Chelsea haven't endured a dramatic drop-off this term, but they certainly don't look like the inevitable force that went an entire domestic campaign unbeaten last time around, winning the WSL, FA Cup and League Cup without losing a single game. It would be unfair to expect them to hit those levels again, really, but there will be internal, as well as external, frustrations at how the first half of the season has panned out.
One of the main issues has been defensive stability. That was what Chelsea's treble-winning campaign was built upon, with only 16 goals conceded in 30 games in domestic competition last term. This season, however, head coach Sonia Bompastor wants her team to "take more risks".
"Sometimes, depending on my starting XI, we have a lot of offensive players on the pitch and I think that's okay," Bompastor explained earlier in the campaign, asked about her team's defensive metrics not being quite as impressive as last year. "We want to be a team who want to dominate the opposition. We also want to have a team who take risks on the pitch going forward. So sometimes, depending on the games, in terms of balance, we focus more on in-possession [things] and how we can create and how we can move the ball forward on the pitch, rather than maybe trying to defend more.
"That's okay for me. This is what we want to achieve as a team. I know going into every game, maybe the plan will change a little bit, so it's always important to find the right balance between in and out of possession. But, again, I think I'm someone who really likes to take the risks. We want to be offensive."