2021–22 FA WSL

The 2021–22 FA WSL season (also known as the Barclays FA Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons) was the eleventh season of the FA Women's Super League (WSL) since it was formed in 2010.^[2] It was the fourth season after the rebranding of the four highest levels in English women's football.

FA WSL

Season	2021–22
Dates	3 September 2021 – 8 May 2022
Champions	Chelsea 5th title[1]
Relegated	Birmingham City
Champions League	Chelsea Arsenal Manchester City
Matches played	132
Goals scored	384 (2.91 per match)
Top goalscorer	Sam Kerr (20 goals)
Biggest home win	Arsenal 7–0 Aston Villa 1 May 2022
Biggest away win	Leicester City 0–9 Chelsea 27 March 2022
Highest scoring	Leicester City 0–9 Chelsea 27 March 2022 Manchester City 7–2 Brighton & Hove Albion 30 April 2022
Longest winning run	9 matches Chelsea Manchester City
Longest unbeaten run	13 matches Chelsea
Longest winless run	10 matches Birmingham City Reading
Longest losing run	9 matches Leicester City
Highest attendance	20,241 Manchester United 3–1 Everton (27 March 2022)
Lowest attendance	298 Birmingham City 0–3 Reading (7 November 2021)
← 2020–21 2022–23 →

On 4 May 2022, Birmingham City were relegated following a 6–0 defeat away at Manchester City with one game remaining. Members of the WSL since it was founded in 2011, it ended Birmingham's twenty-year stint as a top-flight club having last been promoted as the 2001–02 FA Women's Premier League Northern Division champions.^[3]

Chelsea successfully defended the title by beating Manchester United 4–2 in the final matchday, winning their third consecutive and fifth overall WSL title.^[4]

Teams

Twelve teams contested the 2021–22 FA WSL season. At the end of the previous season, Bristol City were relegated after four seasons in the WSL while Leicester City were promoted for the first time.^[5]

Arsenal

Aston Villa

Birmingham City

Brighton & Hove Albion

Chelsea

Everton

Leicester City

Man. City

Man. United

Reading

Tottenham

West Ham United

Locations of the 2021–22 FA WSL teams

Team	Location	Ground	Capacity	2020–21 season
Arsenal	Borehamwood	Meadow Park	4,502	3rd
Aston Villa	Walsall	Bescot Stadium	11,300	10th
Birmingham City	Birmingham	St Andrew's	29,902	11th
Brighton & Hove Albion	Crawley	Broadfield Stadium	5,800	6th
Chelsea	Kingston upon Thames	Kingsmeadow	4,850	1st
Everton	Liverpool	Walton Hall Park	2,200	5th
Leicester City	Leicester	King Power Stadium	32,212	WC, 1st
Manchester City	Manchester	Academy Stadium	7,000	2nd
Manchester United	Leigh	Leigh Sports Village	12,000	4th
Reading	Reading	Madejski Stadium	24,161	7th
Tottenham Hotspur	Canons Park	The Hive Stadium	5,419	8th
West Ham United	Dagenham	Victoria Road	6,078	9th

Stadium changes

Two teams changed home ground prior to the start of the season: Birmingham City relocated from Damson Park to St Andrew's, home of the team's male affiliate since 1906.^[6] Leicester City prepared for their maiden WSL season by moving to their parent club's main stadium, King Power Stadium, with Burton Albion's Pirelli Stadium serving as backup when fixtures clash with Leicester's men's side.^[7]

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Arsenal	Jonas Eidevall	Kim Little	Adidas	Fly Emirates
Aston Villa	Carla Ward	Marisa Ewers	Kappa	Cazoo
Birmingham City	Darren Carter (interim)	Louise Quinn	Nike	SmartMeds
Brighton & Hove Albion	Hope Powell	Danielle Bowman	Nike	American Express
Chelsea	Emma Hayes	Magdalena Eriksson	Nike	Three
Everton	Chris Roberts (interim)	Lucy Graham	Hummel	MegaFon[a]
Leicester City	Lydia Bedford	Sophie Barker	Adidas	FBS
Manchester City	Gareth Taylor	Steph Houghton	Puma	Etihad Airways
Manchester United	Marc Skinner	Katie Zelem	Adidas	TeamViewer
Reading	Kelly Chambers	Natasha Harding	Macron	YLD
Tottenham Hotspur	Rehanne Skinner	Shelina Zadorsky	Nike	AIA
West Ham United	Olli Harder	Gilly Flaherty	Umbro	Betway

1. On 2 March 2022, Everton suspended the sponsorship deal with MegaFon and removed the logos from their shirts in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine due to Alisher Usmanov's close ties to Vladimir Putin.^[8]

