MANCHESTER, England, Sept 3 (Reuters) – The Women’s \u2060Super League returns this weekend with a sense of momentum. Expanded to 14 teams, fuelled by fresh investment and looking more \u2060competitive than ever, the 2026-27 season promises to be one of the most compelling in the league’s history. <\/p>\n
Manchester City \u200care champions after ending a 10-year title drought, but retaining the trophy could prove even tougher. <\/p>\n
“Our biggest challenge this year is to continue winning and, at the same time, compete in other competitions and also want to win those,” City boss Andree Jeglertz told the BBC. <\/p>\n
“Winning in one year is one thing, but being able to win in \u200bthe next year, that is even tougher … we have good enough players to be \u2060able to play with one starting 11 on Saturday and \u2060do a couple of changes on Wednesday and still win. Each player will be more important than they’ve ever been for the \u2060club.”<\/p>\n
City \u200chost promoted Birmingham City on Sunday with their Jamaica striker Khadija “Bunny” Shaw, armed with a contract extension until 2030, the league’s most feared goalscorer.<\/p>\n
Arsenal, runners-up last season, have strengthened again and look genuine title contenders, with England striker Alessia Russo leading a squad packed with \u2060talent and their manager Renee Slegers said her season ambition was “taking the next \u200bstep.”<\/p>\n
“We’ve been growing the last couple of years,” \u200cshe told the club’s in-house media. “There were a lot of really good things last year. <\/p>\n
“If you look at results, we’re \u2060second in the WSL. \u200bWe’re semi-finalists in the Champions League. The next step is to be even closer and to be up there to compete for the first place … we’re going to do everything that we’re capable of within our control to put ourselves in a position to do it.”<\/p>\n
Arsenal visit Brighton & Hove Albion for their opener on \u2060Sunday. <\/p>\n
CHANGES AT CHELSEA<\/p>\n
After a decade of domestic domination, including a treble in 2024-25, \u200blast season’s one trophy \u2013- the League Cup \u2013- was not up to Chelsea’s usual standards. <\/p>\n
A summer of change has followed, with manager Sonia Bompastor welcoming Katie McCabe from Arsenal, among others.<\/p>\n
Some big names have also departed, including former England defender Millie Bright, who retired, and Australian international Sam Kerr, who \u2060left for Gotham FC of the National Women’s Soccer League in the U.S.<\/p>\n
Chelsea host Aston Villa on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The biggest disruptors may be London City Lionesses, who host Manchester United in the curtain-raiser on Friday.<\/p>\n
Backed by owner Michele Kang, they have made a statement in the transfer market, bringing in eight newcomers including twice Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas, her Barcelona teammate Mapi Leon and former England goalkeeper Mary Earps.<\/p>\n
Kang was a big \u200breason Leon moved to London City.<\/p>\n
“Because seeing another woman doing so much to help women’s sports \u2060and women’s football grow, I think it’s impossible not to value that,” she told the Guardian. “I think it’s something very powerful.”<\/p>\n
The league’s expansion adds fresh \u200bintrigue, with promoted sides Birmingham, Crystal Palace and Charlton Athletic bringing new storylines and \u200crivalries.<\/p>\n
Four extra league games will test squad depth, particularly for European hopefuls \u200bArsenal, Chelsea and City. <\/p>\n
The battle for the Golden Boot should again feature Shaw and Russo but a wave of emerging talent and high-profile arrivals such as Putellas promises to raise the standard across the league.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Ken Ferris)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANCHESTER, England, Sept 3 (Reuters) – The Women’s \u2060Super League returns this weekend with a sense of momentum.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,6675,85],"class_list":["post-878456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-na","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}