The Barclays WSL Season in Numbers

Another Barclays Women’s Super League season is in the books, and it’s been a typically captivating one on both a team and individual level.

Here’s our round-up of the 2025/26 campaign through a statistical lens…

10

In being crowned champions for the second time, Manchester City ended the longest title drought in BWSL history at 10 years. It also means that Chelsea’s record run of successive BWSL titles ends at six.

3

With a brace in Man City’s 4-1 final-day win at West Ham United taking her to 21 goals for the season, Khadija Shaw became the first player to win three BWSL Golden Boots. Shaw also joins Sam Kerr as the only other player to score 20 or more goals in two BWSL campaigns.

106

Arsenal used a BWSL-high 106 substitutes in 2025/26, with Liverpool using the fewest (66). Leicester City statistically fared best in terms of goals from the bench, with substitutes accounting for 27.27% of their total goals.

1,980

Three players completed 1,980 minutes out of a possible 1,980 in the 2025/26 BWSL. Two of them are goalkeepers – Tottenham Hotspur’s Lize Kop and London City Lionesses’ Elene Lete – with Maya Le Tissier of Manchester United the sole outfield ever-present. Remarkably, Le Tissier has played every minute of every game in the last three BWSL seasons.

1.04

While Shaw finished as the league’s top scorer, Arsenal’s Stina Blackstenius was the only player to average more than a goal per 90 minutes in the 2025/26 BWSL, finding the net 10 times at a rate of 1.04 per 90. Blackstenius was followed in that regard by Shaw (0.97 goals per 90) and Gunners teammate Chloe Kelly (0.96 goals per 90).

0

Four BWSL clubs completed the season without conceding a single penalty: Aston Villa, Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd. At the other end of the scale, London City Lionesses gave away six penalties – at least twice as many as any other side.

91.8%

Man City centre-back Rebecca Knaak finished the 2025/26 campaign with the highest open-play pass completion rate (91.8%). Six other players had an open-play pass completion rate of 90.0% or above, with fellow City defender Jade Rose attempting (1,244) and completing (1,129) the most open-play passes among them.

3.66

While Chelsea were statistically the BWSL’s best at keeping the ball in 2025/26, averaging the highest possession (59.9%), Arsenal pipped them as the division’s most pass-fond side, in a sense, averaging 3.66 passes per sequence (defined as by Opta as a passage of play which belongs to one team and is ended by a defensive action, a stoppage in play or a shot) to the Blues’ 3.65. Man City averaged the longest sequence time at 10.10 seconds.

5.30

By one measure at least, Villa’s Kirsty Hanson was the most clinical player in the BWSL this term, outperforming her Expected Goals (xG) tally of 6.70 by 5.30 to finish the season with 12 goals – her best return in the competition. Spurs’ Olivia Holdt fared next best in that regard, notching eight goals at 4.19 above her overall xG.

13

No team hit the post more times in the 2025/26 BWSL than Chelsea with 13. By contrast, Spurs struck the upright a league-low three times all season.