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Aston Villa	Marcus Bignot (interim)	End of interim period[9]	10 May 2021	End of season (10th)	Carla Ward	20 May 2021[10]
Birmingham City	Carla Ward	Resigned[11]	16 May 2021	End of season (11th)	Scott Booth	30 June 2021[12]
Arsenal	Joe Montemurro	Resigned[13]	16 May 2021	End of season (3rd)	Jonas Eidevall	28 June 2021[14]
Manchester United	Casey Stoney	Resigned[15]	16 May 2021	End of season (4th)	Marc Skinner	29 July 2021[16]
Everton	Willie Kirk	Sacked[17]	16 October 2021	8th	Jean-Luc Vasseur	29 October 2021[18]
Birmingham City	Scott Booth	Sacked[19]	18 November 2021	11th	Tony Elliott (interim)	18 November 2021
Birmingham City	Tony Elliott (interim)	End of interim period[20]	21 November 2021	11th	Darren Carter[a]	21 November 2021[20]
Leicester City	Jonathan Morgan	Sacked[22]	25 November 2021	12th	Emile Heskey (interim)	25 November 2021[22]
Leicester City	Emile Heskey (interim)	End of interim period[23]	6 December 2021	12th	Lydia Bedford	6 December 2021[23]
Everton	Jean-Luc Vasseur	Sacked[24]	2 February 2022	10th	Chris Roberts (interim)	2 February 2022[24]

1. Carter was initially appointed as interim manager, but the move was made permanent on 30 May 2022.^[21]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Chelsea (C)	22	18	2	2	62	11	+51	56	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Arsenal	22	17	4	1	65	10	+55	55	Qualification for the Champions League second round
3	Manchester City	22	15	2	5	60	22	+38	47	Qualification for the Champions League first round
4	Manchester United	22	12	6	4	45	22	+23	42
5	Tottenham Hotspur	22	9	5	8	24	23	+1	32
6	West Ham United	22	7	6	9	23	33	−10	27
7	Brighton & Hove Albion	22	8	2	12	24	38	−14	26
8	Reading	22	7	4	11	21	40	−19	25
9	Aston Villa	22	6	3	13	13	40	−27	21
10	Everton	22	5	5	12	18	41	−23	20
11	Leicester City	22	4	1	17	14	53	−39	13
12	Birmingham City (R)	22	3	2	17	15	51	−36	11	Relegation to the Championship

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

Results

Home \ Away	ARS	ASV	BIR	BHA	CHE	EVE	LEI	MCI	MNU	REA	TOT	WHU
Arsenal	—	7–0	4–2	2–1	3–2	3–0	4–0	5–0	1–1	4–0	3–0	4–0
Aston Villa	0–4	—	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	2–1	0–3	0–0	1–1	1–2	1–2
Birmingham City	2–0	0–1	—	0–5	0–1	0–0	1–2	2–3	0–2	0–3	0–2	0–1
Brighton & Hove Albion	0–3	0–1	1–3	—	0–0	1–1	1–0	0–6	0–2	4–1	2–1	2–0
Chelsea	0–0	1–0	5–0	3–1	—	4–0	2–0	1–0	4–2	5–0	2–1	2–0
Everton	0–3	0–2	3–1	0–1	0–3	—	3–2	0–4	1–1	1–2	2–2	1–1
Leicester City	0–5	1–2	2–0	1–0	0–9	0–1	—	1–4	1–3	0–0	0–2	3–0
Manchester City	1–1	5–0	6–0	7–2	0–4	4–0	4–0	—	1–0	2–0	1–2	0–2
Manchester United	0–2	5–0	5–0	1–0	1–6	3–1	4–0	2–2	—	2–0	3–0	3–0
Reading	0–4	3–0	3–2	2–0	1–0	0–3	1–0	0–4	1–3	—	0–0	1–2
Tottenham Hotspur	1–1	0–1	1–0	4–0	1–3	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–0	—	1–1
West Ham United	0–2	1–1	1–1	0–2	1–4	3–0	4–0	0–2	1–1	2–2	1–0	—

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

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological progress, any postponed matches are not included in the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards. For example, if a match is scheduled for round 13, but then postponed and played between rounds 16 and 17, it will be added to the standings for round 16.

