Manchester United Struggles as Chelsea and Arsenal Shine
Right now, it looks less like a wobble and more like a slide.
This is the club that, under Marc Skinner, finally broke through in 2024. First major trophy in the cabinet. A run to the Champions League quarter-finals at the first attempt. The trajectory felt obvious: upward, ambitious, ready to mix it with Europe’s elite.
That version of Manchester United has vanished.
Skinner has gone. Eva Olid has walked into the storm, and two games into the new Women’s Super League season, United are bottom of the table with a worse goal difference than newly promoted Charlton. After years of careful construction, the structure is coming apart in plain sight.
Six league games without a win – their longest barren run since reforming in 2018. Two games this season, two damaging performances, and not much in the way of mitigation. The 5-0 thrashing by Chelsea didn’t just bruise; it exposed.
Olid fronted up. “I don’t like the heads down,” she said afterwards. “Heads up and we have to continue.”
She has no choice but to sound defiant. Yet the problems she has inherited run far beyond tactical tweaks or early-season rust.
United’s lack of conviction on the pitch feels like a direct reflection of the club’s lukewarm commitment to their women’s programme. The investment questions have been circling for a long time. So has the accusation of indifference.
This summer’s shift towards youth development – a cheaper, longer-term model – came at a cost. It contributed to Skinner’s exit, dressed up publicly as a mutual separation, but underpinned by his frustration at not being given the tools he felt were required. His message was clear enough. The response from above was not.
Olid has now had the scale of her task spelled out in brutal fashion. United have equalled the record for fewest shots taken by a non-newly promoted side across their opening two WSL games, matching Leicester’s tally last season. Leicester went down.
Change of manager or not, some realities refuse to budge. United have now tried 14 times to beat Chelsea in the WSL. They have failed 14 times. That statistic speaks to a gulf that has not been closed, only underlined.
Losing to Chelsea is no disgrace. Losing by five is a different story. The solid platform Skinner appeared to have laid suddenly looks fragile. Next up? Arsenal, live on Sky Sports next Saturday. United must improve almost everywhere. It is hard to know where Olid even starts.
What is clear is this: she cannot allow performances to sink much lower. The table may be young, but the warning signs are already flashing.
Chelsea’s ruthless edge – and the James question
For Chelsea, the same game felt like a statement. A reminder that when they feel slighted, they bite.
Sonia Bompastor’s side took flak after failing to finish off Aston Villa in a 1-1 draw on the opening weekend. Wasteful, blunt, not clinical enough – the criticism landed. United bore the backlash.
Chelsea met an obliging opponent but showed no mercy. This was the strong hunting the weak, and doing it with relish. “When you have the opportunity to really hurt a team, the best way to respect them is to score as many goals as you can,” Bompastor said. United were respected to within an inch of humiliation.
Lauren James again operated as Chelsea’s trump card, the player everything seems to bend towards. This time, though, she had a supporting cast fully in tune with her rhythm.
The game ran through Keira Walsh, who dictated tempo and angles. Sjoeke Nüsken and Wieke Kaptein imposed themselves in the middle, winning duels and stepping onto second balls. Chelsea didn’t just outplay United; they overpowered them.
Out wide, full-backs Katie McCabe and Ellie Carpenter stretched the pitch relentlessly, surging beyond and dragging United’s shape all over the place. From centre-back, Lucy Bronze picked her moments to step in and slide passes into advanced areas. James thrived in the pockets those movements created.
Her numbers are already eye-catching. Nineteen shots in two games – more than anyone else in the league. As a false 9, she offers Chelsea something different: a roaming focal point who can receive, turn and punish from almost anywhere in the final third.
It gives Bompastor a safety net when injuries or form issues bite among the orthodox strikers. A get-out-of-jail option. She will have to be careful not to lean on it every week, though. The element of surprise fades quickly in a league this sharp.
Arsenal await, then Lyon in the Champions League. Neither will be as generous as United. Chelsea have flexed their muscles again, but the real examination of this new era under Bompastor is only just beginning.
Stanway’s new dimension at Arsenal
Away from the chaos at United and the power plays at Chelsea, one player has quietly redrawn the lines of what Arsenal can be.
Georgia Stanway has come back to the WSL as a different midfielder to the one who left for Bayern Munich in 2022. Her influence for England in the interim has been clear, but her passing range now looks broader, more deliberate, more punishing.
On her Arsenal debut she completed 98 passes, immediately becoming the side’s metronome. Across the first two matchweeks, only Liverpool centre-back Grace Fisk has completed more than Stanway’s 194. Crucially, 91 of those have gone into the final third – by some distance the highest figure in the division.
That kind of precision changes the geometry of Arsenal’s attack. It eases the creative burden on Mariona Caldentey as the central playmaker and gives Jonas Eidevall another reliable route into dangerous areas. Stanway has already fashioned four chances, enough for Arsenal to have put Crystal Palace away at the weekend.
Alessia Russo, usually so clinical, was wasteful with those invitations. That will sting in the short term. Over a season, though, a supply line this consistent tends to tell.
United are next in line to test that theory. One club searching for a foothold, another quietly arming itself with new weapons. Early in the campaign, yes. But for United, and for the rest of the league watching Chelsea and Arsenal sharpen their edges, the margin for error already feels thin.
