Extra Time with GirlsontheBall
Aug 31, 2026 · 50 min · 9 segments
In Part 1 of our 2026/27 Barclays WSL season preview, Rachel and Sophie tackle the big questions ahead of the new campaign. Can Manchester City back up their title-winning season? Can Chelsea…
Question one is going to be about the top of the table.
finally get their domestic act together it's a bit of a you know will we see much of a change in the top three man city cohesive squad not too many changes few signings uh experience winning last season but they have more competitions to juggle is that maybe where the fear is and we don't want to go into too much detail around transfers etc because we will touch on that in the next episode.
But, you know, what are the teams looking at this season?
So I think Manchester City are interesting because they've now got this extra competition, as you said, with the Champions League.
And we perhaps saw it with Manchester United last year.
And I know vastly different contexts and different squads and all of that and different players and Bunny Shaw.
And Viv Miedema as well.
Yet.
There's a week to go.
But with two permanent signings coming in, I do think there is an interesting one.
I did expect maybe a bit more bolstering of the squad, but that's not to say that they don't have a world-class squad as it is.
And maybe Andre Jaglerts and the team are very, very happy with what they've got.
I just think that when you're juggling multiple competitions and weekday matches and It's going to be interesting to see how they manage that.
I still have that concern with City that if Miedema or Banishaw get injured, they look a very, very different outfit.
I think we saw that at the end of the last season without Miedema.
They didn't look quite as fluid and they sort of had a few questions asked of them, I think.
So it's going to be interesting this year, but I think they're right up there as well to defend their title.
That's not me saying that they aren't one of the favourites to win the league.
Absolutely.
So what a weight off.
Chelsea, they had their wobble, which was, I guess, to be expected when you had a change of managers, etc.
Do you feel like they will learn from that? Players will have felt what that was like.
Question one is going to be about the top of the table.
finally get their domestic act together it's a bit of a you know will we see much of a change in the top three man city cohesive squad not too many changes few signings uh experience winning last season but they have more competitions to juggle is that maybe where the fear is and we don't want to go into too much detail around transfers etc because we will touch on that in the next episode.
But, you know, what are the teams looking at this season?
So I think Manchester City are interesting because they've now got this extra competition, as you said, with the Champions League.
And we perhaps saw it with Manchester United last year.
And I know vastly different contexts and different squads and all of that and different players and Bunny Shaw.
And Viv Miedema as well.
Yet.
There's a week to go.
But with two permanent signings coming in, I do think there is an interesting one.
I did expect maybe a bit more bolstering of the squad, but that's not to say that they don't have a world-class squad as it is.
And maybe Andre Jaglerts and the team are very, very happy with what they've got.
I just think that when you're juggling multiple competitions and weekday matches and It's going to be interesting to see how they manage that.
I still have that concern with City that if Miedema or Banishaw get injured, they look a very, very different outfit.
I think we saw that at the end of the last season without Miedema.
They didn't look quite as fluid and they sort of had a few questions asked of them, I think.
So it's going to be interesting this year, but I think they're right up there as well to defend their title.
That's not me saying that they aren't one of the favourites to win the league.
Absolutely.
So what a weight off.
Chelsea, they had their wobble, which was, I guess, to be expected when you had a change of managers, etc.
Do you feel like they will learn from that? Players will have felt what that was like.
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