Manchester City manager Gareth Taylor says his players are determined to win the Women’s Super League title for a second time after making an impressive start to the 2024/25 campaign.
The Cityzens, champions in 2016, have flown out of the blocks to win three of their first four games, while they are also on a high in Europe after back-to-back Champions League wins, one of which impressive victory over the title holder, Barcelona. .
The rivals of the city Chelsea sit second to the WSL table, a point adrift after playing a game less, but Taylor told his weekly press conference that he believed City were ready to dethrone Sonia Bompastor’s side, drawing on the experiences of their dramatic runner-up finish in last season to make it happen.
“Yes, because of the experience we had (last season) we are better competitors this year,” he said, wondering if City are more ready to win the league. “We don’t know what’s going to happen or the result, but all I know is that the players have a fire in their bells and an intensity.
“It’s not necessarily about righting the wrongs, it’s about using last season’s disappointment to fuel this season. It was disappointing last season when we played such outstanding football and broke incredible records that we fell short at the last hurdle but we are trying to change that.
“It doesn’t happen overnight and we’re not saying we’re going to do it, but from what I’ve seen the determination to do it is really impressive.”
cityThe only points dropped of the season came on the opening day of the campaign in a 2-2 draw with arsenal – who on Tuesday parted ways with head coach Jonas Eidevall – and Taylor is satisfied that his team was able to “make a good start”.
“It’s been a good start,” he continued. “We set the stage in the pre-season in terms of what we wanted to do as a team moving forward and we were able to get off to a good start to the season.
“We had a difficult start, but we handled it little by little and we’re slowly picking up our pace and that’s exciting.”
Aston Villa are the visitors to City’s Joie Stadium on Sunday, and Taylor described the Midlanders as “tough opponents” who are “not getting the rewards in terms of points for their performances so far”.
Of Robert de Pauw’s side, he added: “I think they are trying to do something different at the club, which is impressive. They have very experienced players and it is likely to be a difficult game for us, but we are very happy to back there. the Joie Stadium in front of our fans as the last experience (against Barcelona) was incredible.”
