Palace humbled 1-7 at home and relegated to the Championship.
Hope Leicester can get something from the match against Man City. 0-0 after 55 minutes.
Hope Leicester can get something from the match against Man City. 0-0 after 55 minutes.
WSL 2024/25 | Chelsea champs - Palace relegated
- Thread starter top1whoisman
- Start date
Williamson, Russo & Little on for Arsenal at HT. Interesting 45 minutes coming up.
3-0 Villa.
Deserved scoreline as well. Villa have just played better than Arsenal. As things stand, Chelsea only need a draw against United to win the title tonight.
Four.
Villa 4-0 Arsenal. Rachel Daly.
As much as Arsenal have been poor, Villa have been brilliant.
Blackstenius gets one back for Arsenal 4-1 now.
4-2…
5-2. Crazy game.
Twenty minutes to play and Villa get another goal and that's 5-2
Grant has been amazing, best player on the pitch by a country mile.
I'm not watching this game, so I don't know what happened. I hope it's nothing serious.
She pulled up during a side by side race with a United player. Not a contact injury.
She stayed on for a couple of minutes after treatment, I'm not sure why - she didn't look comfortable.
Non contact injury makes it sound so much worse.
End of season approaches and the league is rolling to a pretty predictable end.
Chelsea have been favourites to win it since day one and did what they had to against United at LSV on Wednesday night. Crystal Palace have been favourites to go down since pre-season. The odd result/run might have surprised - I don't think anyone expected Villa to look in danger of relegation for example, which they did for a while. I don't think people expected to see Renee Slegers improve Arsenal's results so much when she took over mid-season.
City who were runners up to Chelsea (and level on points) last season took several steps backwards. Partly due to injuries - losing Greenwood hit them hard, losing Shaw for chunks of the season took away most of their remaining hopes. Yet some of it seemed self inflicted, like not playing Chloe Kelly even when she was fit. In the end the manager went but it's been hard for the interim coach Nick Cushing to pick them back up.
Which brings us to the big remaining question - second, third and fourth are still up for grabs. With luck (and at least a draw) United will settle the question of fourth place at Old Trafford today by putting City in fourth. If United win today then our match with Arsenal next week will be the second/third place decider. The top three qualify for the WCL so this is a big deal for us.
Game week 21 of 22 and the chances are the last big questions will get settled today.
The derby ends in a two all draw. Which given United were 2-0 down at one point and played the last 20 minutes with only ten women isn't bad. A triumph of team spirit in the end. We have now effectively ended City's season - they're finishing fourth. United still have a Cup final to look forward to, but qualifying for WCL football was our big ambition for this week and we did it.
In the WSL championship it's the last day of the season and the last match of the Championship season has effectively become the promotion playoff match. Birmingham v London Lionesses. Birmingham will go up if they win. A draw will be good enough for London. Match is live now on SkySports+
In the WSL championship it's the last day of the season and the last match of the Championship season has effectively become the promotion playoff match. Birmingham v London Lionesses. Birmingham will go up if they win. A draw will be good enough for London. Match is live now on SkySports+
HT
Brighton 2-1 Arsenal…
Brighton 2-1 Arsenal…
3-1 now. This is getting weird 
3-1 now. This is getting weird
Plenty to play for in our last game.
And just when I'd resigned myself to that being a dead rubber
4-1
Would be crazy to go into the final game with a shot of finishing second, though Arsenal being at home will make them favourites.
soccerway says it is 4:1 now. That true?
Edit: Yes it is. Incredible.
soccerway says it is 4:1 now. That true?
Edit: Yes it is. Incredible.
Arsenal have been so poor at the back today. Brighton’s goals have been excellent.
More of this terrible defending next weekend please.
More of this terrible defending next weekend please.
They’ve conceded nine in their last two games…
And it ends up 4-2.
Which means Arsenal v United next weekend is alive again. A win for United gives us second place. A draw or better for them gives Arsenal second.
Brighton have more or less guaranteed they'll get fifth place.
.
Which means Arsenal v United next weekend is alive again. A win for United gives us second place. A draw or better for them gives Arsenal second.
Brighton have more or less guaranteed they'll get fifth place.
.
I wish.
You moved quick there! I edited it almost immediately.
Michele Kang is definitely going to shake up the normal order in the WSL next season
It's an interesting development given the fact that she's effectively bypassed the current WSL model (where teams rely on men's clubs for backing). A billionaire businesswomen choosing to look at women's sport as a new project. With Lyon she's now got majority ownership of one of the biggest women's clubs in Europe. With London, the club had already split away from Millwall FC when she bought it.
The thing with women's football is that even with the investment they're planning in their new training ground it's possible to become a top team really cheaply compared to the men's game. There's scope for someone to gamble that the game will keep growing. Certainly having that multi-club option could turn into a great thing and she's got a great set of clubs for that.
Incidentally Jennifer Mackesy, co-owner of Gotham and Chelsea women is the money behind the World 7s project. Kang and her were both chasing Washington Spirit at one point so it's fair to say they're both interested in investing at the moment.
Final matches of the WSL season will be on Saturday:
Chelsea are Champions. City are fourth. Palace are relegated.
A win for United gives us the runners up spot. A draw or win for Arsenal and they're runners-up. Match is at the Emirates.
Chelsea are Champions. City are fourth. Palace are relegated.
A win for United gives us the runners up spot. A draw or win for Arsenal and they're runners-up. Match is at the Emirates.
And with what's likely to be the final title change to the thread, it's time to draw a line under the season.
Chelsea champs and Palace relegated was about the most predictable outcome you could imagine. Chelsea's domination over the English game is so strong currently that the only thing likely to end it will be them winning the WCL and Chelsea's owners losing interest once the the thrill of the chase is lost.
