USWNT Stars Shine in WSL: Chelsea, City, and United Highlights
Chelsea waste their grip as Thompson’s next step comes into focus
Chelsea had Aston Villa exactly where they wanted them: penned in, chasing shadows, clinging on. The ball belonged to the Blues, the rhythm too. What they didn’t own was the result.
A late Aston Villa equalizer turned control into irritation, and Chelsea’s season began with a 1-1 draw that felt far thinner than the performance deserved. The old truth resurfaced: if you don’t finish, you don’t win.
Alyssa Thompson lived that reality in real time. Handed the start, she repeatedly found the right spaces, peeled into gaps, and stretched Villa’s back line. The movement was sharp, the intent obvious. The final touch never quite arrived.
Chelsea need that to change. Quickly.
This is year two for Thompson in London, but it already carries the weight of a different era. Millie Bright, Guro Reiten, Sam Kerr — gone. With them, a huge chunk of Chelsea’s identity and end product. The void is real, and Thompson sits right in the middle of it.
Her rookie WSL season offered plenty of promise and more than a little substance: a team‑leading seven league goals, an impressive return for a teenager adapting to a new league and a new life. That campaign laid the foundation. This one asks a harder question: can she become a primary threat in a side that suddenly needs her to be?
On the international stage, the answer is starting to look like yes. Thompson has carved out a role on the right wing for the USWNT, scoring four times and injecting pace and directness into an attack that needed both. Her case for a roster spot heading into qualifiers is no longer a hopeful argument; it’s built on production.
Now the challenge is alignment. If she can turn those promising Chelsea positions into the same ruthless finishes she’s shown with the United States, she doesn’t just help her club navigate a transition. She starts to look like a cornerstone for both teams.
Coffey’s quiet return, loud implications
While Chelsea were left stewing, Manchester City walked away from opening weekend with something more straightforward: three points and a reassuring sight in midfield.
City’s 3-1 win over Birmingham City doubled as a comeback chapter for Sam Coffey. The midfielder stepped off the bench in the 73rd minute, replacing Laura Blindkilde Brown and marking her first WSL appearance since a knee injury cut short last season and kept her out of the USWNT’s June friendlies.
It wasn’t a starring role, and it didn’t need to be. Just being back out there mattered.
Coffey arrived from the Portland Thorns midway through last season and needed time to adjust. As City pushed toward the WSL title, she grew into that holding role, offering balance and bite in front of the back line. The injury stalled that momentum, but not the belief that she can anchor a midfield in this league.
Now she’s healthy again, and City’s structure gives her a platform to build on what she started.
Her return also sends a clear signal across the Atlantic. Emma Hayes watched the USWNT labor without a trusted holding midfielder against Brazil, Coffey’s absence leaving a noticeable gap at the base of midfield. Getting back on the pitch is the first box ticked. The next is rhythm — the tempo of her passing, the sharpness of her positioning, the consistency that turns a squad option into a fixture.
If Coffey finds that with City, it’s hard to imagine Hayes not pulling her back into the center of her plans.
Fox steady as ever in Arsenal’s tight opener
Some players chase the spotlight. Emily Fox just keeps taking care of business.
Arsenal’s season opener against Brighton & Hove Albion was exactly the kind of game where mistakes from a fullback can swing everything. A single lapse, a mistimed step, and a high line turns into a disaster. Fox never blinked.
Starting in her usual outside back role, she helped Arsenal lock down a 1-0 win, three points earned more through control than chaos. The Gunners defended high, squeezed Brighton’s space, and looked to pounce in transition when possession turned over. For that to work, the back line has to read danger early and win their duels. Fox did both.
Since joining Arsenal in 2024, she has become the kind of player coaches lean on without thinking twice. Reliable in one‑v‑one situations, disciplined in her positioning, yet always ready to step forward and join attacks when the lane opens. She rarely produces the headline moment. She rarely needs to.
For the USWNT, that same steadiness has made her a near-automatic selection. For Arsenal, it’s the foundation of their flank. Opening weekend didn’t deliver a viral clip or a spectacular goal from Fox — just another clean, composed performance in a role where reliability is gold.
Tullis-Joyce’s rough start underlines the stakes at United
Across the city, the margin for error looked much smaller.
Phallon Tullis-Joyce’s first WSL outing of the season with Manchester United turned complicated almost immediately. She made a couple of early stops, settled into the game, and then, in the eighth minute, got caught.
From a London City Lionesses corner, Alanna Kennedy rose to meet the delivery. Tullis-Joyce was out of position, and Kennedy’s header punished her. One lapse, one goal.
The pattern repeated late on. United’s defending unraveled again in the 82nd minute, this time from open play. Poor marking left Daniëlle van de Donk with room in the box and the audacity to finish with a cheeky behind-the-back touch. A clever goal, but one United should never have allowed. The 2-1 defeat left them with more questions than answers.
For Tullis-Joyce, the stakes stretch beyond United’s dressing room. She’s not just fighting for club form; she’s in the thick of the race to become the USWNT’s No. 1.
Shot-stopping has long been her calling card. The areas under the microscope now are her footwork and distribution — the modern keeper’s non-negotiables, especially under a coach like Hayes, who demands composure and quality with the ball at her goalkeeper’s feet.
A strong season at United could tilt that battle in her favor. That means turning days like this into lessons, not trends. If she can pair her reflexes with reliable build-up play, she doesn’t just stay in the conversation. She forces it.
On an opening weekend that offered frustration, relief, and a few warning signs for USWNT regulars, one thing was clear: every minute in the WSL is now part of a much bigger audition.
