The reigning Women's Super League (WSL) champions, Chelsea, are set to begin their title defense with a challenging home game against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on Friday, September 5, at 7:30 PM. This highly anticipated match will kick off the 2025-26 WSL season.
Last season, Chelsea dominated the league, securing a domestic treble while remaining unbeaten. In contrast, Manchester City finished fourth, trailing Chelsea by a significant 17 points and missing out on Champions League qualification.
Other opening weekend fixtures include Arsenal, the UEFA Women's Champions League winners, hosting newly-promoted London City Lionesses on September 6. This match marks the first time an independent club has featured in the WSL. Liverpool will face their local rivals Everton at Anfield on September 7. Other matches scheduled for the opening weekend are Manchester United hosting Leicester City, Brighton & Hove Albion taking on Aston Villa, and Tottenham Hotspur playing West Ham United.
The WSL season will commence on the weekend of September 5, coinciding with the men's international break. Every game across both the WSL and the Barclays Women's Super League 2 (BWSL2) will be available for fans to watch live on Sky Sports, the BBC, or YouTube. Sky Sports will broadcast nearly 90 percent of all WSL matches, as part of a new five-year partnership with the WSL.
Key dates for the 2025-26 WSL season:
The fixtures between Chelsea and Arsenal are scheduled for November (away) and January (home). Chelsea will face Manchester City again in February. The Manchester derbies are set for November 16 and March 29.
For the 2025-26 season, the WSL2 will feature eleven teams. London City Lionesses were promoted to the Women's Super League as 2024–25 Women's Championship winners and replaced Crystal Palace, who were relegated from the Women's Super League. Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town were also promoted.
With the WSL expanding to 14 teams for the 2026-27 season, the team finishing 12th in the upcoming season will not face automatic relegation. Instead, they will compete in a play-off against the third-placed team from WSL 2.
Fans can anticipate enhanced production quality for all broadcast games on WSL Football's YouTube channel. The number of cameras used for BWSL games will increase from one to four, and BWSL2 games will have a minimum of two cameras.
