Emma Hayes gets her fairytale ending! Winners and losers of the 2023 WSL season as Chelsea clinch fifth-straight title while Man Utd and Arsenal underwhelm

There were moments this season in which Chelsea fans dared to dream about something that has only been done once before in the history of English football - and that was some 17 years ago. There was hope that, in Emma Hayes' final season in charge of the club, they could win an unprecedented quadruple. It would be a fitting send-off for a manager who had already won 15 trophies in her 12-year spell, one which has seen Chelsea transform from a team with little status in English women's football to its dominant force.

However, a four-week period saw the Blues taste defeat in the Continental Cup final, suffer elimination in the FA Cup semi-finals and then be knocked out in the same stage of the Champions League, leaving only the WSL title on the table. It looked like that trophy had gone too, after a shock 4-3 loss at Liverpool, only for Man City to slip up at home to Arsenal and let Chelsea back in.

Hayes' side deserve immense credit for the way they capitalised on that opportunity, battering Bristol City 8-0 just hours later to remove City's goal-difference advantage before winning their final two games of the season to secure a fifth-successive WSL title.

Had Chelsea said goodbye to their iconic manager without a trophy, it would have been incredibly underwhelming. It was still a disappointing season for a club of this stature to not win more than one title, but it was a much better outcome than a first campaign without silverware in five years and ensured Hayes went out on a high with a dramatic turnaround.

On the other side of that story is Gareth Taylor, the Man City head coach whose future has come into question plenty since he took over the women's team in the summer of 2020. Despite winning the FA Cup that year and the Conti Cup in 2022, Taylor has often been criticised for what some perceived to be a failure to really maximise the quality at his disposal.

This season, he looked set to silence those doubters emphatically by leading City to a first WSL title in eight years. He's put together a team that has consistently played an attractive brand of football, all while putting faith in young players, like Khiara Keating and Jess Park, and not being afraid to make bold decisions when needed, such as dropping England star Chloe Kelly for Mary Fowler during the run-in.

However, City's shocking collapse at home to Arsenal in the penultimate game of their season let Chelsea take control of the title race at a crucial moment, with two goals in two minutes changing the course of their season. Taylor has certainly proved that he is a much more capable coach than he has previously been given credit for and a new three-year contract was well-deserved in that regard. But the big prize slipped through his and his team's hands this year - and it really shouldn't have done.

At the halfway point of the season, there were questions as to whether or not Hannah Hampton had made the right decision in joining Chelsea. It took until December for her to make her debut and it was unclear how many more appearances would follow, simply because of how competitive the goalkeeping unit is at the club.

However, when she got her opportunities, she took them, asserting herself as the most impressively consistent performer in her position in the second half of the WSL campaign. Chelsea will hope that they have their No.1 for the next decade in Hampton, and it's all been good news for her England career, too, with her firmly challenging Mary Earps to be the Lionesses' first-choice goalkeeper now.

Individual accolades might mean something to Khadija Shaw, but there's no doubt that team success will mean more, so for her to be sat on the sidelines as Man City let the WSL title slip away will have been excruciating.

The Jamaica star was unlucky to miss out on Player of the Year accolades last year, but not this time, her second successive 20+ goal season in the league allowing her to pick up plenty of awards in the end of campaign ceremonies. However, she was unable to add to her 21 strikes in just 18 appearances due to a foot injury that required surgery - and oh how Man City missed her in their final three games.

In the defeat to Arsenal, her absence was particularly noticeable, with several chances going begging and superb crosses going untouched in what was eventually a shocking and dramatic loss for City that handed the initiative back to Chelsea in the title race. Other factors play a part here, such as the terrible game-management and defending from the Cityzens in that outing, but it doesn't feel like an exaggeration to say that if Shaw didn't pick up that injury, Man City would have won the title. To have not been able to help them get over the line will sting.

It's been a truly fantastic season for Liverpool. The Reds secured a strong seventh-placed finish last year on their return to the WSL and then worked brilliantly in the summer transfer window to bolster their squad and make it capable of really pushing the league's top teams, eventually finishing fourth.

Wins over Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United were real highlights in a season all about steady progress, with manager Matt Beard confident that the club can continue to take positive steps forward. "We've created a lot of competition for places in this group, so no one is guaranteed to play," he said earlier this month, reflecting on the keys to this success. "On top of that, the biggest surprise for me is the way we've always responded to a negative result. Every time we have had a negative result, we've turned it around and we've gone on a little run. We've had a lot of learning curves this year and that's the one thing that excites me for next year."

