Emily KeoghJan 30, 2026, 02:56 AM ET
CloseBased in London, Emily Keogh is ESPN’s women’s soccer correspondent, specializing in the WSL and UWCL
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Manchester City last won the league in 2016 and are nine points clear now with nine games left. Jess Hornby – WSL/WSL Football via Getty Images
Manchester City are within touching distance of claiming their first Women’s Super League (WSL) title in a decade, as they sit nine points clear at the top of the table with nine games left to play.
That lead could stretch to 12 points — the distance by which Chelsea won the league last season — if City can secure a win over the defending champions this weekend, before they face a tricky test against Arsenal the following week.
With no European football to play, after a fourth-placed finish last season, City have given themselves a huge domestic cushion. Even a loss in one of their key upcoming games won’t entirely derail their title pursuit.
The club invested heavily in turning around their fortunes with a new manager — former boss Gareth Taylor was sacked in March and eventually replaced by Andrée Jeglertz — while they added squad depth to assist the injury crisis they faced last term, and a new ethos to turn their lackluster mentality around.
All of which have seen City unbeaten in the league since their opening-day loss to Chelsea, while picking up six points from a possible nine against their top-four rivals so far. But can they bring home the trophy?
Wholesale changes have freshened things up
After Taylor’s midseason sacking amid turbulent results and an injury crisis, the club began a period of rebuilding. Though former boss Nick Cushing, who led the team to its only league title in 2016, took temporary charge until the end of the season, the club wanted a long-term solution who could refresh the identity of the team.
Relationships had fractured during the end of Taylor’s tenure, so finding the right replacement — someone who could rebuild the squad’s mentality on top of remolding the shape of the team — was key.
A former Champions League (UWCL) winner with Swedish side Umea, Jeglertz’s arrival has been key. The Swede has been around women’s football since 2003 and won plenty of titles during his time in Scandinavia, in between spells managing the Finland and Denmark national teams, and his approach to managing differs vastly to that of Taylor.
Jeglertz adopts an open-door policy and actively encourages his squad to give their opinions on tactics, wanting the players to have ownership and accountability over the decision-making. It has given the squad more flexibility and autonomy over the style and type of football they are playing, something that has shown itself in the consistency they have built.
Andrée Jeglertz has done a great job at Manchester City this season. Alex Livesey/Getty Images
One of the key areas for Jeglertz to address was the lack of squad depth. At times last season, City had as few as five outfield substitutes available, with key figures such as Khadija “Bunny” Shaw, Vivianne Miedema, Lauren Hemp and Alex Greenwood all unavailable because of injury.
Over the summer, the club moved early in the transfer market to bring in Iman Beney, Jade Rose and Sydney Lohmann to plug gaps, before adding England midfielder Grace Clinton from local rivals Manchester United — with Jess Park moving the opposite way — to finish their business.
City also agreed to new contracts for Hemp, Greenwood and Yui Hasegawa, then brought in United States women’s national team (UWSNT) midfielder Sam Coffey in January.
The reformed squad significantly reduced loading issues for key players and has made sure that even with a handful of players ruled out, such as Kerolin and Aoba Fujino, the effects are far less impactful or noticeable.
The investment in the squad will also have huge implications on the team’s ability to compete in both the Champions League and WSL next season, something it could not manage last year. However, that will heavily depend on whether the team can persuade prolific goal scorer Shaw to sign a new deal, as her contract expires in the summer — though sources told ESPN that talks have been positive.
No Champions League has been a blessing
While it is hard to regard losing out on European qualification as a positive, the lack of highly competitive midweek games has meant City’s focus has been purely on domestic success.
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While Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United were handling the reformatted UWCL league phase, playing top opponents much earlier into the competition — surely part of the reason why Chelsea dropped points, and why Arsenal and United lost momentum in the WSL — City were able to build up a big lead and goal difference.
Though City did have midweek games in the League Cup before being knocked out in the semifinals by Chelsea last week, their travel to Newcastle and Nottingham has not been comparable with some of the European trip their rivals have taken to countries such as Germany, Spain and Italy. And that has made a big difference.
The team has also learned from past mistakes. In a 22-game season, a sluggish start in the opening four or five games can make it almost impossible to catch up in a title race. This happened to City in the 2022-23 season, before their fast start in 2023-24 helped them finish second to Chelsea only on goal difference. City knew they had to rebound after the 2-1 defeat to the Blues on opening day this year and that has proved crucial to setting themselves up to be a title contender.
A huge doubleheader
This is now City’s most important fortnight of the season. Avoiding defeat against Chelsea and Arsenal would give them an almost-impossible gap to overcome with seven games left. Even if they do suffer a loss, City have a security blanket that keeps things in their hands.
City have Leicester City (home), Aston Villa (away), Tottenham Hotspur (h), Manchester United (a), Brighton & Hove Albion (a), Liverpool (h) and West Ham United (a) in their remaining games after Arsenal, with only an FA Cup run to congest their fixture list, so it would be a shock if they didn’t secure a first WSL title in a decade.
Under Jeglertz’s guidance, City have proved they can win games. But as the pressure builds in the closing stages of the season, the next two games will show a lot about how ready they are to lift the title.