Matchweek 1 in numbers
4 debut goals
It was a weekend of many debuts, and four BWSL summer signings made an instant goalscoring impact for their new club.
And none more emphatically so than Kirsty Hanson, who bagged a brace on her first Tottenham outing, helping Spurs to a dominant 3-1 win over West Ham.
There were also debut goals for Lisa Buam – whose 10th-minute strike secured victory for Arsenal away to Brighton – Vivien Endemann – opening her Liverpool account in a 4-0 triumph at Charlton – and Lexi Lloyd Smith – making the step up with Crystal Palace and opening her account the winner against Everton.
1/3 of goals in the 81st minute or later
There were 18 goals across the seven games on Matchweek 1, and six of them (one-third) were scored in the final 10 minutes of regulation time or in stoppage time.
Two of those six came in London City Lionesses’ curtain-raising 2-1 win over Manchester United – including Danielle van de Donk’s audacious backheeled effort – and two more as Manchester City began their title defence by beating Birmingham City 3-1, Bunny Shaw scoring her second goal of the game four minutes from time.
The latest goal of the weekend was timed at 100 minutes: substitute Simi Awujo’s consolation for Man United.
2 own goals
Among the 18 opening-weekend goals, two came from players suffering the misfortune of putting the ball into their own net – and both proved costly, to different degrees.
Man United’s Julia Zigotti Olme has the unwanted record of scoring the first BWSL goal of 2026/27 – in the wrong net, setting London City Lionesses on the path to an ultimately narrow victory.
But the other own goal of Matchweek 1 came as a bigger blow: Chelsea were on course for three points until Hannah Hampton’s save ricocheted off her own defender Veerle Buurman and in for Aston Villa to snatch a point and 1-1 draw despite being firmly under the cosh – facing 35 shots at Stamford Bridge.
524 days since Chelsea’s last home league draw
March 30, 2025: that was the last time Chelsea drew a home BWSL game – some 524 days ago – and incidentally, it was against another claret and blue team, West Ham on that occasion.
Since then, the Blues had played 12 home league matches – most of them at Kingsmeadow, their home before moving all their BWSL fixtures to Stamford Bridge this summer – and all of them had gone one way or the other (10 wins, two defeats).
This was also the first time Villa had picked up a BWSL point away to London opposition since doing so in successive games against Arsenal (drew 1-1) and West Ham (won 2-0) in late September and early October last year.
99.1% pass completion for Grace Fisk
In American football, they’d call this a perfect game for a quarterback – and Liverpool captain Grace Fisk pretty much had that as the Reds put four past Charlton, attempting 122 passes and completing 121 (99.1%) of them.
As if that wasn’t enough, the centre-back – who enjoyed the joint most touches of anyone on the pitch – also got herself on the scoresheet twice, notching her side’s first two goals.
In doing so, Fisk has already equalled her BWSL goalscoring tally for the last two campaigns combined.
Fantasy in numbers: Matchweek 1 | Leg 1
Most points this Matchweek
Grace Fisk racked up a whopping 21 points to finish as the highest Fantasy scorer in Matchweek 1, helped in no small part by her brilliant brace.
In second place on 20 points was Sunderland’s Katy Watson, who scored twice in Sunderland’s 4-1 BWSL2 win over Bristol City.
And the third-highest Fantasy scorer on the opening weekend of the season was Kirsty Hanson with 17 points as she marked her Spurs debut with two goals.
With only one round of games played, those three are the early individual leaders in terms of Fantasy points.
Top of the league
Megan Scott leads the way in the Barclays Season Race after Matchweek 1, topping the league of more than 33,000 players with their team Kangtortion FC.
They benefitted from having Fisk and Hanson among their XI, with two-goal Bunny Shaw earning double points as captain.
In fact, they picked six players who collected 10 points or more, with Fisk, Hanson and Shaw joined by Spurs’ Signe Gaupset, Chelsea’s Lauren James and Liverpool’s Vivien Endemann.
