2018–19 FA WSL

The 2018–19 FA WSL was the eighth edition of the FA Women's Super League (WSL) since it was formed in 2010. It was the first season after a rebranding of the four highest levels in English women's football. The previous FA WSL 2 became the Championship – eleven clubs competed in the 2018–19 FA Women's Championship.

FA WSL

FA WSL trophy
Season	2018–19
Champions	Arsenal 3rd WSL title 15th English title
Relegated	Yeovil Town
Champions League	Arsenal Manchester City
Matches played	110
Goals scored	336 (3.05 per match)
Top goalscorer	Vivianne Miedema (22 goals)
Biggest home win	Manchester City 7–1 West Ham United (14 October 2018) Arsenal 6–0 Reading (21 October 2018) Chelsea 6–0 Bristol City (20 February 2019)
Biggest away win	Yeovil Town 0–8 Chelsea (7 May 2019)
Highest scoring	Manchester City 7–1 West Ham United (14 October 2018) Yeovil Town 0–8 Chelsea (7 May 2019)
Average attendance	1,010[1]
← 2017–18 2019–20 →

Arsenal won their first WSL since 2012 with a 4–0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion.^[2]

Teams

Following restructuring of the women's game in order to provide for a fully professional Women's Super League (WSL), membership of both the first and second tier is subject to a licence, based on a series of off-the-field criteria. Yeovil Town estimated the budget needed for a WSL season at about £350,000.^[3] Existing WSL teams were first offered the opportunity to bid for licences,^[4] with all applying FA WSL clubs retaining their place in the first tier, with Brighton & Hove Albion from the WSL2 also offered a place in the WSL.^[5] From the first tier, Sunderland were unsuccessful in their license application.^[5]

This left up to two places in the WSL and up to five places in the Championship for applying clubs.^[4] Fifteen applications were received for both the top two tiers,^[5] and West Ham were given a licence in the second stage, so that the league is made up of 11 teams.^[6]

Arsenal

Birmingham City

Brighton & Hove Albion

Bristol City

Chelsea

Everton

Liverpool

Manchester City

Reading

West Ham

Yeovil Town

Locations of the 2018–19 WSL 1 teams

Team	Location	Ground	Capacity	2017–18 season
Arsenal	Borehamwood	Meadow Park	4,502	3rd
Birmingham City	Solihull	Damson Park	3,050	5th
Brighton & Hove Albion	Crawley	Broadfield Stadium	6,134	2nd, WSL 2
Bristol City	Filton	Stoke Gifford Stadium	1,500	8th
Chelsea	Kingston upon Thames	Kingsmeadow	4,850	1st
Everton	Southport	Haig Avenue	6,008	9th
Liverpool	Birkenhead	Prenton Park	16,587	6th
Manchester City	Manchester	Academy Stadium	7,000	2nd
Reading	High Wycombe	Adams Park	9,617	4th
West Ham United	Romford	Rush Green Training Ground	3,000	7th, WPL South
Yeovil Town	Dorchester	The Avenue Stadium	5,229	10th

Arsenal celebrates winning the 2018–19 FA WSL season.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Bristol City	Willie Kirk[7]	Signed with Manchester United	29 May 2018	End of season (8th)	Tanya Oxtoby[8]	4 July 2018
West Ham United	Karen Ray[9]	End of interim period	7 June 2018	Pre-season	Matt Beard[10]	7 June 2018
Liverpool	Scott Rodgers[11]	Sacked	8 June 2018		Neil Redfearn[12]	12 June 2018
Yeovil Town	Jamie Sherwood[13]	Appointed Director of Football	14 June 2018		Lee Burch[13]	14 June 2018
Liverpool	Neil Redfearn[14]	Resigned	14 September 2018	11th	Vicky Jepson[15]	26 October 2018
Everton	Andy Spence[16]	Sacked	7 November 2018	11th	Willie Kirk[17]	1 December 2018
Birmingham City	Marc Skinner[18]	Signed with Orlando Pride	11 January 2019	4th	Marta Tejedor[19]	21 January 2019

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Arsenal (C)	20	18	0	2	70	13	+57	54	Qualification for the Champions League knockout phase
2	Manchester City	20	14	5	1	53	17	+36	47
3	Chelsea	20	12	6	2	46	14	+32	42
4	Birmingham City	20	13	1	6	29	17	+12	40
5	Reading	20	8	3	9	33	30	+3	27
6	Bristol City	20	7	4	9	17	34	−17	25
7	West Ham United	20	7	2	11	25	37	−12	23
8	Liverpool	20	7	1	12	21	38	−17	22
9	Brighton & Hove Albion	20	4	4	12	16	38	−22	16
10	Everton	20	3	3	14	15	38	−23	12
11	Yeovil Town (R)	20	2	1	17	11	60	−49	−3[a]	Relegation to the Championship

Source: FA WSL
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Yeovil Town deducted 10 points for entering administration.^[20]

