Monthly Archives: September 2019

FA WSL Round 2 review

Everton go top of the League ahead of Manchester City and Arsenal, while there is also a trio at the bottom of the table fighting to avoid relegation.

 

Birmingham City, Manchester United and Liverpool all recorded their second defeat with Blues losing away to West Ham 1-0 again. Liverpool also lost 1-0 to a very controversial penalty with the referee not producing a high performance on the day to say the least. Man United resisted well and only lost 1-0 at home to Arsenal after losing by the same margin to Manchester City.

Everton beat Bristol City 2-0 to go top of the table in a surprise move considering they were in the relegation battle last year with Yeovil until the Glovers were de facto relegated with a 10 points deduction. Man City won 2-0 away to Reading, an excellent result as not many sides come away with three points from Wycombe.

Chelsea lost two points after drawing away to a battling Brighton side who opened the score late and saw the Blues equalize in injury time. Two big points dropped by Chelsea as we remember that their slow start cost them the title and a Champions League place last season.

Brighton carry on their good form and show their improvement from last season with two draws in two.

The low scoring games carry on in Round 2 with a slight improvement as three games finished with two goals scored and three 1-0 wins. An average 1,5 goals per game compared to 1.16 in the first round. We will see if the trend carries on in Round 3.

FA WSL Round 1 review

Season 2019/20 has started with a bang with many fans attending the games and a lack of goals. We will see if that defensive trend will carry on in round 2, but it might signal a new era where defenses prevail over attack?

All the games ended in a draw or with a win by a goal margin. There was also only one game in six that produced more than one goal which is a pretty poor return for the forwards. I think it is quite obvious that having full time teams has brought the defensive side of the game to a higher level with better fitness, organisation and preparation to the opposition strength and weaknesses.

The attack will know have to react and improve the same way in the future. It is the usual improvement cycle between attack and defense. There was a 0-0 draw between Bristol and Brighton, four 1-0 wins Chelsea v Spurs, City v United, Reading at Liverpool and Everton at Birmingham. Arsenal beat West Ham 2-1 in the only game with two plus goals.

The two promoted teams did very well against the title contenders and as mentioned where particularly well organised on the defensive side. The third contender Arsenal did the job could have won by a bigger margin as they had many 3-0 chances but ended up very close to a 2-2 draw as West ham hit the crossbar late in the game.

For the relegation battle, there are obviously five teams currently in the danger zone with the two promoted teams currently there alongside Liverpool, Birmingham and West Ham. As it is early days many of those are not likely to stay in the relegation battle in upcoming weeks as they make their way up to mid-table safety.

Everton’s win at Birmingham is an important  one should they both end up in the relegation battle at some points. Bristol and Brighton battled for a good point that launched their season well.

Round 2 will give us more information on the teams’ strength as the FA WSL is a League with only 22 games and not much margin for errors as seen last season. Chelsea never recovered from a disastrous start even if they were unbeaten and not conceding goals at the time. While City were unbeaten until the last 3 minutes of the season but still did not win the League.

Momentum is everything is a short season League.