Nineteen shots in two games
Lauren James has attempted 19 shots across Chelsea’s opening two WSL matches. Nobody has ever taken more in the first two games of a WSL season. She was already the standout name from a flat Chelsea display on Matchday 1, when the Blues dropped points. On Matchday 2 she turned volume into damage.
Chelsea won 5-0 at Manchester United, continuing a long run of heavy wins at United’s expense. The shot map explains most of it: the positions are central, the volume is deliberate, and Chelsea have built the attack around feeding her.
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United have taken six shots all season
The mirror image sits at the other end. Six shots. That is Manchester United’s total across their opening two matches, equalling the fewest ever by a non-promoted team at this stage of a WSL season. The only other established side to manage as few was Leicester City last season, a campaign that finished in relegation.
The defensive numbers read worse. United have conceded seven goals, more than any other WSL side this season. Across the opening two matches of their previous seven WSL campaigns combined, they conceded ten in total. Two games have now delivered seven.
Eva Olid inherited a rebuild, a young squad and a mandate to change how United play, so a difficult start was never unlikely. The size of the gap between what United are creating and what everyone around them is creating is still startling at this stage.
What Matchday 3 asks
Two matches is a small sample and everyone involved knows it. Chelsea dropped points on the opening weekend and answered with five goals away from home, which is the kind of correction that suggests the Matchday 1 draw was noise rather than signal.
United travel to Arsenal next. Arsenal have just been held at home by newly promoted Crystal Palace, their first dropped points of the campaign, and they face Chelsea and Manchester City in the two fixtures after that. A frustrated side at the start of a demanding run is not the opponent a team with six shots and seven goals conceded would have chosen.
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