The 2024/25 Barclays Women's Super League (WSL) season kicks off this weekend in the UK, where 12 teams will launch campaigns to challenge seven-time league champions Chelsea for the season's title.

Adding to the excitement are major roster shakeups and big name signings entering the pitch for the WSL's 14th season.

Midfielder Johanna Rytting Kaneryd celebrates her game-winning goal in Chelsea's 2024/25 WSL season opener.
Midfielder Johanna Rytting Kaneryd's goal opened Chelsea's 2024/25 WSL season with a 1-0 win. (The FA/The FA via Getty Images)

Defending WSL champs Chelsea open post-Hayes era with a win

In front of a sold-out Kingsmeadow crowd on Friday, the Blues began their first campaign without now-USWNT boss Emma Hayes by defeating Aston Villa 1-0. Midfielder Johanna Rytting Kaneryd's first-half strike from distance secured Chelsea's season-opening win.

Helmed by head coach Sonia Bompastor, who previously led France's Lyon to three straight titles and a 2022 Champions League victory, Chelsea enters the season with a target on their backs after five straight years at the top of the WSL table.

With five members of the Blues staff following Hayes Stateside and multiple veteran players — like England national Fran Kirby — also departing the club, Bompastor is now tasked with building a new-look culture while maintaining the club's standard. Her job is that much more difficult given four athletes, including Australian star Sam Kerr and the USWNT's Mia Fishel, are still out rehabbing ACL injuries.

Though Chelsea added top players like the Lionesses' right-back Lucy Bronze, all eyes will be on the Blues to see if their dynasty continues this season.

Striker Vivianne Miedema takes a shot in Manchester City's UWCL win over Paris FC.
New Manchester City striker Vivianne Miedema will play her old club, Arsenal, to open WSL play on Sunday. (Franco Arland/Getty Images)

Miedema's return headlines WSL opening weekend

The Blues aside, the highlight of the WSL's season-opening weekend is the blockbuster matchup between an Arsenal legend and her former club.

Dutch striker Vivianne Miedema will play her first regular-season WSL game with Manchester City on Sunday, when the ex-Gunner will face Arsenal in a highly anticipated Emirates Stadium showdown.

The two clubs — who both finished the 2023/34 WSL season just behind Chelsea in the standings — are coming off vastly different UWCL results this week, after Arsenal lost 1-0 to Häcken and Man City defeated Paris FC 5-0.

How to watch Arsenal Women vs. Manchester City this weekend

Arsenal WFC will take on Manchester City at 7:30 AM ET this Sunday, with live coverage on ESPN+.

Just over a week after their loss to Paris-Saint Germain in the Champions League quarterfinals ended their five-year reign as European champions, Olympique Lyonnais has moved on from coach Jean-Luc Vasseur.

In a statement released Tuesday, the club said the two have mutually agreed to part ways following an internal review of the season intended to “find the necessary mechanisms to allow the team to successfully finish a season that has been played in difficult circumstances.”

In Vasseur’s place, Lyon has hired Sonia Bompastor, the first female head coach in club history.

Bompastor played for Lyon from 2006-09 and 2010-13, during which she won six league titles, three French cups, and two Champions League titles — including the club’s first in 2011. She also played for the French national team, earning 156 caps and serving as captain from 2004-06.

Lyon has signed Bompastor to a two-year contract that expires in June 2023.

“We wanted a return to OL’s DNA,” Lyon owner and president Jean-Michel Aulas said in a press conference Tuesday morning. “My idea was that the most important positions in the women’s team should be held by women.”

The club also cited ACL injuries to Ada Hegerberg, the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner, and Griedge Mbock Bathy as factors in their struggles this season.