WSL’s old order wobbles as London City and Tottenham surge into the European race
A five-game start has unsettled expectations
The 2026-27 Women’s Super League has opened with a challenge to its familiar hierarchy. After five matchdays, Manchester City remain the only side with a perfect start to their title defence, but the early standings have offered a striking contrast: London City Lionesses and Tottenham are third and fourth, while Arsenal sit 10th and Manchester United seventh.
The opening results have been difficult to call. London City began by beating Manchester United, then lost to West Ham; United subsequently beat West Ham, and Tottenham defeated the Hammers before losing 6-1 to London City. The sequence has reinforced the impression that teams outside the established elite can trouble one another—and the traditional powers.
Challengers are taking more points from the elite
Opta’s figures show non-big-four clubs averaging 0.42 points per game against the traditional top four so far in the 2026-27 WSL season. That is the highest rate since 2015, when the figure reached 0.43, and is up from 0.30 in the 2025-26 season.
The early results come with a note of caution. Teams recording the higher expected-goals total have won just 62.9% of matches, the lowest rate since Opta introduced its updated model in 2021-22. Across the league, goals scored are 3.88 below expected goals, the first negative gap in a WSL season under that model. The opening stretch may therefore include an unusual degree of finishing or result variance.
Still, emphatic wins have not been confined to established powers. London City beat Tottenham 6-1; Brighton defeated Charlton 5-1; Liverpool beat Charlton 4-0; and Tottenham recorded 7-0 and 4-0 victories over Crystal Palace and Aston Villa. Those results account for five wins by four or more goals by teams outside the traditional top four, a total reached only once before at this stage of the WSL’s history: in the 2020-21 season, when there were eight. In the 2025-26 season, there were two. Chelsea’s 5-0 victory over Manchester United is the only such win by a traditional top-four side so far this season.
London City and Spurs make early statements
Tottenham have scored 16 goals in the 2026-27 WSL season, level with Manchester City for the league lead, while London City have 15. Spurs’ 7-0 win over Crystal Palace set a league first: all seven goals arrived after half-time.
London City have won three consecutive top-flight matches for the first time, scoring 12 goals and conceding two across that run. Their 6-1 defeat of Tottenham was the club’s biggest WSL win and its first time scoring six in the competition. The side has spent 69% of its time in a winning game state, second only to Chelsea’s 73%, according to the report.
The results have shifted Opta’s early projections. London City’s probability of qualifying for the UEFA Women’s Champions League has risen from 0.6% before the season to 3.3%, while Arsenal’s has dropped from 56.0% to 17.4%. Chelsea’s projection has climbed from 70.2% to 89.5%, and Manchester City’s from 60.4% to 86.9%. London City’s title probability has moved from 0.1% to 0.48%.
Those estimates remain provisional after only five matches. Tottenham have won two of 53 WSL meetings with traditional top-four opposition, with their most recent such win against Arsenal in December 2023. London City’s opening-day victory over Manchester United was their first against a traditional top-four side in the WSL; they then drew 1-1 with Chelsea in March 2026, as cited in the report. The article also notes that Tottenham’s next schedule is rated the league’s second-toughest, with Manchester City third and London City fourth, while Arsenal and Manchester United have two of the easier runs.
More possession and territory, better chances
The signs of change are not limited to the table. In the 2026-27 WSL season, teams are averaging 753.5 passes per match, 45.1 more than in 2025-26. They are also averaging 54.7 touches in the opposition box per game—up 4.9—and 249.3 passes ending in the final third, an increase of 16.3. Each is a season high on a per-match basis in the report.
Shots from inside the box now make up 72.1% of non-penalty attempts in the 2026-27 WSL season, up 3.5 percentage points from 2025-26 and 13.2 points from 2018-19. The supplied report text ends before giving further figures on clear-cut chances, so no additional numbers are included here.
Five matchdays are not enough to establish a new balance of power. But the combination of more points won by outsiders, high-scoring results from challengers and stronger attacking metrics suggests the WSL’s established contenders are facing a more credible challenge than the early standings alone might imply.