USWNT Stars Shine in WSL: Chelsea, City, Arsenal, and United Highlights
Chelsea walked off opening weekend with the ball, the territory, and the nagging sense they’d seen this film before. They dominated Aston Villa, dictated tempo, carved out chances – and still left with a 1-1 draw after a late equalizer.
Possession looked good. The scoreline did not.
Alyssa Thompson started and kept popping up in the right spaces, stretching Villa’s back line and finding pockets that usually spell trouble. The problem was the final touch. The promise was there, the finish was not, and Chelsea paid for it.
They can’t afford that to become the theme of her second season. With Millie Bright, Guro Reiten and Sam Kerr gone, the spine and star power of this side have shifted. There is space now, and expectation, for Thompson to step into something bigger.
She has already shown she can carry a scoring load. Seven league goals last season led the team and laid down a clear marker. That was the foundation year. This one is about escalation, about turning half-chances into ruthless moments as a reshaped Chelsea figures out its new identity.
For the USWNT, the trajectory looks brighter. Thompson’s work on the right wing has been sharp and direct, yielding four international goals and putting real weight behind her case for upcoming qualifiers. She has made herself hard to ignore.
Now the ask at club level is simple and unforgiving: the same dangerous positions, but with the finish that turns Chelsea’s control into points.
Coffey’s quiet step that mattered
In Manchester, Sam Coffey’s weekend was less about headlines and more about a return. After a knee injury cut short her last WSL season and kept her out of the USWNT’s June friendlies, she finally stepped back onto the pitch in Manchester City’s 3-1 win over Birmingham City.
It wasn’t a dramatic entrance. It didn’t need to be.
Coffey replaced Laura Blindkilde Brown in the 73rd minute, a late cameo that still felt significant. It marked a reset after an interrupted start to life in England, where she arrived from the Portland Thorns midway through last season and gradually grew into City’s midfield as they pushed for the WSL title.
Now she’s healthy, and that changes the picture. City gain another composed option in the middle of the park. Coffey gains the runway she never really had last year.
Emma Hayes gains something too. Coffey’s absence left the USWNT exposed in holding midfield against Brazil, short of a trusted anchor in front of the back line. Getting minutes again is only the first box ticked. The bigger test comes next: can she find rhythm quickly enough to reclaim that central role in Hayes’ plans?
Emily Fox, steady as ever
Some players spike, some dip. Emily Fox rarely does either. She just delivers.
Arsenal’s season opener, a 1-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion, fit her pattern. No drama. No chaos. Just reliability from first whistle to last.
Fox started at outside back and slotted into a high line that Arsenal used to compress the field and suffocate Brighton’s build-up. It was a proactive approach: win the ball high, break with numbers, and trust the back line to handle the space behind.
Fox did her part with the kind of balance that has become her trademark for both club and country. She defended with clarity, read danger early, and still picked her moments to get forward and join attacks.
Since arriving in 2024, she has become one of Arsenal’s constants. Not the loudest presence, not the flashiest, but the kind of player managers lean on when they want to sleep at night.
On an opening weekend full of storylines, Fox’s performance barely flickered on the radar. That’s exactly why it matters. She doesn’t need a spotlight to influence a game; she just quietly tilts it in her team’s favor.
Tullis-Joyce’s rough start and bigger battle
For Phallon Tullis-Joyce, the new WSL campaign turned complicated almost immediately.
She made a couple of early stops for Manchester United, settled in, and then, in the eighth minute, got caught. A corner came in, Alanna Kennedy rose, and with Tullis-Joyce out of position, London City Lionesses had the lead.
The damage didn’t stop there. United’s defending unraveled again late on. In the 82nd minute, loose marking in the box opened the door for Daniëlle van de Donk, who produced a cheeky finish behind her back to seal a 2-1 defeat.
United left with regrets and a to-do list. So did their goalkeeper.
For Tullis-Joyce, this season is about more than cleaning up set-piece chaos in Manchester. She is firmly in the conversation for the USWNT’s No. 1 shirt, but the competition is fierce and the margins are thin. Shot-stopping alone won’t win the job.
Her footwork and distribution remain under the microscope. Hayes wants a goalkeeper who can start attacks as confidently as she ends them. Tullis-Joyce has shown she can make saves. The question now is whether she can be just as assured with the ball at her feet.
If she nails that part of her game over the next few months, the battle for the starting spot in the U.S. goal will look very different. If she doesn’t, this season might be remembered as the one that slipped away.
