Manchester City Women finished as best of the rest behind Arsenal and Chelsea and lost Freja Holm’s second FA Cup Final to Arsenal in 2044. And it was safe to say the Swedish manager was a little sick of the two London clubs’ domination in England.
However, as seemingly always in this save, the biggest barrier to that was financial. Despite their annual income being £1.5m higher than their expenditure, City were somehow £1.4m in the red at the start of the season. That said, Holm did have a £1.6m transfer budget to work with. That was boosted by a massive sale as Barcelona offered £3m for star winger Sonia Emmanuel Payne. Holm released eight players and sold X more for £200k.
Holm decided not to cash in on loanee Yolanda Lahuerta, but did bring in two of her former Madrid CFF players in Isabel Uueziua for £150k and midfielder Camila Paviatto for £200k. The weakest area Holm wanted to address was right back, so she brought in the attack-minded Soraya Saidi for £200k from Bristol City, along with attacker Georgia Carr on a free from Fleury (and, for some unbeknownst reason, the newgen faces have stopped tracking through on the latest players, so apologies for the appalling standard faces).
With that transfer business done, Holm slightly tweaked her approach to drop Uueziua into the number 10 role in behind Llio Leech-Ingle. Carr will retrain to play from the left with Holm’s favourite Verena Oberdorf moving across to her preferred wide forward role on the right.
Another Champions League Campaign
Man City’s season began with a Champions League qualifier, in which Carr scored on debut before Leech-Ingle and Oberdorf sealed a 3-1 win over Vittsjio. And Uueziua scored the only goal in Sweden to reach the league phase.
The group began with a trip to Norway, and an Oberdorf brace led a 3-0 win at Valerenga. She scored again to lead a comeback at home to FC Fleury before a rotated team won 2-1 at Nantes with Paviatto netting the winner and promising striker Adenízia, who scored twice on her Brazil debut, repeated the feat at home to Paris FC. A two-week break preceded Holm welcoming former club RB Leipzig and Paviatto earned a point. And a fully rotated side won 3-1 at Roma to secure 2nd place, only behind Arsenal (obviously). City faced Nantes again in the quarters and lost 1-0 to a late goal in France and, despite a rotated side winning 1-0 at home, they exited on penalties.
A Flying Start to WSL
City remained fourth favourites for WSL with the bookies giving them 33/1 title odds, level with Liverpool and Leicester. Arsenal are 8/13 favourites with Chelsea at 3/1 and Spurs at 14/1.
City began the season against Holm’s former superstar Ana Morera and champions Arsenal. And it proved a good time to play them as, just like last season’s cup final, they managed to just about mullify Arsenal until an absolute screamer on 72 minutes. But, just as they seemed to be drifting to a defeat, centre back Visted Nielsen picked the ball up 30 yards and drilled it into the bottom corner to nick a draw. They built on that by annihilating Holm’s former club Everton 6-2 led by a Leech-Ingle hat trick and Uueiziua followed suit to inspire a 3-0 victory at home to Aston Villa.
Another big test saw Chelsea come to town at the end of September and City stepped up big time with Oberdorf putting home the rebound from her own shot before striker Adenízia and a delicious curled strike by Summer Rai secured a huge 3-0 success. And suddenly, City had put themselves right in the title mix. The strong start continued with Leech-Ingle bagging consecutive hat tricks at London City and at home to Southampton. While Arsenal lost a home league game for the first time since May 2042 (29 months), with Man United beating them 2-1. Holm celebrated her 600th match in football with the red-hot Leech-Ingle and Carr earning a 2-0 win at Spurs.
City headed into 2045 with a 4-point lead over Arsenal. But to put a downer on things, Oberdorf, who’ll turn 35 in April, announced her retirement at the start of December, which made Holm determined to help her favourite player go out on a high. The German winger scored in the first game of the new year as Uueziua’s brace earned a 3-0 win at Bristol City. That was followed by their biggest test, away to Arsenal, and another resolute defensive display saw them come close only to lose 1-0.
