Arsenal Miss WSL Title Amid Fixture Pileup and Slow Start Under Slegers

Arsenal's season fell short of expectations despite a 93rd-minute winner by Stina Blackstenius against Everton in their next-to-last Women's Super League match.

Manchester City claimed the title, extending Arsenal's drought since their last WSL championship in 2019. The Gunners won the inaugural Champions Cup but lost their Women's Champions League crown. They bowed out of the FA Cup in the quarterfinals and the League Cup in the semifinals.

Renee Slegers' team failed to capture any major trophies. Arsenal started with two league wins by a combined 9-2 score but earned just two points from the next three games, including a 2-3 loss to Manchester City. They drew with Chelsea and Tottenham in November. After 11 matches, they trailed by eight points, a deficit they never erased.

Poor early form from September to November has hurt their title hopes for three straight seasons. "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.

Arsenal lost only one league game all season, making the draws especially damaging. A fast start must top their summer plans.

Manchester City finished fourth last season, which let them play 10 fewer games than Arsenal this year. The expanded Champions League and extra Champions Cup matches stretched Arsenal across five competitions and tested their depth.

Alessia Russo led Arsenal with 3,150 minutes. City's top scorer Khadija Shaw logged 762 fewer minutes, nearly eight and a half games. Mariona Caldentey, the 2024-25 WSL player of the year, played 3,092 minutes without matching her prior form. Arsenal players averaged 481 more minutes than City's squad.

That fatigue showed in last week's 1-1 draw at Brighton, four days after their Champions League exit in Lyon. Those lost points sealed City's first title since 2016.

Champions League and Champions Cup commitments pushed Arsenal's fixtures into a late-season crunch. They played six games in 18 days; City played two. "Too many games were postponed to this part of the season," former Scotland and Arsenal defender Jen Beattie said on 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."

Arsenal announced Beth Mead's departure after nine years, 86 goals, and 264 appearances. Defender Laia Codina and midfielder Victoria Pelova will also leave. The club eyes signings like Bayern Munich and England midfielder Georgia Stanway and Barcelona full-back Ona Batlle.

Manchester City topped the league with 17 wins, 58 goals, the second-best defense behind Arsenal, six games with four or more goals, and eight clean sheets. After a 1-2 opening loss to Chelsea, they won 13 straight, including a 5-1 win over the Blues that gave them an 11-point lead with eight games left. Slip-ups against Arsenal, Aston Villa, and Brighton did not cost them the crown.