Mind the gap: will anyone catch serial champions Chelsea as WSL returns? | OneFootball

There is something about a pause that reinvigorates, builds anticipation and allows for a reset. The WSL will have halted for 32 days by the time Liverpool host Brighton on Friday to kickstart the second half of the season, but it has felt longer.

Perhaps it is that men’s football continues to be played, with matchday after matchday sliding by without women’s football. Perhaps we go into January, widely considered the most miserable month, desperately craving the joy of the game. Regardless, excitement is high. How will new players perform? Who is signing whom? What effect will player departures have? What tactical and technical changes will have been made?

The likelihood of unbeaten Chelsea continuing to dominate is high. Their six-point lead is not unassailable, but in a 12-team league it is that bit tougher a gap to bridge. Injuries could derail them, but with a squad stacked with top-level talent even that feels unlikely. In addition to potentially strengthening in January, the club will welcome back Mia Fishel and Sam Kerr in this next phase.

When Sonia Bompastor’s formidable side host a rejuvenated Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on 26 January, their title credentials will be dealt a blow or it will mark the beginning of a procession. On Sunday, they open their year with another London derby, against West Ham.

Beneath Chelsea one point separates second and fourth and six points separates sixth and 12th.

Arsenal are poised to announce their new manager and whether that is the interim Renée Slegers or someone new, the team will be hoping to continue their impressive run. After a fixture at home to Crystal Palace on Sunday, they travel to Chelsea and Manchester City before a north London derby. If Slegers is given the permanent role, that period will be her first major test. Whether Arsenal can persuade Barcelona to sell the midfielder Keira Walsh this month rather than let her leave for free in the summer remains to be seen.

Manchester City sit second but ended the year with injuries piling high and back-to-back defeats by Everton in the league and Barcelona in the Champions League. They were the first of the top three to dip into the transfer market, the influence of their new director of football, Therese Sjögran, clear with City turning to her former club Rosengård to sign the centre-back Rebecca Knaak.

City needed to strengthen at the back, Alex Greenwood having undergone knee surgery. That is not where their injury problems end, though. Lauren Hemp has also undergone surgery, Risa Shimizu and Sandy MacIver are out with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries and Khadija Shaw’s return is uncertainand Chloe Kelly could be headed for the exit having been frozen out of the starting XI.

With back-to-back games against Manchester United, in the league on Sunday and League Cup quarter-finals next Wednesday, the strength of their squad will be heavily tested. They have Vivianne Miedema back from injury, a silver lining in the injury gloom.

United have the league’s best defensive record but sit fourth, one defeat and three draws proving costly. The highly rated goalkeeper Kayla Rendell has been recruited from Southampton to provide much-needed depth there. What they require, though, are goals, the three teams above them having scored more and United’s tally more aligned with Brighton and Tottenham. The talent is there and with the top three in the Champions League knockout stage there is an opportunity to capitalise on their smaller number of games.

Brighton’s high summer turnover means they are unlikely to be very active in January but fifth place is testament to that business and the work of their manager, Dario Vidosic.

The relegation battle is by far the most interesting aspect, Palace having made a solid start. They sit bottom but only one point behind Leicester and have looked well structured by Laura Kaminski. The loss of the Chelsea loanee Brook Aspin to an ACL injury and of Jorja Fox and Poppy Pritchard, who have been recalled by Chelsea and Manchester City respectively, are blows. They need bodies, ideally experienced bodies.

Leicester are yet to make a January signing, though their second-choice goalkeeper Lize Kop has joined Tottenham, and have a gaping hole up front with Noémie Mouchon and Jutta Rantala out. West Ham have the basis of a side that should not be battling relegation, and two wins from their past four games have lifted them three points clear of Palace.

Liverpool have resorted to the loan market with their budget limited, taking the Scotland midfielder Sam Kerr from Bayern Munich and Julia Bartel from Chelsea. Everton have been busy, Hayley Ladd signing from Manchester United, Emma Watson arriving on loan from the same club, the young Barcelona defender Martina Fernández joining until the end of the season and the forward Kelly Gago arriving from Nantes.

The Danish midfielder Olivia Holdt has joined Spurs with Kop but it is a hard ask for them to change the team’s inconsistency.

How those at the bottom (West Ham, Leicester and Palace) fare on Sunday against tough opposition (Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal respectively) will be interesting, but the showpiece will be the Manchester derby, where not only bragging rights but title challenger credentials are on the line.

Header image: [Composite: Guardian pictures]