For the first time in seven years, Chelsea Women are not entering a new Women’s Super League season as the defending champions.
Sonia Bompastor’s second season in charge of the Blues did not go as well as the first. They finished third in the WSL, six points behind champions Manchester City. The real killer, though, was that Chelsea picked up just 49 points across the campaign — having aset a record-breaking 60-point tally en route to the title in 2024/25.
The year has been one of transition for Chelsea, with three core players leaving, setting the Blues up for a new future. Guro Reiten and Sam Kerr both left to sign for Gotham FC, while captain Millie Bright retired just before the end of the 2025/26 campaign.
So now all eyes will be on whether Chelsea can bounce back to win a seventh league title in eight years.
Why Chelsea still have work to do
Weaknesses from last season
Toothless attack
There were many reasons for Chelsea not winning the WSL last season — and not just because of Man City’s own quality. The Blues regressed both in attack and defence. They scored 56 goals en route to the title in 2024/25 but their numbers dropped to just 44 last season. It was their fewest goals league scored since the 2017-18 season, but that was when the WSL only consisted of 10 teams.
Chelsea held more of the ball than any other team in the WSL last season, averaging 59.86% possession. But they ranked third for shots (17.82) and shots on target (5.86) per game. The Blues also were in unwanted company for their shot accuracy, hitting the target with 32.91% of their efforts. Aside from Tottenham Hotspur (32.87%) the other teams below Chelsea for shot accuracy occupied the bottom three places in the WSL table. They had more shots off target than any other team in the WSL.
One of the main reasons for Chelsea’s goal struggles was the lack of out-and-out goalscorer. Someone to carry the team through the hard matches. Sam Kerr and Alyssa Thompson were Chelsea’s top scorers in the league, but they netted just seven goals each. They just about broke into the top 10 for the league. Man City, meanwhile, had Bunny Shaw winning the Golden Boot on 21 goals. But Vivianne Miedema also scored 10 goals, while Kerolin chipped in with nine.
That has been an ongoing problem, though, with Aggie Beever-Jones topscoring for Chelsea in 2024/25 with just nine league goals. But the struggles were masked by the league title.
Leaky defence
At the other end of the pitch, Chelsea also suffered. Their 20 goals conceded was their worst in a single league campaign since 2013, when they struggled at the start of the WSL. On a per-game basis, it was Chelsea’s worst defensive season since 2016, when they averaged 1.06 goals conceded per match compared to 0.91 in 2025/26.
With their possession high, Chelsea’s defensive numbers are generally low. So you cannot use those to effectively assess their strength at the back. And they did rank second in the WSL for their 183 possessions won in the attacking third, behind only Man City (189). But there are still some damning numbers.
Chelsea committed 18 errors leading to shots or goals in the WSL last season, with only three teams committing more. While Chelsea were level with Man City, the crucial difference was what happened with the errors. Man City were the only team to not have an error leading to a goal in the WSL last season, while Chelsea committed four.
Sjoeke Nusken and Wieke Kaptein were the worst offenders among Chelsea players, with three errors leading to shots each. But Lucy Bronze was the only Chelsea player to make two errors leading to goals, with Sam Kerr and Keira Walsh the other culprits.
Targetting problems
Chelsea have looked to combat some of their problems alreayd this summer. Melvine Malard has joined from Manchester United to lead the line, after the Blues missed out on Bunny Shaw. The Frenchwoman didn’t have the best season at Man Utd but the Red Devils struggled as a whole and have stagnated under Marc Skinner. Malard averaged 0.5 goals per 90 minutes in the WSL last season, from 2.4 shots, with a conversion rate of just 14.29%. The numbers pale in comparison to Kerr and Aggie Beever-Jones, though both players had less playing time. Alyssa Thompson had to step in at times, and Malard is an improvement on the winger.
The Blues have also looked to aid their goalscoring problems further back with Manaka Matsukubo. The Japanese international scored five goals in nine games in the 2026 NWSL season before her move, hitting the target with 11 of her 31 shots. Matsukubo also chipped in with four assists from 20 chances created, boasting healthy Expected Goals and Expected Assists tallies.
Defensively, Katie McCabe was the big signing. The Irishwoman made the short, and slightly controversial, switch from Arsenal on a free transfer. She remains one of the best left-backs in Europe and fills a gap that was left by Niamh Charles’ departure. It will bring experience and allow Sandy Baltimore to push further forward as a winger, while Veerle Buurman can focus on being a centre-back. Nelly Las has been brought in for the future.
What still needs to be done
Chelsea’s transfer business shouldn’t be done there. They need more attacking reinforcements, considering they’ve lost Kerr, Reiten, Catarina Macario and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd this year. The right-wing spot is the most pressing need, and Chelsea have signed Barcelona teenager Giulia Dragoni who can play there.
The Italian has spent the past two seasons on loan at Roma, and was directly involved in 11 league goals in 2025/26. Mara Alber is also back with the squad for now, though she could be lined up for another loan move away. Fans will be hoping for a more experienced right-winger to carry them forward, though.
Chelsea could also do with another centre-back to bolster their ranks. The Blues currently have Naomi Girma, Buurman, Nathalie Bjorn and Kadeisha Buchanan as their centre-backs. Bompastor has also used Lucy Bronze there when playing in a back three. But with Bronze’s proneness to errors last season, it wasn’t a decision that really worked. Girma, Bjorn and Buchanan also struggled with injuries last season, leaving Chelsea very short at key times.