Arsenal’s failure to defeat Brighton on Wednesday night handed Manchester City the WSL title, but has this season continued to build a platform for the Gunners to build upon heading into 2026-27?
Following a 7-0 rout of Leicester City in the Women’s Super League last Wednesday, Arsenal headed into a crucial week full of confidence. But a disappointing five-day spell has seen hopes of silverware collapse, and now Renée Slegers’ side must regain focus to finish the season well.
Saturday began with title rivals Manchester City scoring an added-time winner at home to Liverpool in the WSL, before the Gunners went out of the UEFA Women’s Champions League following defeat in Lyon. Then, on Wednesday night, Arsenal’s hopes of a first WSL title since 2019 evaporated thanks to a 1-1 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion, handing Man City the league crown.
Aiming for a League Phase Ticket
In truth, with Man City leading the WSL since 9 November and Arsenal spending just three days top of the table across the entire campaign, it would have been one of the most surprising turnarounds in the competition’s history if Arsenal had won the title. But the Gunners can still salvage something positive.
Days Top of the WSL in 2025-26
Three wins in their final three WSL games of 2025-26 would secure second place and a spot in the league phase of next season’s Champions League ahead of Chelsea. Even seven points from those three games will probably be enough to usurp the Blues, with Arsenal having a much superior goal difference.
The Opta supercomputer is confident they achieve a top-two finish, with Arsenal doing so in 66.3% of the latest 10,000 season simulations.
WSL Opta Projections 2nd Place
If they do win their last three WSL games of the season – versus Aston Villa (A), Everton (H) and Liverpool (A) – Arsenal would secure their second-best points tally in a 22-game WSL season behind only their 55-point total in 2021-22.
Wednesday’s 1-1 stalemate with Brighton was their sixth draw of the WSL season, their inability to turn those draws into victories ultimately costing them in the title race.
With just one defeat all season in the WSL, which came at Man City, they have proved to be the hardest team to defeat in the competition – even if they have played two games fewer than most teams. But those six draws are the most they’ve ever had in a single WSL campaign, and one more than in the previous two seasons combined (five).
A Chance Missed
It could feel like a season of missed opportunities to Arsenal supporters.
With Chelsea’s run of WSL success ending abruptly this season, Man City have taken advantage, albeit not in dominant fashion.
Sitting on 52 points ahead of their final game of the season at West Ham, City’s points tally will at best only equal the previous lowest set in a 22-game WSL season by the team who finishes as champions (Chelsea’s 55 in 2023-24) and will eclipse that if they fail to win.
The Gunners did win the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup in February following a 3-2 extra-time win over Corinthians at the Emirates Stadium, but it’ll be their second successive season without a domestic trophy following a quarter-final exit to Brighton in the FA Cup and a loss to Man City in the League Cup semi-final.
There will be frustration at the way they exited the UEFA Women’s Champions League, too. Well placed to make back-to-back UWCL finals after beating OL Lyonnes 2-1 in the first leg in London, the Gunners put in a meek display in the second leg at the Groupama Stadium to lose 3-1 on the day and 4-3 on aggregate.
Slow Start Proves Costly
Arsenal’s quest for WSL glory was hindered by a slow start to 2025-26.
After winning their opening two games of the campaign versus London City Lionesses and West Ham, Slegers’ side had a poor three-week spell in which they collected just two points from three games against Manchester United, Aston Villa and Man City.
It was the same story as 2024-25, when the Gunners also collected eight points from their first five games before recovering, but ultimately missing out on a serious challenge for the title due to their poor start. In fact, this and last season have been their worst points tallies after five games of a WSL campaign since 2016 (seven points).
Another two wins against Brighton and Leicester were followed by yet more draws with Chelsea and Tottenham, meaning their opening nine games before December saw them earn 16 points and win less than half (4) of their encounters. Crucially, their points tally (16) was eight fewer than eventual champions Man City (24) across those opening nine matchdays.
But that form improved greatly from December onwards. No team have averaged more points per game than Arsenal since Matchday 10 over the weekend of 6-7 December (2.60), with only City (28) picking up more points in total than the Gunners (26) having played two more games.
In fact, the 1-1 draw at Brighton extended Arsenal’s unbeaten WSL run to 14 matches (W10 D4), now their longest unbeaten streak in the league since an 18-game run ending in November 2022.
It’s also now just five games away from their WSL record of 19 games unbeaten between August 2011 and October 2012, so should the Gunners keep up their good form between now and the end of the season, there are absolutely reasons to be positive.
Squad Age and Depth
One ‘advantage’ that title winners Man City had over Arsenal was the focus on WSL action this season, with City failing to qualify for the 2025-26 Women’s Champions League.
Arsenal had to play 12 games in the Champions League this season, plus another two in the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup in January/February on top of their domestic commitments. Including their final three WSL games of 2025-26, Arsenal will end up playing 41 competitive matches this season; Manchester City will end up playing much fewer (31 if they lose the FA Cup semi-final, 32 if they win it).
And yet, only Man City (23) have used fewer players in the WSL this season than Arsenal (24), and while Slegers did attempt to freshen legs with many lineup changes across the campaign (only Chelsea (3.2) have made more starting XI changes per game on average than Arsenal (2.9) have), the number of games the Gunners had to play did look to play a part. That becomes especially clear when considering they’ve had to cram their final seven competitive games into a 21-day period.
Arsenal WSL Squad
Arsenal also have the oldest average starting XI in the WSL this season, at 28 years and 38 days old. That increases when considering all appearances (28 years, 165 days), with seven of their 12 players to play at least 750 minutes of league action this season already past their 30th birthday.
Average Ages of WSL Teams in 2025-26
The signing of Olivia Smith last summer did suggest Arsenal are looking to bring in young talent, with Smilla Holmberg joining her at the north London club in January following a move from Swedish side Hammarby.
There’s also little doubt that academy product Katie Reid would have been more involved had she not suffered an ACL injury in November, while Michelle Agyemang could play a role next season after she also spending most of the season out with an ACL injury suffered on loan at Brighton.
Maybe Next Season?
Arsenal’s wait for their fourth WSL title continues, with next season marking eight years since winning their last in 2018-19.
There’s a strong chance this campaign will end with yet another second-place finish though, just with a much smaller margin between themselves and the winners. Last season that gap was 12 points between themselves and Chelsea in first place; this season has proved Arsenal are not far off being the best team in England.
Their target now is to secure that spot in the UWCL league phase ahead of Chelsea and provide some momentum ahead of what promises to be another close title battle in 2026-27.
WSL Stats Opta 2025-26
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