Why Arsenal have fallen short in WSL and Champions League this season

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• Published11 minutes ago

This season hasn't gone to plan for Arsenal.

Even Stina Blackstenius' 93rd-minute winner against Everton in their penultimate Women's Super League (WSL) match of the season did little to change the bigger picture.

Manchester City have already been crowned champions as Arsenal's wait for a first WSL title since 2019 continues.

While the Gunners lifted the inaugural Champions Cup, they failed to retain their Women's Champions League title and also exited the FA Cup at the quarter-final stage and the League Cup in the semi-finals.

So why have Renee Slegers' side not been able to get their hands on any of the season's biggest prizes?

Arsenal dropped WSL points early

Starting slowly has become a costly trend for Arsenal.

After winning their first two league matches by an aggregate score of 9-2, Arsenal picked up just two points from their next three outings, including a 3-2 defeat by rivals Manchester City, and later drew back-to-back matches against Chelsea and Tottenham in November.

The Christmas deficit? Eight points after 11 matches. It is a gap they have been unable to close.

And this is not unique to Slegers' tenure.

In the past three campaigns, their title ambitions have been curtailed by costly early season form between September and November.

"The start of the season was another issue for them. They've done that for a couple of seasons now and then they're on catch-up," former England forward Ellen White said on the Women's Football Weekly podcast.

Given Arsenal have only lost one game all season, those draws have proved particularly costly.

Whatever is said in the summer, making a hot start has to be the priority.

Amount of minutes caught up with squad

Finishing fourth was not the plan for Manchester City last season, but it may have been a blessing in disguise for the 2025-26 champions.

After all, Andree Jeglertz's side have had the luxury of playing 10 fewer games than Arsenal.

The expanded Champions League format this season meant more matches, while the Gunners also played an extra two games in the inaugural edition of the Champions Cup.

Playing in five competitions has tested the club's squad depth to the limit.

Alessia Russo has been Slegers' most used player, with 3,150 minutes under her belt.

At City, Khadija Shaw - the league's top scorer - has played 762 minutes fewer than Russo, equivalent to almost eight and a half games.

Meanwhile, Mariona Caldentey, who was named the WSL player of the year for 2024-25, has played 3,092 minutes and not hit the same heights as last season.

As the chart shows, on average, Arsenal's squad have played 481 minutes more than Manchester City.

That extra time on the pitch has arguably taken its toll, with the players looking jaded in the 1-1 draw at Brighton last week - four days after their European title defence came to a crushing end in Lyon.

Those dropped points against the Seagulls left Arsenal unable to catch City, who won the title for the first time since 2016.

With fixtures pushed back because of their Champions League and Champions Cup commitments, Arsenal's schedule has been condensed at the end of the season.

The Gunners have played six games in the past 18 days. In that same period, City have played two.

"Too many games were postponed to this part of the season," former Scotland and Arsenal defender Jen Beattie told the Women's Football Weekly podcast.

"It's the hardest part, so you don't want your biggest accumulation of games to come at this point in the season."

With the season effectively over for Arsenal, the club's transfer plans are already well under way before what promises to be a busy summer, perhaps to address some of their shortcomings.

On Monday, Arsenal confirmed Beth Mead will leave the club after nine years, having scored 86 goals in 264 appearances. Defender Laia Codina and midfielder Victoria Pelova will also depart at the end of the season.

Meanwhile, the club have been heavily linked with some big signings, including Bayern Munich and England midfielder Georgia Stanway and Barcelona full-back Ona Batlle.

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The opposition has been too good

Alongside everything to do with Arsenal, there is another factor: Manchester City were simply better.

The champions have won the most matches (17) in the league, have the best attack (58 goals) and have the second-best defence (after Arsenal). They have put four or more goals past their opponents on six occasions and kept eight clean sheets.

After losing 2-1 to Chelsea in their opening game of the season, they won 13 consecutive matches, culminating in a 5-1 thrashing of the Blues after which they had an 11-point lead at the top of the table with eight matches to play.

Even with slip-ups against Arsenal and, more surprisingly, Aston Villa and Brighton, that gap proved too great to close, and for that they deserve immense credit.

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Follow the end of the WSL season with Ben Haines, Ellen White and Jen Beattie on the Women's Football Weekly podcast. New episodes drop every Tuesday on BBC Sounds on the Women's Football Weekly feed

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• Women's Football
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