Casey Stoney's focus keeping high-flying Manchester United grounded

It is impossible to predict the outcome of a Women’s Super League season that, a third of the way through, sees the top five teams separated by only five points.

What we can tell, though, is that predictions that this would be the WSL’s most competitive season are starting to be borne out.

The traditional big three of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City have had slips and there is an unpredictability that makes this season’s title race tantalising. The not-so-surprise package are Manchester United. Having ended up fourth after last season’s premature finish, United sit top after seven games.

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Casey Stoney’s side are unbeaten and their climb from nothing to the top has been quick and relatively pain-free. Having launched the side in 2018, the club handed Stoney, a well-decorated player and experienced coach but new to management, enough of a budget to ensure they would have an instant impact in the Championship. Promotion and a title were secured in their first season, that top-four finish in their second and now they are rattling the established order.

It is a rise even Stoney could not have predicted would come so quickly. Champions League football was and is the ambition, the number of qualifying places increasing from two to three this season to aid that mission. A steady chipping away at the 13-point gap that separated United from third-placed Arsenal (albeit having played a game fewer) would have been expected.

On Saturday, though, 800 days into Stoney’s tenure, a swerving, rasping strike from the World Cup winner Tobin Heath and a close-range equaliser from Kirsty Hanson earned a draw against Manchester City and confirmed United as serious title contenders. They have taken five points off the traditional top three, having also drawn with Chelsea and beaten Arsenal. At this stage last year, Stoney’s side had suffered three defeats from three games against those teams.

Those fixtures were tight; three 1-0 defeats offering a hint at how narrow the margin was. Each time United were left to regret missed chances. The shrewd recruitment of the US internationals Heath and Christen Press, the highly rated England youngster Alessia Russo from North Carolina Tar Heels and the forward Ivana Fuso from Basel has sharpened the attack.

Their presence has also elevated the performances of the existing squad. It says a lot that players did not make way for the entrance of the bigger names. Only one forward, Scotland’s Lizzie Arnot, departed in the summer. Ella Toone, Hanson and the now-injured Russo have three goals apiece and are United’s top league scorers. In many ways Stoney’s biggest managerial triumph to date is not the climb itself but how she has taken players from the Championship and fringes of the WSL and turned them into a team of title challengers in three years.

“It says a huge amount about how hard they work day-in, day-out to improve, how open-minded they are, how coachable they are,” Stoney said after the derby of the players who have risen with the team. “The way they have developed over the last two years, they’re coming on in games against top opposition and not only coping they’re thriving. It’s really pleasing to see.”

Now, the manager has a problem because she and her team, who face City again in the League Cup on Thursday, have somewhat revelled in their outsider, newcomer, underdog tags. The fans have loved adopting an “everybody hates us but we don’t care” attitude. They have used it to fuel their fire on the pitch and played with a swagger that has almost dared you to underestimate them.

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Except nobody is underestimating Stoney’s side and she has to train them to cope with the tag of title contenders or, say it quietly, even favourites. She is doing that ground work. Players are not allowed to enjoy their victory over Arsenal “for too long”, “one game doesn’t define our season” is the mantra and the derby is just “another game and it keeps us in and around it”.

“No,” Stoney says sharply when asked whether United are in the title race. It is a clever and consistent management of the mental attitude of her players, a drive to keep things the way they are, keep the hunger, fight and focus that are enabling this run.

It is a run that should be welcomed, too. Because by pushing the bar higher, the spending, vision and drive of United will push up the standards of those around them. That is what is needed: constant challenge to fuel growth.