A brand new season of the Barclays Women's Super League kicks off this weekend. The 2026-27 campaign opens with London City Lionesses hosting Manchester United on Friday in a season that has expanded from 12 clubs to 14 for the first time. Birmingham City, Crystal Palace and Charlton Athletic secured promotion from WSL 2, and moving forward in Barclays WSL, the top three finishers now qualify directly for the Champions League, with the bottom club relegated outright and 13th facing a play-off against the WSL 2 runner-up.
Manchester City enter the new year as defending league champions, after ending a six-year title run by Chelsea FC, and Arsenal remain a favorite to complete the league's most powerful trio. With the new season just days away, it's the perfect time to queue up some power rankings. The latest list offers a chance to comment on roster builds, squad depth, and momentum heading into matchday one.
Make sure to check back as the season progresses and keep up with all the matches across CBS Sports platforms. CBS is the home of Barclays Women's Super League, and fans can watch all the latest games. Paramount+ will live stream all 183 matches each season, the most matches ever made available in the competition's newly expanded format.
CBS Sports Network will additionally air one match per week, with select fixtures also broadcast on CBS Sports Golazo Network. Last season's league winners get the honor of kicking off the power rankings. They managed to handle big offseason business by re-signing Khadija "Bunny" Shaw to a new contract, and notable additions in Beth Mead and Niamh Charles boost the roster.
The Blues settled for third place last season, a bit of a drop considering the club's stranglehold on the league in recent years. But this is a different era for Chelsea, especially after so many player departures. Still, manager Sonia Bompastor has talent on the roster, added Katie McCabe from Arsenal, but there's little room for errors and dropped results this year.
The loss of Katie McCabe and Beth Mead is significant, but the addition of Georgia Stanway will soften the blow. She returns to England after four years in Bayern Munich, and how the group fares against a tough early schedule might determine what the Gunners are made of. At times last season, Manchester United seemed to take a step forward, but instead they missed out on a Champions League spot and parted ways with Marc Skinner.
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