Millie Bright, Alessia Russo & GOAL's top 20 players of the 2024-25 WSL season - ranked

It's been a surprisingly tricky season for Chelsea in the forward areas, with injuries to the likes of Sam Kerr and Lauren James forcing others to really step up and deliver. As the Blues' top goal-scorer in the WSL, Aggie Beever-Jones has certainly done that on several occasions, despite only being a starter for 11 of her 21 appearances in the competition.

A return of eight goals means she's averaging a strike every 127 minutes, which is certainly impressive from someone in just their second season as a first-team regular with the English champions. Her hard work off the ball and versatility in the forward areas in general has been a real asset for the Blues, too, considering the players they've been without at times, with Beever-Jones always able to pose a threat regardless of where on the pitch she is deployed.

It's been a tough season for Tottenham. The north London side enjoyed a wonderful first campaign under Robert Vilahamn, finishing sixth in the WSL and reaching the FA Cup final, but this term has not been quite as fruitful, with them currently ninth heading into the final round of league fixtures. Conceding goals has been a real issue for Spurs, with only bottom side Crystal Palace doing so more often, but finding the back of the net hasn't been particularly easy either.

That makes Bethany England's return of eight goals this season, bettered by just four players across the WSL, extremely applaudable. Crucial to that has been a clinical shot conversion rate - one which is better than the likes of Beever-Jones, Vivianne Miedema and Alessia Russo - with it certainly not a stretch to say that Tottenham probably would've been in a relegation battle without England's quality in the final third.

It's been a strong first season at Manchester United for Elisabeth Terland. The 23-year-old signed from Brighton in the summer after scoring 13 goals in 22 games for a struggling Seagulls side, and while she hasn't quite hit those heights numerically this term, her nine goals lay a solid foundation for what she will hope is a lengthy stay with the Red Devils.

Terland's return of five assists, after notching just one last season, is a notable uptick, helping to rank her joint-first for most goal involvements across the WSL, and her all-round game has impressed, too. A hard-working No.9 who sets the tone with her pressing and will not shy away from any individual duel, there is a lot to be encouraged by from her first season in red.

Everton may well have been looking over their shoulder a little more this season were it not for Courtney Brosnan's performances in between the sticks. The Toffees really struggled to score goals in the first half of the campaign, managing just six before Christmas. However, Brosnan's top goalkeeping helped those half-dozen efforts be worth nine points.

Only Manchester United's Phallon Tullis-Joyce has a more positive differential between her expected goals against statistic and the actual number of goals she has conceded this term than Brosnan, with clean sheets in games against Arsenal and Liverpool among her most impressive displays.

There are a lot of West Ham players who deserve credit for the team's superb turnaround this season, and one of the biggest reasons why the Hammers have sped away from the relegation battle that concerned them in the first half of the season is Shekiera Martinez. Since arriving at West Ham in January, she has scored 10 goals in 11 games while posting a remarkable 40 percent shot conversion rate. That is comfortably the best of players to score more than two goals in the WSL this term.

Making that return all the impressive is how it stacks up when compared to her expected goals statistic. According to xG, Martinez should only have found the back of the net four times, but she's out-performed that number more significantly than any other player in the league to average a goal every 80 minutes and prevent West Ham from getting tangled up in a scrap to stay in the division.

Until Alessia Russo bagged her 12th WSL goal of the season on the final day of April, Khadija Shaw was leading the Golden Boot race outright despite not playing since the first week of March. The Manchester City star scored 12 goals in just 10 games until a hamstring issue cut her season short, that one of many injury setbacks her side suffered throughout this campaign.

That long list of absentees made Shaw's prolific scoring all the more impressive. Key creators like Lauren Hemp and Vivianne Miedema have spent a lot of time on the sidelines this term, and yet City's star striker still managed to rack up the goals, many of which were vital to her team being Chelsea's biggest rival for the title during the first half of the campaign.

England might have wonderful depth at centre-back, but it's with good reason that Manchester United fans are often bemused by Sarina Wiegman's reluctance to use Maya Le Tissier there. The Lionesses boss is adamant that she sees the Red Devils' skipper as more of a right-back, and that does make some sense given she can use the likes of Leah Williamson, Millie Bright, Alex Greenwood and Jess Carter - among others - centrally. However, Le Tissier continues to stand out as one of the best in the position in the WSL, with this season another example of that.

Handed the United armband ahead of this campaign following the departure of Katie Zelem, it was the kind of honour that might unsettle some players, especially at the age of 22. For Le Tissier, though, it has only seemed to act as an incentive to go up another level, with her certainly doing that as part of the best defence in the entire league.

