Chelsea miss the podium for the first time since 2018
Six seasons of dominance, gone in one. Chelsea finished outside the top two in the Women’s Super League last season, something they had not done since 2018-19, and it came barely a year after a domestic treble.
The Blues still created plenty. They posted 50 big chances, their second-best total in a WSL season behind the 77 they managed in 2023-24. Their expected goals total came in at 46.5, against 48.7 in the treble-winning campaign. Finishing was the problem. Their big-chance conversion rate dropped to 37.9%, the lowest since 2018-19, and overall conversion fell to 11.2%, an eight-season low.
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Seven goals was enough to top the scoring charts
One stat sums up the slump. Sam Kerr and Alyssa Thompson finished joint top scorers with seven goals each. You have to go back to 2015 to find a lower total, and that was a 14-game league rather than a 22-game one. Three braces all season. That was it.
The defence wobbled too. Twenty goals conceded was their worst mark since 2013-14. Chelsea faced 250 shots in the league, and Hannah Hampton made 50 saves, a club record for a goalkeeper in a single WSL season. Even so, the 25.5 expected goals they allowed was still the second-best figure in the division, behind Arsenal.
Bompastor has spent the summer patching holes
The squad emptied out. Millie Bright retired. Kerr, Guro Reiten, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Catarina Macario all moved on. Kerr still had the best scoring rate in the squad at 0.92 goals per 90 minutes, even though a knee injury held her to 685 minutes.
Sonia Bompastor has gone to the market. Melvine Malard arrives from Manchester United with 15 WSL goals across three seasons. Katie McCabe brings 44 assists collected at Arsenal since 2015. Manaka Matsukubo, 22, joins from North Carolina after being named the NWSL’s best midfielder in 2025, with 11 goals and the most big chances created in the American league.
Opta’s supercomputer is unbothered by any of it. The Blues take the title in 40.2% of its 10,000 simulations.
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