Ten things to watch in the new Women's Super League season: Chelsea's pursuit of history, much-changed Man Utd and the return of Arsenal's ACL victims

After the 2023 Women's World Cup captured attention across the whole globe throughout July and August, it's been no surprise to see many of those talents who lit up Australia and New Zealand land in the WSL ahead of the new season.

Jill Roord had already put pen to paper on a deal at Manchester City before she flew out to the tournament, but her form with the Netherlands will have certainly excited fans of her new club, the midfielder netting four goals in five games for the Oranje.

Japan, meanwhile, were one of the surprise packages of the tournament, with their 4-0 defeat of eventual champions Spain in the group stages certainly catching the eye. Hinata Miyazawa would end up winning the Golden Boot despite the Nadeshiko's quarter-final exit, and she's secured a huge transfer to Manchester United off the back of that achievement, while team-mate Riko Ueki - who topped the scoring charts in Japan's WE League last season - has signed for West Ham.

Another surprise package was Colombia, the South American nation reaching a first ever quarter-final, and Brighton have picked up centre-back Jocelyn Carabali, who put in some extremely solid displays en route.

Arsenal, meanwhile, have picked up a world champion in Spain centre-back Laia Codina; one of the tournament's breakout stars in Kyra Cooney-Cross, the Australia midfielder finally getting her headline-grabbing move after showing great potential for many years; and they also signed Amanda Ilestedt before the tournament, the Sweden star who went on to score four goals from defence.

These huge tournaments are always a great shop window for players and that's been the case again this year.

Last season was not Sam Kerr's most prolific. The Australian superstar's return of 12 league goals was significantly down from the 20 and 21 she had managed in the two previous campaigns for Chelsea - but that stat alone doesn't tell the full story.

With Fran Kirby and Pernille Harder both spending most of the season on the sidelines, Kerr's role in the Blues' attack had to change dramatically, and the combination play she so often enjoyed with that pair was rarely seen. Yet, she still managed to come up big time and time again - most notably in the Women's FA Cup final.

This time around, things should be different. Harder has left for Bayern Munich but Kirby is back, and the supporting cast around Kerr has grown, too.

Mia Fishel, the forward who made her United States women's national team debut in September, has arrived after racking up impressive numbers in Mexico; young Maika Hamano has returned to Chelsea after a productive first half of the year on loan with Hammarby in Sweden; and Catarina Macario, another USWNT star, is expected to be back from her ACL injury soon after joining the club earlier this summer.

With Guro Reiten's consistency on the left wing unlikely to dwindle, Kerr should have plenty of service, plenty of support and score plenty of goals yet again. Watch out, WSL defenders!

Macario's return to the field is another thing to get excited about, with her (now) one of several WSL stars who have been sidelined with an ACL injury for far too long.

The American suffered the devastating injury in the final game of the 2021-22 season, while she was playing for Lyon. She was unable to get back on the pitch last term and had to miss the World Cup as a result. But the world-class playmaker should be in action again soon enough for her new club, which is not only exciting for Chelsea fans but the whole league - and the whole sport, frankly.

It's one of the Blues' London rivals that will be boosted the most by ACL returnees, though. Last season, Arsenal saw four players - Ballon d'Or runner-up Beth Mead, WSL all-time top-scorer Vivianne Miedema, England captain Leah Williamson and Austria international Laura Wienroither - struck down by an injury that is far too common in the women's game.

The former two were sidelined before Christmas and so they should be back sooner rather than later. What a boost it will be for the Gunners to get two of the best forwards in the world back in the coming months.

Since the Women's National League was established as the top-flight in women's football in 1991, only Arsenal have been crowned the champions of England five times in a row. Chelsea have a chance to match that feat this season.

The Blues have become the dominant force in the country over the last few years and nothing about their summer transfer window suggests that they are going to be easy to topple this time, either. Yes, they lost captain Magdalena Eriksson and star forward Harder to Bayern Munich, but they've brought in heaps of top talent to reinforce what is already a squad of champions.

Fishel, Macario and the returning Hamano bolster the attack; Hannah Hampton is another top goalkeeper coming into a very competitive group; Ashley Lawrence, one of the best in the world in her position, arrives to address a serious lack of full-back options; and Sjoeke Nusken is an exciting addition to the spine of the team.

Of course, Chelsea have a massive target on their backs. Their rivals for the title have got stronger and they could all be without the demands of European football, too, unless United cause an upset against Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League qualifier.

But the Blues are used to the pressure that comes with being top dog now. Can they make history again?

Ever since Manchester United were promoted to the WSL in 2019, their aim has been to break the stronghold that Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City have had on the top of the table. Last season, they did that, breaking into the top three to secure Women's Champions League football for the first time - that achievement certainly sweeter because it denied their city rivals a place in Europe, too.

But now that United have broke into those places, can they stay there? That's the next challenge, one made all the more difficult by some key departures during the summer window.

Ona Batlle, arguably the best right-back in the world, and England star Alessia Russo have both left the club in what has been a busy few months, with 16 players going out while nine new faces have come in. It's worth noting, too, that head coach Marc Skinner has seen his highly-rated assistant, Martin Ho, leave for a head coach role of his own in Norway.