When a team has a season like this, people like to talk about the potential of them breaking into the top three and securing Champions League football, but that's so much harder than is often realised. Liverpool will have ambitions of doing that eventually, but for now they have become a team that no one in the league wants to face, and that deserves praise.

A year ago, Manchester United took Chelsea to the final day in the title race and, with them also reaching a maiden FA Cup final and qualifying for the Champions League for the first time, it felt like they had really established themselves among the WSL's elite after several seasons of steady progress.

Though they did win the FA Cup this term, it was instead a really underwhelming league campaign for the Red Devils as Marc Skinner's side dropped far too many unnecessary points to teams outside of the 'big four' and were essentially out of the title race before Christmas, with a European place certainly off the table by mid-February - if not earlier. In the end, their fifth-placed finish was the worst for a United side in the WSL, and the manner in which their campaign ended, with a 6-0 thrashing to Chelsea at Old Trafford, was far from ideal.

Despite that, Skinner has signed a new contract with the club. He's shown glimpses that he can be the right coach for this team - victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup the most notable example - but these cannot be one-offs if United are to be become a force in the women's game. They simply have to be better on a consistent basis.

Robert Vilahamn has won plenty of plaudits in his first year in charge at Tottenham, and deservedly so. There were some worrying results just before Christmas - a 7-0 hammering at the hands of Man City followed by a 4-0 defeat to United - but Vilahamn believed in his vision and, crucially, the players did, too. A week after losing to the Red Devils, Spurs beat Arsenal for the first time in the women's game.

In the second half of the season, the team really started to kick on, bolstered by some nice business in January. A maiden Women's FA Cup final appearance and a run of just four defeats in their last 12 games on the way to a sixth-placed finish in the WSL will give all of those connected with Spurs plenty of optimism for the future, especially given Vilahamn has expressed a desire to remain at the club for several years. The Swede has helped transform this team from a rather dull one with no clear direction to the exact opposite - and there are clear areas for growth, too.

There's a lot to like about what Brighton are doing in the women's game. The Seagulls have invested plenty in facilities, recruited some great players and shown they are capable of pulling off big results. This season alone, they were only denied a win at home to Manchester United by a stoppage-time equaliser, and they beat Man City on the road. However, the club needs to find the right coach to take them forward if they are to be anything more than a mid-table team that has to look over its shoulder a few times each year.

Brighton went through three permanent managers last season, as well as having Amy Merricks in interim charge twice. This time around might not have been as chaotic, but that's hardly an achievement, and they still ended the campaign with an interim manager in charge, this time in Mikey Harris.

That's because the Seagulls decided to sack Melissa Phillips in February, a decision that felt rather hasty. Brighton’s technical director, David Weir, pointed to investment not aligning with results, saying: “This is not a decision which has been taken lightly, but we feel it is vital for the progress we want to see. We have invested heavily in the women’s squad and infrastructure going into this season, and results and performances have not been at the level we had expected, given that investment.”

Brighton need to find the right coach, but they also need some patience. Progress takes time and it's not going to be achieved by constant change in the dugout. It's a big summer ahead as they continue to look for the perfect candidate.

Despite Brighton's shortcomings, one player who deserves real praise for her performances this season is Elisabeth Terland. Only Shaw scored more goals than her in the WSL this season, despite the extremely contrasting fortunes of the two teams they represent. Man City finished second, picked up 55 points and scored 61 goals. Brighton, meanwhile, came in ninth, registered just 19 points and only netted 26 goals.

Terland scored 13 of those, a remarkable tally in a struggling side. This was no flash in the pan either, after an impressive return of seven from 17 appearances in her first season in the WSL last year. At 22 years old, she's only going to get better, and with her contract expiring this summer, she could well be set to secure a big move for her efforts.

Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall might have delivered another trophy this season, in the form of the Continental Cup, but it does feel like the pressure is really on him for next season after a mediocre WSL campaign. The Gunners fell out of the title race well before its final stretch and to not even make it through the first round of Champions League qualifying was also disappointing.

There have been a few mitigating factors, not least the fact he came into the season without some star names available due to injury, but the fact that Arsenal defeated all of Chelsea, Man City and Manchester United this year and still finished five points adrift of the title chase will be so frustrating.

Breaking down the low blocks that those outside of the 'big four' set-up in has been the biggest downfall of the Gunners' season, but Eidevall has not been able to combat that, despite it being apparent from the first weekend when his team lost 1-0 at home to Liverpool.

That he still hasn't figured out how best to use Alessia Russo, despite being so keen on her arrival, is also a slight surprise if not a concern, and Vivianne Miedema's unpopular exit has only heaped further pressure on the Swede to deliver improvements next term.