Ctiy bounced back with Oberdorf’s delicious volley sealing a 2-0 win at Villa before Leech-Ingle’s brace, which took her past 20 goals for the season in early February, downed London City 3-1. A final big test of the season took them to Chelsea and it wasn’t looking great as the hosts scored after 13 minutes. But the supreme Oberdorf delivered again, winning a penalty that Leech-Ingle converted then curled home a sumptuous second before Uueziua killed the game off.
Title Race Heats Up
City backed that up with Leech-Ingle scoring the only goal at home to Spurs, while Arsenal surprisingly drew 3-3 at Bristol City. Oberdorf scored twice to lead a 2-1 win at Brighton and got the opener as they squeezed past Liverpool 3-2. And City headed into the final five games leading Spurs by 7 points and Arsenal. who had two games in hand after going to the Club World Cup, by 9 points.
Gameweek 22 – Southampton (7th, away): City took a while to get going at Southampton, wasting a mass of chances. But they eventually took one as Carr cut in from the left and curled into the far corner. Spurs won 3-0 a Leicester and Arsenal thrashed London City 4-0. Arsenal then played both of their games in hand in two days before City’s next match. They beat Southampton 5-2, but drew 1-1 at Brighton to close the gap to 5 points with four games remaining.
Gameweek 23 – Ipswich (14th, home): City had two weeks off and used that time well, as they dominated Ipswich by 12 shots to 3 in the first half without scoring. The bombardment continued and Attard eventually scored a 25-yarder, before Hateley and Leech-Ingle’s penalty secured a 3-0 victory. At the same time, Arsenal’s fixture congestion continued to hurt them as they drew 1-1 at Liverpool. That took City 7 points clear, and just 3 more points away from the elusive WSL title.
Gameweek 24 – Man United (6th, home): Arsenal’s dip in form continued as they drew 1-1 at Chelsea on the Friday night before City hosted their city rivals. That meant one point would be enough for the title. A poor first half saw the two sides share four shots. United undeservedly scored from the goalkeeper’s long hoof and, just as Holm made attacking changes, scored a total fluke to win 2-0.
Gameweek 25 – Leicester (7th, away): City again struggled to get going, before Carr and Leech-Ingle both missed two huge chances. And they drifted to a pretty disappointing 0-0. And, despite the lack of a trophy lift (what a surprise, FM26 can’t work out you’ve won the league), that was enough for the title.
Manchester City Women won WSL!
City went on to win the title by 4 points, finishing on 66 points after 21 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeas, scoring 59 and conceding just 17. Leech-Ingle was the league’s top scorer with 20 goals with Oberdorf and Uueziua in joint 12th on 10 goals each. While Oberdorf got the third-most assists with 10 followed by Carr in sixth with 8. And Sara Zamudio led the league with 12 clean sheets, only conceding 15 in 23 games.
Holm Finally Overcomes Arsenal!
It took more than six seasons with two different clubs, but Freja Holm finally put together a team capable of taking down the mighty Arsenal. In truth, she had a helping hand from a fixture overloaded Arsenal, but she was delighted to finally tick the English title off her list.
Oberforf retired the day after the title celebrations, and did so on a high as she racked up 15 goals and 15 assists in her final season. Leech-Ingle was again the top scorer with 26 in 33 followed by Uueziua (12), Adenízia (11) and Carr (6). Lauren Attard impressed with 9 assists from midfield, followed by Sophia Brayshaw and Carr (8) Saidi (7) and Uueziua, Yasmin Armson and Leech-Ingle (4).
Holm’s latest success meant she ticked England off her Trailblazer list, adding it to the titles won in Italy, Japan, France, USA, Wales and Spain. That just left Australia and Denmark (which may be impossible), Germany and Sweden.
But for now, she departs Man City in the summer of 2025, at the 20-year mark of her career. She leaves City after 77 games, of which she won 53 (68% win ratio), drew 11 and lost 13, scoring 178 goals and conceding 81.
Where would Holm end up as she went in search of club number 11? Join us on Monday to find out!
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