It's a lot of change for a team to process in one summer, that's for sure. As City learned last year, a couple of early slip ups while adjusting to so many ins and outs can be detrimental. It's up to Skinner to make sure that history doesn't repeat itself on the other side of Manchester, then, particularly with a very good Aston Villa side first up and a clash with Arsenal to follow.

There's still heaps of quality in this United squad, both in those that remain and in the new signings. When things click, it'll be exciting. They just need it to happen quickly.

Last season, Man City endured a rare trophyless campaign and, for the first time since 2015-16, they do not have Women's Champions League football on their calendar due to a fourth-placed finish. It was a disappointing year.

Yet, City opted to give head coach Gareth Taylor a one-year contract when his deal was up in the summer, and he will have to deliver this time around if he wants to stay in the post.

City have enjoyed success under Taylor, winning the Women's FA Cup and the Continental Cup since he took the job back in 2020, but the fans have been vocal in their demands for more, with defeats in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League in back-to-back campaigns certainly not helping the coach's case.

However, the club hasn't done too much transfer business this summer after a flurry in 2022, meaning there's a lot of continuity there. It's a talented group and the momentum they gathered towards the end of last season gave everyone a glimpse of their potential.

Can City keep that up to mount a serious title challenge this year? Taylor will hope so.

It's hard to overstate what an excellent season Aston Villa had last year. When Carla Ward was appointed in the summer of 2021, she was taking charge of a team that had just about survived a relegation battle. In her first campaign, the club were still struggling towards the bottom of the table, but not as desperately, finishing a comfortable 10 points clear of the drop on that occasion.

It laid a foundation on which Ward could build and build she did, with Villa finishing fifth in the table last term and reaching a first ever Women's FA Cup semi-final. Huge credit has to go to the coach and all her staff for the recruitment done in last summer's transfer window, the likes of Rachel Daly, Kenza Dali, Dan Turner and Kirsty Hanson easily among the best signings made in the league all season. That activity was backed up by the arrivals of two Lionesses, Jordan Nobbs and Lucy Staniforth, in January. The business was remarkable.

The question is, can they do it again? Breaking into that top four is an almighty task and Ward had no desire to give that "punchline of what we're going for" in an interview with GOAL earlier this year. Instead, the target is progression and taking steps forward in the long-term.

With the summer window they've had this year - bringing England striker Ebony Salmon back to the league, making loan deals for Anna Patten and Hanson permanent and adding one of the most impressive young goalkeepers in the game, Daphne van Domselaar, to their squad - few would bet against them being in the upper echelons of the table again.

They were a problematic opposition for the top four last season and that is unlikely to change. If you're a neutral watching the WSL, then Villa's exciting football and ability to trouble the top sides is a welcome sight.

Since relegation from the WSL was introduced in 2014, only one newly-promoted team has been demoted in their first campaign in the top flight. That was Doncaster Rovers Belles, who dropped into the second tier in the 2016 season.

It's a statistic that will make for great reading for anyone associated with Bristol City, the 2022-23 FA Women's Championship winners who will play in the WSL again this season after being relegated back in 2021.

The battle to stay in the WSL was a strange one last year. It engulfed almost half of the division at times, with mid-season appointment Willie Kirk saving a seemingly-doomed Leicester at the expense of Reading, the only team in the division not affiliated with a men's Premier League team.

That Bristol have that status in the 2023-24 season means the odds will be already stacked against them, even if history isn't, but a club's name and size will not secure survival. It should be another dramatic scrap at the bottom, with it anyone's guess as to who will lose out in the end.

If you wanted a prime example of how a club's name and size doesn't guarantee a place at the top table, take a look at Tottenham. A nine-game losing streak put the north London club in serious danger of relegation last season, but the January signing of Bethany England proved to be season-saving, her goals helping to steer them to safety.

The problem, however, is that Spurs will not be able to call upon England at the start of this new season. The forward has undergone hip surgery and will be sidelined for an unspecified period of time.

It's quite a challenge that new head coach Robert Vilahamn inherits, then, because this is a team that not only struggled for goals from elsewhere last term, but also to create chances. The Swede has made a number of signings to address these problems and he'll hope to come up with a winning formula that England can then slip into seamlessly to bolster upon her return.

But anyone who watched Spurs last season will know what a task Vilahamn has on his hands.

And in the background of it all, many players on show in the WSL this season will have another factor motivating them to perform at a high level, because next summer there is an Olympic Games.

Unlike the men's, the women's football tournament at the Olympics is a senior competition and it's right up there with the World Cup in terms of how important it is to players, teams and the sport. It's also a tough one to be selected for, because each nation can only name 18 players to their squad.

It's particularly interesting when we talk about the new WSL season, because if England reach the final of the UEFA Women's Nations League, which will likely be what they need to do to qualify for the Olympics, then it's not only Lionesses that will be competing for a place in Sarina Wiegman's squad. The Dutchwoman would be the head coach for the Great Britain team and so she'll also be assessing the performances of players from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - many of whom play in the WSL.

It was a talking point throughout the season before the Tokyo Olympics and it will likely be one again this time around, especially as qualification spots will be sealed throughout the campaign's international breaks.