from their own lay-offs.
The challenge for us has also been even though we have been keeping winning, which is crucial weve had injuries, players have been out or coming back, said Jeglertz. Weve had a little bit of a challenge playing with the same starting 11 all the time, and I think that this relationship is crucial for football. Since we havent been able to work with that that much, I think its only going to grow.
It was telling that, when given the opportunity to praise matchwinner Shaws brilliance in his post-match duties on Sunday, Jeglertz instead embarked on a long answer about his team in general, the quality not only at the top end of the pitch to clinch three points but to see out the game elsewhere.
And perhaps that is another rule worth heeding: if someone is finally going to take this league from Chelsea after their six straight titles, it is not about relying on one player but a team prepared to grind it out. That has been the rule Chelsea have relentlessly lived by during this period of success: football as both trench warfare and finesse.
That someone else might finally be capable of executing a similar blueprint is a good thing.
Sporting products are nothing without jeopardy and the WSL is still selling itself to the world as a bona fide competitive spectacle, something more than a bloodless scrap where the stock image is Chelsea players testing various trophy-lifting techniques each spring.
Its early days. But, for now, those City fans can keep singing.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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