Arsenal, Man United draw suggests there might be no WSL title race

LONDON, England — A 0-0 draw between potential heavyweights Manchester United and Arsenal showed why neither team is good enough to win the Women’s Super League (WSL) and why, for a second straight season, there may be no real title race.

Last season, it was Chelsea who took the lead in the league, taking advantage of Arsenal’s slow start to finish 12 points clear at the top of the table. They finished with a record points total and clinched the title with two weeks remaining.

Now City are in pole position to clinch a first title in a decade and the only real beneficiaries of Arsenal and United’s profligacy at the Emirates to open their accounts for 2026, adding two points to an already yawning gap that could be 10 points by Sunday afternoon if City are to beat Everton.

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Neither Arsenal nor United have been able to defeat a top four team this season, winning just three out of a possible 12. They both suffered defeats to leaders City and painfully managed draws against six-time winners Chelsea. Their two meetings this season have been disappointing and poor 0-0 draws, results which do not reflect teams worthy of dethroning Chelsea and lifting the WSL trophy.

“We’re making it harder for ourselves (to win the championship) with this result, and we wanted, we needed three points today, so that’s two points lost for us, and we’re making it harder,” Arsenal manager Renee Slegers said at full-time.

“It’s important that you get wins against these (top four) teams, especially at home and for today’s performance and the way we dominated United and I think we prepared very well to get a win today, so it’s frustrating.”

Arsenal had a slightly better game than United on Saturday, creating a handful of good chances, with six of their 25 shots on target. But goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce handled them all, making easy saves as Arsenal’s play was readable and predictable.

This is not a new problem. The teams have analyzed Arsenal’s style of play and their lack of a plan B. Poor resilience has been identified by the club as one of the main factors preventing them from dominance and consistency at domestic level, and although the club have backed Renee Slegers with a new three-and-a-half year contract to secure a first WSL title since 2019, their ability to turn their season around seems unlikely, even for the young Champions League-winning manager.

While Arsenal lack the resilience to get results, United lack the ruthlessness needed to be considered title contenders. Their best chance came early in the match with a header from Fridolina Rolfö which second-choice goalkeeper Anneka Borbe parried off the bar to prevent a goal. After that, United barely got the ball out of their own half and failed to muster another shot on target.

United’s reserved approach meant they only created four chances all afternoon and never looked like scoring. A red card for United right-back Jayde Rivière only made matters worse.

The complexion of the game changed with United falling to 10 men. If Arsenal seemed frustrated in attack before, the final 20 minutes made that feeling worse. Meanwhile, United’s inability to generate anything in attack meant they wasted a chance to win the game.

It was a similar story when these two teams last met in Manchester in October. Neither team managed to capitalize on their chances, and neither seemed ambitious enough to really go for victory, playing with reserve and caution to claim and score and minimize the damage. These tactics will not win you titles.

The title race now looks set to be a race for Champions League qualification between United and Arsenal – and perhaps Chelsea, depending on their ability to close the gap on City.

City also benefit from the absence of European football. Arsenal and United will enter the play-offs in February, adding two more matches – Arsenal will have two more with the Champions Cup at the end of January too – and Chelsea will qualify for the quarter-finals. While the trio have to consider additional travel, matches and increased competition, as well as cup matches, City are solely focused on the WSL, giving them an added advantage.

“We are not out of this, we will continue, as we always will,” said Marc Skinner.

“City have the advantage of no European football, no distractions, but it only takes a moment to falter. So sometimes you have to pray for that and hope they can do it.

“We put ourselves in a bit of a deficit, of course, a big record. I’m sure no one has done that before, but actually we have to give ourselves a chance to try to win the rest of the games and see for ourselves how much pressure we can put on these positions.”

If they beat Everton on Sunday, City will increase their lead to 10 points over Arsenal and 11 points over United. With just 10 games left in the season, a hat-trick of defeats against their top four opponents would be needed for United or Arsenal to close this huge gap. Even then, the duo is also expected to win every match, and that’s a daunting task at present.

Any hopes of a title run to delight fans and assuage the growing belief that the WSL is a one-horse race will rest on Chelsea’s ability to put pressure on City, who are six points behind, and hope that a big February where Andree Jeglertz’s side face the Blues and Arsenal back-to-back will level the playing field.