2020–21 FA WSL

The 2020–21 FA WSL season (also known as the Barclays FA Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons) was the tenth edition of the FA Women's Super League (WSL) since it was formed in 2010.^[1] It was the third season after the rebranding of the four highest levels in English women's football.

FA WSL

Season	2020–21
Dates	5 September 2020 – 9 May 2021
Champions	Chelsea 4th title
Relegated	Bristol City
Champions League	Chelsea Manchester City Arsenal
Matches played	132
Goals scored	413 (3.13 per match)
Top goalscorer	Sam Kerr (21 goals)
Biggest home win	Chelsea 9–0 Bristol City]br>(13 September 2020)
Biggest away win	West Ham United 1–9 Arsenal (12 September 2020)
Highest scoring	West Ham United 1–9 Arsenal (12 September 2020)
Longest winning run	12 matches Manchester City
Longest unbeaten run	16 matches Manchester City
Longest winless run	13 matches Birmingham City
Longest losing run	5 matches Bristol City
← 2019–20 2021–22 →

From the 2020–21 season, the FA WSL was given three Champions League places per season, increased from the previous two.^[2]

Chelsea were the defending champions, having been awarded the 2019–20 title on a points-per-game basis following the curtailment of the season due to COVID-19 pandemic in England.^[3][4] They became the first team since Liverpool in 2014 to defend a WSL title.

Teams

Twelve teams contested the FA WSL this season. At the end of the previous season, Liverpool were relegated while Aston Villa were promoted.^[5]

Arsenal

Aston Villa

Birmingham City

Brighton & Hove Albion

Bristol City

Chelsea

Everton

Man. City

Man. United

Reading

Tottenham

West Ham United

Locations of the 2020–21 FA WSL teams

Team	Location	Ground	Capacity	2019–20 season
Arsenal	Borehamwood	Meadow Park	4,502	3rd
Aston Villa	Walsall	Bescot Stadium	11,000	WC, 1st
Birmingham City	Solihull	Damson Park	3,050	11th
Brighton & Hove Albion	Crawley	Broadfield Stadium	6,134	9th
Bristol City	Bath	Twerton Park	3,528	10th
Chelsea	Kingston upon Thames	Kingsmeadow	4,850	1st
Everton	Liverpool	Walton Hall Park	2,200	6th
Manchester City	Manchester	Academy Stadium	7,000	2nd
Manchester United	Leigh	Leigh Sports Village	12,000	4th
Reading	Reading	Madejski Stadium	24,161	5th
Tottenham Hotspur	Canons Park	The Hive Stadium	6,500	7th
West Ham United	Dagenham	Victoria Road	6,078	8th

Stadium changes

Four teams changed home ground prior to the start of the season: Reading relocated from Adams Park in High Wycombe to the Madejski Stadium, home of the team's male affiliate since it was constructed in 1998.^[6] Newly-promoted Aston Villa signed a two-year deal with Walsall to play their home games at Bescot Stadium, moving from the Trevor Brown Memorial Ground^[7] and West Ham United signed a one-year deal with Dagenham & Redbridge F.C. to play at Victoria Road for the season having previously played at the club's Rush Green training ground stadium.^[8] In a bid to enable increased attendances amid COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing measures, Bristol City announced they were moving from the 1,500 capacity Stoke Gifford Stadium in Filton which had been purpose-built by the club in 2011 ahead of the first WSL season, to Twerton Park, an 3,528 capacity stadium home to Bath City.^[9][10]

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Arsenal	Joe Montemurro	Kim Little	Adidas	Fly Emirates
Aston Villa	Marcus Bignot (interim)	Marisa Ewers	Kappa	Cazoo
Birmingham City	Carla Ward	Christie Murray	Nike	Biffa
Brighton & Hove Albion	Hope Powell	Danielle Buet	Nike	American Express
Bristol City	Matt Beard (maternity cover)	Jasmine Matthews	Hummel	Yeo Valley
Chelsea	Emma Hayes	Magdalena Eriksson	Nike	Three
Everton	Willie Kirk	Lucy Graham	Hummel	MegaFon
Manchester City	Gareth Taylor	Steph Houghton	Puma	Etihad Airways
Manchester United	Casey Stoney	Katie Zelem	Adidas	Chevrolet
Reading	Kelly Chambers	Natasha Harding	Macron	YLD
Tottenham Hotspur	Rehanne Skinner	Josie Green	Nike	AIA
West Ham United	Olli Harder	Gilly Flaherty	Umbro	Betway

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Manchester City	Alan Mahon (interim)	End of interim period	2 February 2020	Pre-season	Gareth Taylor	28 May 2020[11]
Birmingham City	Charlie Baxter (interim)	End of interim period	3 March 2020		Carla Ward	13 August 2020[12]
West Ham United	Matt Beard	Mutual consent[13]	19 November 2020	9th	Billy Stewart (interim)	19 November 2020
Tottenham Hotspur	Karen Hills Juan Carlos Amorós	Sacked[14]	19 November 2020	11th	Rehanne Skinner	19 November 2020[15]
West Ham United	Billy Stewart (interim)	End of interim period	23 December 2020	10th	Olli Harder	23 December 2020[16]
Bristol City	Tanya Oxtoby	Maternity leave	15 January 2021	12th	Matt Beard (interim)	15 January 2021[17]
Aston Villa	Gemma Davies	Retained head coach role	25 January 2021	11th	Marcus Bignot (interim)	25 January 2021[18]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Chelsea (C)	22	18	3	1	69	10	+59	57	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Manchester City	22	17	4	1	65	13	+52	55	Qualification for the Champions League second round
3	Arsenal	22	15	3	4	63	15	+48	48	Qualification for the Champions League first round
4	Manchester United	22	15	2	5	44	20	+24	47
5	Everton	22	9	5	8	39	30	+9	32
6	Brighton & Hove Albion	22	8	3	11	21	41	−20	27
7	Reading	22	5	9	8	25	41	−16	24
8	Tottenham Hotspur	22	5	5	12	18	41	−23	20
9	West Ham United	22	3	6	13	21	39	−18	15
10	Aston Villa	22	3	6	13	15	47	−32	15
11	Birmingham City	22	3	6	13	15	44	−29	14[a]
12	Bristol City (R)	22	2	6	14	18	72	−54	12	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. On 7 May 2021, Birmingham City were deducted one point for fielding an ineligible player in a draw against Reading on 25 April 2021.^[19]