Another vital cog in the league's best defence has been Jayde Riviere. Despite her being limited to just 12 starts, there was plenty from the Canada international last season to suggest she could be a star player for this United side, such is her ability to be extremely effective on both sides of the ball. This campaign has been a step up, helped by her greater availability, which has unsurprisingly coincided with the Red Devils posting a wonderful defensive record.

It felt like a vital bit of business when the club tied the 24-year-old down to a new contract in January, until 2028 with the option of an extra year. Without that, it wouldn't have been a shock if some of the game's elite clubs had been sniffing around Riviere this summer as she looks on track to become one of the world's best in her position.

As 33-year-old Lucy Bronze starts to enter the twilight of her career, there always seem to be questions around whether she has still got what it takes to be one of the world's best. Her form in the WSL this season, then, has felt like something of an answer back to her doubters, with the England star providing fantastic consistency at both ends of the pitch in Chelsea's historic run to a sixth-successive league crown.

That it was Bronze who popped up with the title-clinching goal was somewhat fitting, as she was one of the first players head coach Sonia Bompastor spoke to when her move to the Blues was confirmed. "She's one of the leaders in this team," the Chelsea boss told Sky Sports after that huge moment at the end of April. "She fights so hard on the pitch, she shows and sets the example for the others. She leads by example, so it's really nice for me to have this type of player in my squad and in my team."

When West Ham brought in Katrina Gorry midway through last season, the Australia international made a significant impact, helping to drag the Hammers away from relegation danger before her campaign was cut unfortunately short by injury. She hasn't let that setback get to her, though, and has bounced back brilliantly to return to the form that impressed so many last year on her way to being one of the best midfielders in the entire WSL this time around.

A player like Gorry can sometimes go unnoticed, as it is in the gritty work where she really seems to excel. But don't let that distract you from her quality in possession and ability to create chances, all of which has allowed the 32-year-old to play a key role in West Ham's resurgence since the New Year.

One of the most interesting players coming into this season was Grace Clinton, who was back at Manchester United after a fruitful loan with Tottenham last term. Could she translate that form, which saw her break into the England XI, back to her parent club and make her mark in the north west? The answer has been an emphatic 'yes'.

Scorer of the only goals in wins over Everton and Crystal Palace in the first half of the season, those have been among the most valuable of Clinton's eight strikes this campaign. Her most recent was huge, too, starting the comeback against Man City in a 2-2 draw which secured Champions League football.

Perhaps most impressive about Clinton's first full season with United is that when Ella Toone was sidelined for three months, she stepped up in a big way to help minimise the impact of losing such a key player to injury. The two are now slowly but surely figuring out how to work together best in that midfield, and the potential that partnership has should seriously excite fans.

As the final matchday of the WSL approaches, only two players have been directly involved in more goals than Mary Fowler. A combined total of 13 goals and assists came despite the Man City star only starting 12 times and brutally tearing her ACL with five league games to play. It means she's averaged a goal involvement every 87 minutes in a season that has been extremely tough for her team.

It's still not entirely clear what Fowler's best position is at City. When Lauren Hemp got injured, she thrived on the left wing, but she has also filled in brilliantly for Shaw with how she's led the line at times. How City's next permanent head coach uses her, only time will tell, but they will inherit a deadly, versatile and hard-working forward when the 22-year-old returns from her rehab.

What a revelation Sandy Baltimore has been this season. A lively and prolific forward during her time with Paris Saint-Germain, she has been transformed into a left-back by Sonia Bompastor at Chelsea and has provided all that attacking threat while honing her defensive skills admirably with each passing week.

A match-winning strike against Arsenal in the early stages of the campaign was a particular highlight, while it was her terrific corner delivery from which Bronze headed home against Manchester United to seal the league title. Whether there is a plan to strengthen at left-back this summer in order to push Baltimore further forward on a more regular basis, or Bompastor believes the 25-year-old can be the long-term answer there, the France international looks set to be a cornerstone of the Blues' new era.

Katie McCabe has been a consistently reliable performer for Arsenal for many years now, and this season has been no different in that sense. What has helped her thrive under Renee Slegers, however, has been the steadiness of her place in the team. A player who can adapt to play on either wing, or even more centrally if necessary, that she has almost exclusively been at left-back this term has certainly helped her to constantly deliver top performances, especially while that consistency has also existed around her.

The result is that McCabe has statistically been the most creative player in the WSL this season. That is partly because of her wonderful deliveries from set-pieces, but her numbers from open play are also superb, helping her to rack up the second-most assists on this Arsenal team. Her ability to balance that attacking output with her defensive duties remains impressive too, with the full-back ranking among the top five in the Gunners' squad for successful tackles, interceptions and clearances.