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

	Leader and Champions League group stage
	Champions League second round
	Champions League first round
	Relegation to Championship

Source: FA WSL

Results 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	W	W	W	W	W	W	D	W	W	L	D	W	D	D	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W
Aston Villa	W	D	W	L	L	L	W	L	L	L	L	W	L	W	L	L	L	D	W	D	L	L
Birmingham City	L	L	L	L	D	L	L	L	L	L	W	L	L	L	L	L	L	D	W	L	L	W
Brighton & Hove Albion	W	W	L	L	W	W	W	L	L	L	L	D	L	L	W	W	L	W	L	L	L	D
Chelsea	L	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	L	D	W	W	D	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W
Everton	L	L	W	W	L	L	D	W	D	L	L	L	L	W	W	L	L	L	D	L	D	D
Leicester City	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	W	L	W	L	W	W	L	L	L	L	L	D	L
Manchester City	W	L	L	L	D	W	L	W	W	W	W	D	L	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W
Manchester United	W	W	L	W	D	D	D	L	W	W	W	W	D	L	W	W	D	W	W	D	W	L
Reading	L	L	L	L	W	W	D	W	W	W	W	W	L	L	D	L	L	D	L	L	D	L
Tottenham Hotspur	W	W	W	W	L	D	D	L	W	W	D	L	W	W	D	L	L	L	L	D	L	W
West Ham United	L	D	W	W	D	L	D	W	D	D	W	L	W	L	L	W	D	W	L	W	L	L

Source: The FA
W = Win; D = Draw; L = Lose

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[25]
1	Sam Kerr	Chelsea	20
2	Vivianne Miedema	Arsenal	14
3	Beth Mead	Arsenal	11
4	Lauren Hemp	Manchester City	10
5	Alessia Russo	Manchester United	9
	Khadija Shaw	Manchester City
7	Bethany England	Chelsea	8
	Leah Galton	Manchester United
	Georgia Stanway	Manchester City
10	Ella Toone	Manchester United	7
	Guro Reiten	Chelsea

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets[26]
1	Manuela Zinsberger	Arsenal	13
2	Mary Earps	Manchester United	10
3	Ann-Katrin Berger	Chelsea	9
4	Ellie Roebuck	Manchester City	8
5	Grace Moloney	Reading	7
	Zećira Mušović	Chelsea
7	Megan Walsh	Brighton & Hove Albion	6
8	Rebecca Spencer	Tottenham Hotspur	5
9	Hannah Hampton	Aston Villa	4
	Demi Lambourne	Leicester City
	Sandy MacIver	Everton

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref.
Sam Kerr	Chelsea	Birmingham City	5–0 (H)	21 November 2021	[27]
Khadija Shaw (4)	Manchester City	Brighton & Hove Albion	7–2 (H)	30 April 2022

Discipline

	Most yellow cards	Total	Most red cards	Total	Ref.
Player	Maéva Clemaron (Tottenham Hotspur) Katie McCabe (Arsenal)	7	Hawa Cissoko (West Ham United)	2	[28]
Club	Tottenham Hotspur	39	West Ham United	2	[29]

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Goal of the Month		Ref.
	Manager	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club
September	Jonas Eidevall	Arsenal	Beth Mead	Arsenal	Pernille Harder (vs Manchester United)	Chelsea	[30][31]
October	Jonas Eidevall	Arsenal	Katie McCabe	Arsenal	Katie McCabe (vs Aston Villa)	Arsenal	[32][33]
November	Kelly Chambers	Reading	Jessie Fleming	Chelsea	Alessia Russo (vs Tottenham Hotspur)	Manchester United	[34]
December	Marc Skinner	Manchester United	Ella Toone	Manchester United	Georgia Stanway (vs Birmingham City)	Manchester City	[35][36]
January	Marc Skinner	Manchester United	Leah Galton	Manchester United	Natasha Dowie (vs Leicester City)	Reading	[37][38]
February	Lydia Bedford	Leicester City	Ashleigh Neville	Tottenham Hotspur	Caroline Weir (vs Manchester United)	Manchester City	[39][40]
March	Emma Hayes	Chelsea	Alessia Russo	Manchester United	Katie Zelem (vs Leicester City)	Manchester United	[41][42][43]
April	Darren Carter	Birmingham City	Sam Kerr	Chelsea	Yui Hasegawa (vs Reading)	West Ham United	[44][45]

Annual awards

Award	Winner	Club
Barclays FA WSL Player of the Season	Sam Kerr[46]	Chelsea
Barclays FA WSL Manager of the Season	Emma Hayes[46]	Chelsea
PFA Players' Player of the Year	Sam Kerr[47]	Chelsea
PFA Young Player of the Year	Lauren Hemp[48]	Manchester City
FWA Footballer of the Year	Sam Kerr[49]	Chelsea

PFA Team of the Year[50]
Goalkeeper	Ann-Katrin Berger (Chelsea)
Defenders	Ona Batlle (Manchester United)			Millie Bright (Chelsea)			Leah Williamson (Arsenal)			Alex Greenwood (Manchester City)
Midfielders	Guro Reiten (Chelsea)				Caroline Weir (Manchester City)				Kim Little (Arsenal)
Forwards	Vivianne Miedema (Arsenal)				Sam Kerr (Chelsea)				Lauren Hemp (Manchester City)