The Women’s Super League has reached the winter break.
All of the sides have performed their first 10 matches of the marketing campaign so the desk, and developments in the season, have began to take form.
BBC Sport has delved into the numbers and picked out the most fascinating of the WSL season so far.
Lowest factors required in tightest title race?
League leaders Chelsea have averaged 2.5 factors per recreation this season.
They have gained the final three titles with eventual finishes of two.59, 2.54 and a couple of.63 factors per recreation.
The Blues are heading in the right direction to complete the season with 55 factors, which might be the lowest factors tally by the champions throughout a 22-recreation season.
There are some positives to take for Chelsea, although – in 2020-21 and 2021-22 they averaged 2.5 and a couple of.33 factors per recreation respectively at the winter break.
The hole is closing at the prime of the desk and solely three factors separate the prime three groups.
It was six, 5 and 5 factors at this stage of the previous three seasons.
Closest relegation battle but?
Only three factors separate the backside three golf equipment – Bristol City, West Ham and Brighton – in the WSL earlier than the break.
That is a very low determine in comparison with current years – it was seven in 2022-23 and 9 in 2021-22.
Bristol City prop up the standings with 5 factors from 10 video games, West Ham have 5 and a greater purpose distinction, whereas Brighton have eight.
Five can be more than regular. Last season backside-positioned Leicester City had none, in 2021-22 Birmingham City had one, and in 2020-21 Bristol City had two.
The season seems to be poised for an extremely shut relegation battle as soon as it resumes in late January, with seventh-positioned Everton solely on 11 and nonetheless at risk of being reeled in.
Quality hole closing as video games get longer
Even exterior the title race, the dominance of the conventional ‘massive 4’ of Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City is lowering.
Just 10 factors separate leaders Chelsea and sixth-positioned Tottenham going into Christmas.
That is a transparent lower from earlier seasons – in 2020-21 it was 13, in 2021-22 it was 12, and in 2022-23 it was 15.
Similarly to throughout the males’s recreation, the size of matches has prolonged drastically as a part of a brand new directive from legislation makers Ifab.
The common size of a WSL recreation this season has been 101 minutes and 50 seconds.
That is more than three minutes longer than the previous two seasons, and more than 4 minutes longer than in 2020-21.
There was a sense which may lead to more goals, however that has not been the case so far in the WSL.
As proven beneath, the common goals per recreation this season is 3.35 – down from 3.38 final season and three.56 in 2020-21, however up from 2.91 in 2021-22. The dip there could also be defined by gamers lacking video games due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The battle for the golden boot
Khadija Shaw narrowly missed out on final season’s golden boot, however the Manchester City striker presently leads the standings.
She has scored 9 goals and registered two assists, whereas three gamers – Chelsea’s Lauren James, Tottenham’s Martha Thomas and Brighton’s Elisabeth Terland – are joint second with seven goals.
Aston Villa’s Rachel Daly was final yr’s winner after scoring 22 goals throughout the season. Shaw netted 20.
Daly’s tally was the joint most by any participant in a marketing campaign, degree with Vivianne Miedema’s goals for Arsenal in 2017-18.
Shaw led the golden boot race with eight by the winter break final season, Sam Kerr had 9 at this stage in 2021-22 and Miedema had 11 in 2020-21.
The Jamaica ahead has averaged a purpose a recreation and is heading in the right direction to attain 21 if she maintains that tempo.
Stricter refereeing leads to sharp rise in playing cards
The WSL has not been resistant to feeling the affect of refereeing modifications this season.
The head of referees’ physique PGMOL Howard Webb stated in August he was “determined” that officers wouldn’t “flip a blind eye” to dangerous behaviour from gamers and coaches this season.
As a end result, officers have been more and more strict on dissent and time-losing.
There has been a 600% enhance in playing cards for dissent in comparison with final season (4 to 24), whereas cautions for time-losing have elevated from eight to twenty-eight.
The two accounted for 9.4% of bookings at this stage final season, they now account for 30.2%.
The complete variety of yellow playing cards has elevated from 124 in each of the final two seasons to 172 this marketing campaign.
In Manchester City’s recreation towards Chelsea in October, Alex Greenwood was controversially despatched off when she obtained a second yellow card for time-losing after taking too lengthy to take a free-kick.
Pundits were unhappy with the decision, with Ex-England goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis describing it as a “ridiculous” resolution.
There have been eight pink playing cards this season – a major enhance from the 4, 4 and three in the earlier three seasons.
