WSL: Heavy defeats expose brutal gap between top four and rest

Heading into the final international break of 2023, the Women's Super League table has a very familiar look.

The last time a side outside of that quartet finished in the top four was 2018-19, when Birmingham City finished fourth. That was the season before United were promoted.

Whether any side can bridge that gap has been a long-running topic of discussion in women's football. Based on the results this weekend, that bridge is a long way from being built.

After United, Arsenal and Chelsea all claimed comfortable victories earlier on Sunday, the clearest evidence yet that the gap between the WSL top four and the rest remains a brutal chasm in 2023-24 came in the late kick-off.

Manchester City finished fourth last season and so could have been the prime candidate to be usurped by an up-and-comer. Their opponents were Tottenham, unbeaten since the opening game of the season when they pushed Chelsea all the way.

Had Spurs won this game, they would have moved above City and been outside the Champions League places only on goal difference.

After 90 minutes of irresistible City football, that notion looked foolish. City thrashed Spurs 7-0 to equal their own record WSL margin of victory and inflict the heaviest top-division defeat in Tottenham women's history.

Spurs did not even play that badly. They matched City for the opening quarter of the game, had 43% possession and forced Khiara Keating into three good saves.

"Manchester City have played some really good football. Spurs have been given a humbling," former England midfielder Izzy Christiansen told Sky Sports.

"Man City's quality has been the difference, I don't think Spurs have been awful. I don't think tonight is necessarily a marker of where they are at this moment."

'The pressure to stay up there is high'

But this result, added to wins for the other top-four members earlier, sent a powerful message to the other eight WSL sides.

Between them on Sunday, the top four won with an aggregate score of 17-2. Chelsea beat Leicester 5-2, Arsenal cruised to a 3-0 win over West Ham United, while Manchester United were comfortable 2-0 winners at Bristol City.

For City manager Gareth Taylor, it continues the strong momentum gathered from their historic win at Old Trafford last weekend, and their recovery from back-to-back defeats to Arsenal and Brighton which means they can continue to look up the table, not down.

"With the results and the way they have gone today, it is never nice playing that last game of the weekend," he said. "The pressure was on us to go out and win. We are still in there, we've made a good start to the season, we even played really well in the two games we lost.

"The signs are good, the pressure to stay up there is high but the players rise to that."

Spurs manager Robert Vilahamn admitted opting to keep fighting City rather than aiming to "stop the bleeding", but resolved not to take a backwards step when facing Manchester United in the game following the international break.

"We are in the top six, we are in a good place," he said. "They didn't have 25 shots to zero, we had four or five, they had 10 or 12 and scored some great goals.

"This was our first experience of facing a top side at their best, and we didn't really handle it.

"When we come back we will have a good game plan for United. We are not scared of losing 7-0 again, we have to try and dictate the game.

"Playing against the best teams in this league is what we need right now, we need to take steps and learn. United have good players, we need a good game plan for that."

'There is the top four - then the rest'

So where does this leave the 'other' eight sides in the WSL? Opinion appears to be split among managers as to whether the gap can realistically be closed in the short term.

Everton manager Brian Sorensen was clear when he said "for me there is the top four and then the rest" after their win away to Aston Villa - a side tipped to break the cabal after an impressive fifth-place finish last season, but who currently sit just two points off the bottom.

Sorensen then appeared to allude to Spurs, whose six-game unbeaten run that put them just outside the top four had not included any of the elite sides. They face Manchester United and Arsenal in their final games before Christmas.

"Some did get a head start as they got a good run of games, but for me there is a long way to go," he said.

"We know that on the day we can beat every team around us, maybe not the top four. That has to be the day where everything comes together performance wise."

Other managers were more positive.

"We look a threat against every team this year and that's really important," Leicester manager Willie Kirk said following a game against Chelsea where they trailed 3-2 at half-time and very much in the game.

"The amount of games we failed to score in last year, that's completely changed."

Bristol City manager Lauren Smith was similarly bullish, her newly promoted team having held Manchester United goalless at the interval before conceding twice early in the second half.

"We've learnt a lot since the start [of the season] about taking on the top four teams, I think we've shown now we can turn that around and teams have to work really hard if they want to come here and get goals," she said.

Yet when the best of the WSL best play like City did against Spurs, there is little the rest can do to compete.