In the end, the WSL title race could come down to which of Arsenal and Manchester City women made the best attacking signings this summer. Last season, Arsenal and Manchester City had one major issue: they weren’t scoring as many goals as they should.
Manchester City scored 61 goals, Arsenal scored 53 goals, and only Chelsea scored more than them. In order to compete with the Blues (who scored 71 goals), a side must also decrease the goal-scoring gap between themselves and the champions.
Arsenal struggled in front of goal, yet surprisingly, they had a greater expected goal total than City (53 to 46.8). We’ve discussed how Mariona Caldentey, with 24 goals and 20 assists in 50 games, may substantially elevate the Arsenal offence, and she should: Arsenal needs a high-scoring 2024–25 season.
However, as our Gunners women strive to become a high-scoring club, could they have assisted Manchester City women in improving their goal-scoring performance by allowing them to sign free agent Miedema (though they had no control over the matter, they released the Dutch star)? This will avoid the City’s over-reliance on Bunny Shaw, who consistently outperforms her xG (scores ten or more goals).
After Emma Hayes’ departure, it is now up to Arsenal and Manchester City to dethrone Chelsea as the top WSL team. And whoever accomplishes this will be the side that receives the best deal in the Caldentey and Miedema swoops.
Caldentey has demonstrated her ability to score and assist goals during her time at Barca, while Miedema is a prolific goal scorer with an unmatchable record in the WSL, with many arguing that Eidevall’s system failed to match her style. Clearly, whichever of the two achieves the best stellar performance in the 2024–25 season has the potential to propel their team to league glory.
Michelle Maxwell
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Management will win the WSL title
Viv is not in Caldentey,s league, she ran the Spain match yesterday