After finishing fourth last year, this has not been as magical a season for Liverpool. Manager Matt Beard left the club in February amid a poor run of league form, with injuries making things particularly hard at times. Indeed, just before the Reds welcomed Manchester United to Anfield in March, four key players fell ill and couldn't play in a huge fixture.

Fortunately, though, they had Olivia Smith available, and it was she who helped fire the women's team to a first-ever win at the iconic ground - one which will have certainly felt sweeter given the dent it put in United's title hopes.

After impressing in a front two throughout the first half of the season, Smith has gone to new levels since being moved to the right wing by interim boss Amber Whiteley, taking her WSL goal tally up to seven; that's nearly a third of Liverpool's entire return this term. Will the 20-year-old be back next season to be that talismanic presence again? The club will certainly hope they can keep hold of her for a while longer yet.

While Millie Bright has deservedly earned a lot of praise for her performances this season, her centre-back partner Nathalie Bjorn has also been outstanding. After starting life in English football with Everton, the 28-year-old has gone up another level since her move to London in January of last year, so much so that she's been a remarkable pillar in this title-winning Chelsea team.

The centre-back position in west London is going to be extremely competitive next season. Naomi Girma has started to settle now after her world-record move was disrupted by an injury on her debut while Kadeisha Buchanan will hope to return from her ACL injury in the early stages of the new campaign. But Bjorn has shown that she is more than capable of stepping up to be a big player in a big team with this wonderful 2024-25 season.

It was never going to be easy for Phallon Tullis-Joyce to fill the void left in the Manchester United goal by Mary Earps' departure - and yet, she's done so absolutely brilliantly. With one game to go, she is just one clean sheet off Earps' record for a single WSL season, having kept 13 in her 21 games. She's conceded just 12 times and never more than twice in a single outing; even that has only happened on two occasions.

Tullis-Joyce's fantastic footwork, perfect positioning and rapid reflexes have all played a huge part in that, but it also says a lot about her mentality that she has stepped up to the plate so emphatically. It has even impressed Emma Hayes, who handed the 28-year-old a first senior call-up for the United States back in November and a debut in April, achievements which only further confirm how fantastic the shot-stopper's year has been.

Having equalled her best-ever scoring season in the WSL, Alessia Russo has one hand on the Golden Boot going into the final weekend of the competition, and to secure that accolade would be a wonderful way to celebrate the progress she has made over the past year.

The 26-year-old has long been excellent at holding the ball up and contributing to her team’s build-up play, able to unlock spaces for team-mates and create chances for them. But now she’s getting into those goal-scoring positions more and more often herself, to the point that Russo is the league’s joint-top scorer.

With a couple of assists on top of that, there is no player in the WSL who has been directly involved in more goals this season than Russo. She’s been a vital cog in an Arsenal side that could be primed for something special in the league under Slegers next term.

Millie Bright has had her injury frustrations in the last couple of years. The Chelsea captain saw her 2022-23 campaign end in March due to a knee issue and then missed more than four months of action in the middle of the subsequent seasno. She certainly made the most of her first full year without such setbacks, then, putting in colossal performance after colossal performance to lead her Blues to a sixth-successive WSL title.

To be a centre-back in such a dominant side can be deceptively difficult. It requires a lot of focus and good positioning, two traits that Bright has in spades. That's why she is so often the player on hand to mop up the danger or intervene at the vital moment, while also supporting the attack with real quality in possession. That's before we even get to the leadership Bright has shown, something which has helped put Chelsea on the brink of the first unbeaten season in the WSL's 22-game era.

When Arsenal landed Mariona Caldentey’s signature for free last summer, it was already seen as a superb bit of business. A three-time Champions League winner at Barcelona and a World Cup winner with Spain, the hype that surrounded her move was seriously loud, and she has certainly justified it by being the best player in the WSL this season.

At times in Catalunya, while surrounded by players like Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmati, Caldentey could be somewhat understandably underrated. In north London, though, she's been given a platform to really shine in her own right, whether as a wide player or in a deeper midfield role.

As such, her attacking output has been among the very best in the division, with only Russo and Terland directly involved in more goals, while just McCabe and Liverpool's Marie-Therese Hobinger have created more chances. But Caldentey's contributions on the other side of the ball are also exceptional; she ranks among the top five players in the league for possession won, among the top three for tackles won and has recovered the ball more often than anyone else in the final third.

You don't get that from many of the game's best playmakers, but you absolutely always get it from this one.