WSL Fixtures: Who Has the Toughest Start to 2026-27?

The 2026-27 Women’s Super League fixtures have been released, so we’ve looked at the schedule to analyse which teams have the easiest and toughest starts to the season.

September marks the dawn of a new season of Women’s Super League football, and it might just be the most highly anticipated campaign yet.

Fans of newly-promoted Charlton Athletic, Birmingham City and Crystal Palace can get excited for a season in the top-flight of English football by finding out exactly who they will face and when.

The season kicks off with a mouth-watering clash between London City Lionesses and Manchester United, with the two set to meet at the CopperJax Community Stadium on Friday 4 September.

Both clubs have had almost polar-opposite summers; London City have signed seven players, including stars such as Alexia Putellas and Mary Earps, whereas Man Utd are yet to make a real splash in the market.

The Red Devils have brought two new signings to the club, with 22-year-old Andrea Medina and goalkeeper Janina Leitzig joining the fold, but they have lost the likes of Melvine Malard, Millie Turner and Leah Galton.

Many fans are expect these two to be amongst those battling it out for a top three spot come the end of the season, so the very first match of the 2026-27 WSL campaign could well be season-defining.

Elsewhere on Matchday 1, West Ham United travel to Tottenham Hotspur in a London derby on 6 September before Birmingham host holders Manchester City later that day in their first WSL match since relegation from the big-time in 2022.

WSL Matchday 1 Fixtures: 2026-27

With help from the Opta Power Rankings, we can work out which teams have the easiest opening fixtures, and who will be wishing the schedule could be shuffled.

For context, these rankings assign an ability score to over 2,500 women’s clubs on a scale between zero and 100 before ordering them from strongest to weakest.

We’ve looked at the Opta Power Ratings of each WSL team’s opponents to figure out who has the most difficult set of fixtures.

Currently, the ranking has Chelsea as the strongest team in the league with a rating of 94.5. Down the other end of the scale is Charlton, who have a rating score of 75.6.

Using this information, let’s look at the 2026-27 WSL fixture difficulty across the first five games of the season.

The team with the most difficult opening five matches is Arsenal, who have an average opponent rating of 87.1. The Gunners’ first two matches are, all things considered, fairly favourable, travelling to Brighton before hosting Crystal Palace at the Emirates Stadium.

Interestingly, their trip to Brighton will mark the first time in 11 seasons that Arsenal kick-off a WSL campaign with an away game (excl. Spring Series), last doing so with a 1-1 draw against Notts County in 2015.

Their following three games are as difficult as it could’ve been for Renée Slegers. Arsenal take on the very best teams the league has to offer (excluding themselves) back-to-back in Man Utd, Chelsea and Man City.

This is the second time that Arsenal have faced those three teams within the first five matchdays of a WSL season, having previously done so in 2019-20. Seven years ago, the Gunners triumphed against the two Manchester teams but fell short to eventual champions Chelsea in a 2-1 loss.

There is plenty to be excited about if you’re an Arsenal fan, with five new players having joined the club – but they need to get through this tricky opening run relatively unscathed if they want to win the WSL title for the first time since 2018-19. No eventual champion has lost more than one of their opening five games.

Not far behind them are Man Utd who, with an average opponent rating of 86.1, have been given the second-toughest opening schedule. After travelling to London City, Mark Skinner’s side face Chelsea (H) and Arsenal (A) in successive matchdays.

Following three testing matches, they then welcome West Ham and Liverpool to the red side of Manchester.

At the other end of the spectrum is Everton who, according to Opta Power Rankings, have been handed the ‘kindest’ opening five fixtures. The Toffees kick things off with a trip to south London to face promoted Crystal Palace, before hosting another fresh face in Charlton.

Scott Phelan’s team round out their first five fixtures by travelling to West Ham and local rivals Liverpool before welcoming the third-and-final promoted side, Birmingham, to Goodison Park. Their average opponent rating during this run is 77.9.

Holders Man City have also been given an opening schedule on the ‘kinder’ side as they look to defend their first WSL title in a decade; their average opponent rating of 81.4 ranks them 12^th in the league for fixture difficulty.

Andrée Jeglertz’s side welcome fresh-faced Birmingham to the Joie Stadium on Matchday 1 before travelling south to face Aston Villa.

City will then take on Liverpool (H) and Charlton (A) before hosting Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium in a blockbuster match.  

In 2016, on the way towards their first-ever WSL title, Man City won all five of their opening fixtures, scoring 13 goals and conceding exactly none in the process. Can they pull off something similar this time around as they attempt to defend their crown?

Elsewhere in the WSL, London City’s average opponent rating of 82 places them 10^th for opening fixture difficulty as they look to shake things up and knock at the door of the ‘big four’ this season.

London City don’t leave the capital once during their first five matches. They host Man United on the first day and remain in London for their next four matches, travelling only as far as West Ham and Charlton before heading back to Bromley to welcome Aston Villa.

Putellas and Co. round out their opening five games with a short trip to north London as they face Tottenham. It’s safe to say that their new stars will have plenty of time to get used to their new surroundings at the start of the campaign.

As for Sonia Bompastor and Chelsea, they sit around the middle of the pack having been handed neither an easy nor difficult start to 2026-27.

Their tricky second and fourth matches against Man Utd (A) and Arsenal (H), respectively, are balanced out by surrounding fixtures against Aston Villa (H), Birmingham (H) and West Ham (A).

Whatever happens, the 2026-27 WSL season has all the materials to be one of the most exciting editions in history.

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