Newly promoted team getting relegated was almost as predictable.
Someone could break the spell perhaps. How badly do London Lionesses want to break the pattern of yo-yo promotions/relegations we've been seeing? Do any of the big clubs like Spurs, Liverpool and Everton want to break up the women's big four? Anyone going to make that leap to take on Chelsea?
The biggest question right now is how do you keep the league interesting if most teams have nothing to play for after half a dozen games. Promotion and relegation playoffs might keep the league alive for longer. And at the top? We wait and see.
Chelsea champs and Palace relegated was about the most predictable outcome you could imagine. Chelsea's domination over the English game is so strong currently that the only thing likely to end it will be them winning the WCL and Chelsea's owners losing interest once the the thrill of the chase is lost.
Newly promoted team getting relegated was almost as predictable.
Someone could break the spell perhaps. How badly do London Lionesses want to break the pattern of yo-yo promotions/relegations we've been seeing? Do any of the big clubs like Spurs, Liverpool and Everton want to break up the women's big four? Anyone going to make that leap to take on Chelsea?
The biggest question right now is how do you keep the league interesting if most teams have nothing to play for after half a dozen games. Promotion and relegation playoffs might keep the league alive for longer. And at the top? We wait and see.
And with what's likely to be the final title change to the thread, it's time to draw a line under the season.
Chelsea champs and Palace relegated was about the most predictable outcome you could imagine. Chelsea's domination over the English game is so strong currently that the only thing likely to end it will be them winning the WCL and Chelsea's owners losing interest once the the thrill of the chase is lost.
Newly promoted team getting relegated was almost as predictable.
Someone could break the spell perhaps. How badly do London Lionesses want to break the pattern of yo-yo promotions/relegations we've been seeing? Do any of the big clubs like Spurs, Liverpool and Everton want to break up the women's big four? Anyone going to make that leap to take on Chelsea?
The biggest question right now is how do you keep the league interesting if most teams have nothing to play for after half a dozen games. Promotion and relegation playoffs might keep the league alive for longer. And at the top? We wait and see.
This probably sounds very spoilt of me, but I lost interest in the wsl a bit this season. I go into every season, and every game, wanting my team to win, but this season I've found myself contemplating whether there is such a thing as too much winning. Maybe it's the lack of title race that made this season so boring, previous years had thrilling title races that went to the final day.
There's just a been a real lack of jeopardy in most of our league games this season. I want the league to grow and blossom into a league we can all be proud of, and be entertained by. One team winning the title 6 years in a row, I feel, does the opposite of that. It forces people to lose interest.
It's always hard to talk about WSL football without also talking about money. The big WSL stories this week are all about money - even though the official big news from WSL was that they now have a new logo.
Blackburn Rovers cut their women's team budget to the WSL2 licence minimum prior to this season. Minimum hours, minimum pay, minimum number of contracted players, minimum number of coaches and support staff etc. The team has now been told that despite surviving relegation - the club is planning to cut the budget again so it won't be able to renew its WSL licence.
Same thing happened to Reading as part of their ownership troubles at the start of this season - they ended up being placed in a regional league at tier 5 in the pyramid leaving an empty place in WSL2 for this year.
Meanwhile up at the top and Chelsea's domination of the English game - we've got further confirmation that it's not likely to end anytime soon. Chelsea spun off their women's team as a separate entity at the start of this season - largely as a magic trick to dodge some of the PL financial controls.
Alexis Ohanian (better known as Selena Williams's husband) has now reportedly paid £20m for a 10% share of the Chelsea women's team. Whether those numbers are accurate and whether that's an up front cash investment is anyone's guess.
At any rate Alexis and Serena are both expected to show up to the women's FA Cup Final on Sunday.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...lexis-ohanian-buys-20m-stake-in-chelsea-women
Blackburn Rovers cut their women's team budget to the WSL2 licence minimum prior to this season. Minimum hours, minimum pay, minimum number of contracted players, minimum number of coaches and support staff etc. The team has now been told that despite surviving relegation - the club is planning to cut the budget again so it won't be able to renew its WSL licence.
Same thing happened to Reading as part of their ownership troubles at the start of this season - they ended up being placed in a regional league at tier 5 in the pyramid leaving an empty place in WSL2 for this year.
Meanwhile up at the top and Chelsea's domination of the English game - we've got further confirmation that it's not likely to end anytime soon. Chelsea spun off their women's team as a separate entity at the start of this season - largely as a magic trick to dodge some of the PL financial controls.
Alexis Ohanian (better known as Selena Williams's husband) has now reportedly paid £20m for a 10% share of the Chelsea women's team. Whether those numbers are accurate and whether that's an up front cash investment is anyone's guess.
At any rate Alexis and Serena are both expected to show up to the women's FA Cup Final on Sunday.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...lexis-ohanian-buys-20m-stake-in-chelsea-women
Inevitably, Blackburn Rovers have confirmed that they will not attempt to renew their licence to play in WSL2. They say the rules around contracted hours, minimum staffing levels and contract terms etc now make it too expensive for them to run a team in WSL2.
Reading did the same last year - though in their case the whole club were on the brink of a Bury FC like bankruptcy due to an ownership stalemate when their owner failed to sell the club. Reading rejoined the FA structure at tier 5 on the women's football pyramid. It's expected that Blackburn will do something similar.
So, while Chelsea proved in the WFA Cup that life is good at the top, down among the minnows finances remain precarious.
Reading did the same last year - though in their case the whole club were on the brink of a Bury FC like bankruptcy due to an ownership stalemate when their owner failed to sell the club. Reading rejoined the FA structure at tier 5 on the women's football pyramid. It's expected that Blackburn will do something similar.
So, while Chelsea proved in the WFA Cup that life is good at the top, down among the minnows finances remain precarious.