It's barely September and the WSL is already asking hard questions of two clubs who genuinely believe they can win things this season.
Olid Needs Time, But United Can't Keep Bleeding Goals
The Leigh Sports Village faithful made their feelings clear at full time. A 5-0 home hammering by Chelsea is not what anyone wants to see, and the heat on Eva Olid is real. But let's be honest here: is this the moment to be writing her off?
Chelsea under Sonia Bompastor are not a side you throw a new manager against and expect a result. United have now lost three WSL games by more than three goals, and all three have come against Chelsea. That is a specific, brutal problem, not a general one. Olid has had three weeks with this squad. Three weeks. Her WSL baptism has brought losses to London City Lionesses and Chelsea, which is about as unforgiving a start as you can get. Arsenal come next, which is hardly a gift either.
As Olid herself put it: "These are difficult games to build the confidence in attack, but I'm here to build an identity and I have to be faithful to that." That is not a manager papering over cracks. That is a manager who understands exactly where she is and what she needs to do.
[We looked at the structural problems around this squad before a ball was kicked](/uprise/football/olids-united-on-back-foot-due-to-late-business-and), and those issues have not gone away. The supporters deserve honesty about that. The job Olid faces is significant, and a 5-0 loss to the likely title challengers, in week two, is not the moment to pull the trigger on a project that has barely started.
Arsenal's Familiar Nightmare
There was a 0-0 at the Emirates against Crystal Palace, and if you have followed Arsenal Women for any length of time, the details will make you wince with recognition. Seventy-nine per cent possession. Thirty shots. Nine on target. Seventy touches in Palace's area. The Gunners hit the woodwork twice. And the final score was still nil-nil.
Pauline Peyraud-Magnin made eight saves and was the difference, but Arsenal need to look inward here. Renée Slegers summed it up as plainly as anyone could: "Yes, there were good things, but it's about scoring." Correct. That is the whole game. You score more than the other team.
Last season, six draws cost Arsenal their title tilt. They cannot keep donating points to sides who come to the Emirates and park. It is a pattern, and patterns in football tend not to fix themselves.
[The opening day gave us some hope about this Arsenal squad](/uprise/football/wsl-talking-points-palace-result-in-doubt-after-substitution-nightmare), but this weekend was a reminder that hope and clinical finishing are two different things entirely.
Meanwhile, Manchester City sit top with a perfect record, Khadija Shaw has three goals from two games, and they are scoring while everyone else is wasting chances. The benchmark is moving, and Arsenal in particular need to catch up with it fast.
Our verdict: Olid deserves patience. Arsenal, right now, do not deserve the benefit of the doubt. The personnel are there. The results are not. That is a coaching and finishing problem, and it needs addressing before those dropped points become a habit too expensive to break.