All eyes are on men’s football this weekend as the 2021/22 English premier League gets underway with newly promoted Brentford hosting Arsenal in the opening fixture on Friday evening. Three weeks later and the Barclays FA Women’s Super League will kick-off the new season as Manchester United take on Reading at the Leigh Sports Village Stadium on the evening of Friday 3rd September.
Chelsea were crowned the 2020/21 champions and will start their title defence away to Arsenal on Sunday 5th September. Despite Chelsea winning 3-0 at home last season, this fixture last season ended in a 1-1 draw at Meadow Park back in November with Arsenal looking set to pick up all three points after a Beth Mead strike put them 1-0 up inside the 86th minute. However, an unfortunate own goal by Arsenal’s Lotte Wubben-Moy in the final minute gifted Chelsea a point and helped them eventually win the title by topping the table by just 2 points.
Chelsea boss Emma Hayes is looking for a third consecutive title with her club and the bookies shown on WhichBookie.com clearly think that she and her players have a chance of achieving that having priced the London club at odds of evens (2.0) to do so.
Not far behind Chelsea in the odds are Manchester City who are priced at 2.87. Gareth Taylor’s side have finished as runners up in four consecutive seasons and he will be eager to do one better heading into the new term. City kick things off with a trip to Goodison Park to play Everton who finished 5th in the table last season but a distant 25 points below the league-leaders.
Arsenal are in search of their first league title since 2019 and are priced at 4.50 to top the table come May. They’ll look to cause an upset in their opening fixture against the title holders and if they can, it will give their confidence a boost to get their season off to a promising start.
WSL Opening Fixtures
Friday 3rd September
- Manchester United v Reading
Saturday 4th September
- Aston Villa v Leicester City
- Everton v Manchester City
- Tottenham Hotspur v Birmingham City
Sunday 5th September
- Arsenal v Chelsea
- Brighton & Hove Albion v West Ham United
Looking further ahead in the season to some key fixtures and we’ll see the first Manchester derby played on Saturday 9th October as United host City at Leigh Sports Village Stadium. Last season’s derby resulted in a thrilling 2-2 draw with United coming back from two goals goal at half time to level the score with goals from Tobin Heath and Kirsty Hanson.
We’ll also see the North London derby being played on Sunday 14th November at the Hive Stadium when Tottenham host Arsenal. Spurs will be looking for revenge after suffering a 3-0 defeat in this fixture last season but many will be backing the visitors who finished 28 points ahead of their London rivals last season.
Several bookmakers are taking bets on the 2021/22 Women’s Super League winners including Bet365, Betfair and William Hill.
