Arsenal close gap in Women’s Super League title race after 7-0 win
Arsenal's 7-0 rout of Leicester lifted them to third and sharpened the pressure on Manchester City, but they still trailed by eight points.
Arsenal turned a lopsided home win over Leicester City into a sharper test of the Women’s Super League title race, but the table still says Manchester City hold the advantage. The 7-0 victory on Wednesday was Arsenal’s biggest under Renée Slegers, lifted them to third, and left them eight points behind City, with both clubs also carrying two games in hand on Chelsea.
The scale of the win mattered because goal difference often becomes decisive when the title race tightens. Arsenal did not just collect three points; they padded their numbers in emphatic fashion, with Smilla Holmberg scoring twice, Stina Blackstenius adding two more, and Mariona Caldentey and Leah Williamson also finding the net. Holmberg struck in the 26th and 47th minutes, Blackstenius followed in the 40th minute and again in first-half stoppage time, Caldentey scored in the 54th minute and Williamson completed the rout in the 63rd.
That result also carried weight because Arsenal have already shown they can disrupt City directly. On 8 February 2026, Arsenal beat Manchester City 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium, ending City’s 13-game WSL winning streak and denying Andrée Jeglertz’s side a chance to equal the competition’s all-time best run with a 14th straight league victory. It was a reminder that the title race is being shaped not only by points totals, but by who can handle the pressure when the contenders meet head-on.
Arsenal’s history in these moments is not incidental. In April 2023, Katie McCabe’s winner helped Arsenal beat City 2-1 at Meadow Park and snap a six-month unbeaten league run. That backdrop gives the latest surge added significance: Arsenal have already beaten the leaders once this season, and they have done enough against Leicester to keep the title conversation alive long enough for the arithmetic to matter.
The result changes the mood more than the math. City still lead the chase, and Arsenal remain eight points back, but a 7-0 win gives Slegers’ side a better goal-difference platform and keeps pressure on the front-runners. With Chelsea still in reach and Arsenal continuing to collect big-margin wins, the title race has become a question of whether City can absorb the strain as the season narrows.
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