Results

Home \ Away	ARS	BIR	BRH	BRI	CHE	EVE	LIV	MCI	REA	WHU	YEO
Arsenal	—	3–1	4–1	4–0	1–2	2–1	5–0	1–0	6–0	4–3	3–0
Birmingham City	0–1	—	1–0	0–1	0–0	1–0	2–0	2–3	2–1	3–0	2–1
Brighton & Hove Albion	0–4	2–1	—	0–1	0–4	0–0	0–1	0–6	1–4	0–1	2–1
Bristol City	0–4	0–1	0–0	—	0–0	1–0	2–1	1–1	0–1	1–2	2–1
Chelsea	0–5	2–3	2–0	6–0	—	3–0	1–0	0–0	1–0	1–1	5–0
Everton	0–4	1–3	3–3	0–2	0–0	—	2–1	0–4	3–2	1–2	0–1
Liverpool	1–5	0–2	0–2	5–2	0–4	3–1	—	0–3	0–1	1–0	2–1
Manchester City	2–0	1–0	3–0	2–2	2–2	3–1	2–1	—	1–1	7–1	2–1
Reading	0–3	0–1	1–0	3–0	2–3	2–1	2–2	3–4	—	1–2	4–0
West Ham United	2–4	1–2	0–4	2–0	0–2	0–1	0–1	1–3	0–0	—	2–1
Yeovil Town	0–7	0–2	1–1	1–2	0–8	1–0	1–2	0–4	0–5	0–5	—

Updated to match(es) played on 11 May 2019. Source: FA WSL
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Position by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Arsenal	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1
Birmingham City	3	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	4	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	4
Brighton & Hove Albion	9	8	10	10	10	10	9	9	9	9	10	10	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9
Bristol City	4	5	4	6	7	5	6	7	6	6	7	7	7	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	6	6
Chelsea	5	6	6	5	5	6	4	4	3	5	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	3
Everton	10	9	9	9	9	9	10	11	11	11	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
Liverpool	7	10	7	8	6	4	5	6	7	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
Manchester City	6	3	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2
Reading	2	4	5	4	4	7	5	5	5	4	5	5	5	6	6	6	7	7	6	5	5	5
West Ham United	11	7	8	7	8	8	8	8	8	7	6	6	6	7	7	7	6	6	7	7	7	7
Yeovil Town	8	11	11	11	11	11	11	10	10	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11

	Qualification to Champions League
	Relegation to Championship

Updated to match(es) played on 11 May 2019. Source: FA WSL

Season statistics

Top scorers

Top scorers^{[citation needed]}

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Vivianne Miedema	Arsenal	22
2	Nikita Parris	Manchester City	19
3	Bethany England	Chelsea	12
	Fara Williams	Reading
5	Georgia Stanway	Manchester City	11
	Daniëlle van de Donk	Arsenal
7	Courtney Sweetman-Kirk	Liverpool	10
8	Fran Kirby	Chelsea	9
	Jordan Nobbs	Arsenal
10	Erin Cuthbert	Chelsea	8
	Kim Little	Arsenal

Awards

Monthly awards

Awards by month

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Ref
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
September	Tanya Oxtoby	Bristol City	Sophie Baggaley	Bristol City	[21]
October	Joe Montemurro	Arsenal	Vivianne Miedema	Arsenal	[22][23]
November	Kelly Chambers	Reading	Courtney Sweetman-Kirk	Liverpool	[24]
December	Nick Cushing	Manchester City	Georgia Stanway	Manchester City	[25][26]
January	Tanya Oxtoby	Bristol City	Erin Cuthbert	Chelsea	[27][28]
February	Hope Powell	Brighton & Hove Albion	Sophie Harris	Brighton & Hove Albion	[29][30]
March	Joe Montemurro	Arsenal	Beth Mead	Arsenal	[31][32]
April	Marta Tejedor	Birmingham City	Beth Mead	Arsenal	[33][34]

Annual awards

Awards^{[citation needed]}

Award	Winner	Club
FA WFA Players' Player of the Year	Sophie Baggaley	Bristol City
FA WFA Goal of the Year	Beth Mead	Arsenal
FA WFA Save of the Year	Megan Walsh	Yeovil Town
LMA Manager of the Year	Joe Montemurro	Arsenal
PFA Players' Player of the Year	Vivianne Miedema[35]	Arsenal
PFA Young Player of the Year	Georgia Stanway[36]	Manchester City
PFA Merit Award	Steph Houghton[37]	Manchester City
FWA Footballer of the Year	Nikita Parris[38]	Manchester City

PFA Team of the Year[39]
Goalkeeper	Sophie Baggaley (Bristol City)
Defence	Hannah Blundell (Chelsea)			Aoife Mannion (Birmingham City)			Steph Houghton (Manchester City)			Demi Stokes (Manchester City)
Midfield	Ji So-Yun (Chelsea)				Kim Little (Arsenal)				Lia Wälti (Arsenal)
Attack	Vivianne Miedema (Arsenal)				Erin Cuthbert (Chelsea)				Nikita Parris (Manchester City)

See also

• 2018–19 FA WSL Cup
• 2018–19 FA Women's Championship (tier 2)
• 2018–19 FA Women's National League (tier 3 & 4)