Results

Home \ Away	ARS	ASV	BIR	BHA	BRI	CHE	EVE	MCI	MNU	REA	TOT	WHU
Arsenal	—	0–0	3–0	2–0	3–1	1–1	4–0	1–2	2–0	6–1	6–1	2–0
Aston Villa	0–4	—	0–1	0–2	2–2	0–4	0–6	0–2	0–2	2–2	1–0	0–0
Birmingham City	0–4	1–1	—	0–0	1–1	0–1	0–4	0–4	2–5	1–1	0–1	1–2
Brighton & Hove Albion	0–5	0–2	2–0	—	3–1	0–1	0–5	1–7	1–0	1–3	2–0	1–0
Bristol City	0–4	0–4	0–4	3–0	—	0–5	0–4	0–3	0–1	3–2	2–2	0–4
Chelsea	3–0	2–0	6–0	1–2	9–0	—	4–0	3–1	2–1	5–0	4–0	3–2
Everton	1–2	3–1	1–1	2–2	4–0	0–3	—	0–3	0–2	1–1	1–0	3–1
Manchester City	2–1	7–0	4–0	0–0	8–1	2–2	1–0	—	3–0	1–0	4–1	4–0
Manchester United	1–0	3–0	2–0	3–0	6–1	1–1	2–0	2–2	—	0–2	4–1	2–0
Reading	1–1	3–1	0–1	3–2	1–1	0–5	1–1	1–1	1–2	—	0–0	0–5
Tottenham Hotspur	0–3	3–1	W.O.[a]	3–1	1–1	0–2	2–3	0–3	0–1	1–1	—	1–1
West Ham United	1–9	0–0	2–2	0–1	1–1	0–2	0–0	0–1	2–4	0–1	0–1	—

Source: The FA
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

1. Independent tribunal awarded three points to Tottenham after Birmingham failed to fulfil the fixture due to a player shortage. No scoreline was specified.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[20]
1	Sam Kerr	Chelsea	21
2	Vivianne Miedema	Arsenal	18
3	Fran Kirby	Chelsea	16
4	Caitlin Foord	Arsenal	10
	Chloe Kelly	Manchester City
	Ellen White	Manchester City
7	Pernille Harder	Chelsea	9
	Ella Toone	Manchester United
9	Caroline Weir	Manchester City	8
	Inessa Kaagman	Brighton & Hove Albion

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets[21]
1	Ann-Katrin Berger	Chelsea	12
2	Ellie Roebuck	Manchester City	11
3	Mary Earps	Manchester United	10
4	Lydia Williams	Arsenal	7
5	Sandy MacIver	Everton	6
	Megan Walsh	Brighton & Hove Albion
	Lisa Weiß	Aston Villa
8	Hannah Hampton	Birmingham City	4
	Manuela Zinsberger	Arsenal
10	Courtney Brosnan	West Ham United	3
	Grace Moloney	Reading

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Ref.
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
September	Hope Powell	Brighton & Hove Albion	Jill Roord	Arsenal	[22]
October	Carla Ward	Birmingham City	Vivianne Miedema	Arsenal	[23]
November	Casey Stoney	Manchester United	Tobin Heath	Manchester United	[24]
December	Casey Stoney	Manchester United	Leah Galton	Manchester United	[25]
January	Emma Hayes	Chelsea	Fran Kirby	Chelsea	[26]
February	Hope Powell	Brighton & Hove Albion	Lucy Bronze	Manchester City	[27]
March	Joe Montemurro	Arsenal	Lotte Wubben-Moy	Arsenal	[28]
April	Joe Montemurro	Arsenal	Sam Kerr	Chelsea	[29][30]

Annual awards

Award	Winner	Club
Barclays FA WSL Player of the Season	Fran Kirby[31]	Chelsea
Barclays FA WSL Manager of the Season	Emma Hayes[31]	Chelsea
PFA Players' Player of the Year	Fran Kirby[32]	Chelsea
PFA Young Player of the Year	Lauren Hemp[32]	Manchester City
FWA Footballer of the Year	Fran Kirby[33]	Chelsea

PFA Team of the Year[34]
Goalkeeper	Ann-Katrin Berger (Chelsea)
Defenders	Maren Mjelde (Chelsea)			Leah Williamson (Arsenal)			Magdalena Eriksson (Chelsea)			Katie McCabe (Arsenal)
Midfielders	Caroline Weir (Manchester City)						Sam Mewis (Manchester City)
Forwards	Chloe Kelly (Manchester City)			Fran Kirby (Chelsea)			Lauren Hemp (Manchester City)			Sam Kerr (Chelsea)

See also

• 2020–21 FA Women's League Cup
• 2020–21 FA Women's Championship (tier 2)
• 2020–21 FA Women's National League (tier 3)