Many moments stand out from Manchester City’s brilliant season, their best in a decade. Big goals, important results, great performance. But that’s not enough to win in such a competitive Women’s Super League. In any case, not in 2025/26.
Manchester City’s start to the season, with a 2-1 loss to Chelsea, shows how far they have had to climb under Andriy Szegrats. The Swede had never coached in the WSL before. In fact, he had never managed a club outside of his native Sweden.
His appointment in summer 2025 therefore involved a calculated risk. Jeglertz was known in his home country for his winning streak, especially with Umea IK, but how that translated into the WSL was a total mystery. As it happens, his methodology has transferred very well, but it didn’t start out that way.
Manchester City become WSL champions for the second time in history
In early September, observers everywhere, including this one, wrote about Chelsea’s perfect start to defending their title. Man City had little space in their ranks as Chelsea tormented them. It was a baptism of fire for Seglerz, as the new era of City carried many of the outdated traits of the previous regime, including a focus on performance over the end result.
Perhaps that loss was a necessary evil. A blessing in disguise. Jeglarz’s interpretation of the situation was not very convincing at the time, but it rings true now. “We have been challenging Chelsea throughout the game and will definitely continue to do so throughout this season.”
City won the return leg 5-1 in February.
Man City’s 2025/26 season in numbers
And if you take kindly to this writer’s early season assertions – “Man City may not have liked this result, but they are dangerous this season and remain certain of winning the title” – their victory as champions should come as no surprise at all. But how they got here should be considered less common.
It takes extraordinary strength to have such an advantage in these turbulent times. We analyze every detail, down to the artwork, and look for ways to make it better. I take every mistake and missed pass personally. And you need a good coach with a sound strategy to pull it all together.
Manchester City have won 17 of their 20 WSL matches since losing to Chelsea, and have been operating with less efficiency than last year’s champions, who remained unbeaten under manager Sonia Bompastre. The numbers speak for themselves.
Chelsea as champions in 2024/25 looked like the picture below. Solid, but not spectacular. Most, but not all, games were won by the league’s best defense. It was so difficult to score that Chelsea’s 1-0 win became the most frequent outcome under Bompastre. Nine of the 33 wins since she took over have come by that margin.
Chelsea’s 2024/25 season in numbers
However, there were also technical flaws. Bonpastor was always open about the style tweaks he wanted. Only West Ham (431) and Leicester (441) missed more touches than Chelsea (419) last season. They were stripped more times than any other team (323 times). They finished behind Arsenal and Man City in almost every possession-based metric.
None of that context undermines the legitimacy of Chelsea’s unbeaten campaign, the first team in history to do so. Rather, it aims to shine a light on how City have fared so well in Jegratz’s first year as manager, unlocking the potential that was always there.
They have scored 12 more goals than runners-up Arsenal (46) and have an xG of 9.61 better than runners-up Chelsea (44.81). It’s hard to stop them from open play and even harder from set pieces. City have scored the most goals in the WSL with 16 goals from set-pieces, 13 of which have come from corner kicks, with no team able to match that and only conceded one goal from the opposite direction.
They are the only team with a 100 percent record at home, winning all 11 games with a +28 goal difference. And they accomplished all of this with the least number of players (23).
The way this team plays soccer is also very impressive. Complexity of triangles, rotations and presses. Everything is very coordinated. No team recorded more open play sequences of 10 or more passes (260). But perhaps even more appealing is Jeglertz’s approach.
“I don’t sit by and tell them what to do,” he insists. “That’s for them to decide. They’ve gone above and beyond to feel comfortable making that decision themselves.” Gareth Taylor’s City were rigid with a possession-based structure that looked better than it was, but Seglerz’s seal is all about freedom. “Always available” is his guiding principle.
The rest is about harnessing the good vibes and energy. Described by those who know him as humble and likable, Jegratz often talks about showing up the right way and drives home the message of good habits in much of his team talk in the locker room. All decisions are player-centric, allowing the right culture to develop organically.
Such a process is easy to buy into because it makes each individual responsible for what is controllable in football: the application. No striker has scored as many goals as Bunny Shaw without it. There is no midfielder who can turn the ball over as many times as Yui Hasegawa. No other forward can create as many big chances as Lauren Hemp.
There is no more perfect combination of players than Manchester City.
The build up to this point has taken many seasons, many transfer windows, and many evolutions of the team. I also experienced many setbacks. Losing the 2023/24 title to Chelsea on goal difference, withdrawing from European competition altogether and Taylor’s strangely timed sacking after five years in charge all contributed to this crowning moment. The pool of disappointment was enormous.
Former City midfielder turned Sky Sports pundit Jiří Christiansen believes City have struck the perfect balance this year: “We have world-class players in the squad. And the culture speaks for itself, you can see the togetherness and relentless mentality of the group.”
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Khadijah ‘Bunny’ Shaw’s best goals in the 2025/26 Women’s Super League season
“They have a great blend of senior leadership in Alex Greenwood, Rebecca Knaak and Viv Miedema with young, hungry, fresh players. The talent on this team is built to be a winner.”
Besides, Man City is a neutral choice. Chelsea’s six-year reign has officially come to an end, which is a good thing for the league rivalry. The best soccer played by the most exciting and versatile group of talent was victorious.
Jeglertz’s next, and perhaps even more difficult, challenge is how to turn this initial victory into a cycle of continued success for years to come.
