18 December 2023 , 15:18
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That Khadija Shaw is only in her third season of the Women’s Super League risks feeling like an optical illusion.
The Manchester City striker, based solely on vibes, feels entrenched. A league-wide institution. Where life is filled with theoretical guarantees and constants–life, death, taxes, Emma Hayes lifting trophies, there is now also Bunny Shaw.
Midway through the 2022-23 season and following a second hat-trick in three games, Shaw leads the Women’s Super League goalscoring charts with nine goals in nine games, with two assists too. The 26-year-old is two goals clear of her closest competition in Brighton’s Elisabeth Terland, Chelsea’s Lauren James and Tottenham Hotspur’s Martha Thomas. And she’s the first-ever player to record three hat-tricks in a calendar year.
Shaw’s position at the summit of this season’s goalscoring chart is in harmony with her phenomenal form last season. The Jamaica international nabbed 20 WSL goals across the 22-match campaign (with seven assists) and 30 goals across 31 games in all competitions, setting a new club record in the process.
The tally was a marked improvement from Shaw’s first season in the WSL, in which she scored nine goals and recorded three assists, making her the fifth-joint highest scorer in the league level with Alessia Russo.
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What makes Shaw’s continued form this season so striking is that she’s the only player from last season’s top-five WSL goalscorers to not only keep up her tempo, but increase it.
Last campaign, Aston Villa’s Rachel Daly, Tottenham Hotspur’s Bethany England, Chelsea’s Sam Kerr and Manchester United duo Leah Galton and Alessia Russo comprised the league’s top five goalscorers with Shaw. So far this season, none other than Shaw comprise the current top five, with only Kerr, Daly and Russo managing joint ninth with four goals, along with seven other players (England's ongoing return from injury means she's yet to get amongst the goals for Spurs).
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 17: Khadija Shaw of Manchester City celebrates with Leila Ouahabi of Manchester City after scoring their team's first goal during the Barclays Women´s Super League match between Everton FC and Manchester City at Walton Hall Park on December 17, 2023 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Lewis Storey/Getty Images) (Photo by Lewis Storey/Getty Images)
Khadija Shaw celebrates with Chloe Kelly after scoring against Everton (Photo by Lewis Storey/Getty Images)Where last season at the midway point, Shaw found the back of the net eight times in nine matches. This season, she has already notched nine in nine. In isolation, it is a ridiculous return, but it is all the more impressive when placed aside last season’s achievements.
For Manchester City, that’s the good news. Shaw signed a new two-year contract that keeps the goal-scorer at the Academy Stadium until the summer of 2026. City boss Gareth Taylor hailed Sunday's 4-1 victory over Everton as one of City's best performances of the season, and it's difficult to view Shaw's success and City's success as mutually exclusive.
Indeed, if Taylor is to come good on his mission of shifting the league’s tectonic plates and displacing Chelsea as the league’s champion, Shaw’s ongoing influence in front of goal feels integral as they remain within touching distance of the league leaders.
Cynics might argue that Shaw’s recent exploits (six goals in her last three matches) skew the stats ever so favourably. However, only Jill Roord has managed to score in more games (five) than Shaw who has scored in four. It was Shaw’s assist to Lauren Hemp that supplied City a goal against Arsenal, while her 10-minute cameo for nine-woman City against Chelsea was hardly conducive to increasing her goal tally, though the striker came close.
Shaw’s consistency as the league’s default goal menace can almost paradoxically worked against her when it comes to individual recognition and fanfare.
Sunday’s hat-trick was a consummate display of striking perfection, and another example of Shaw’s ongoing evolution as an all-around threat in the final third: an audacious volley with her left foot, a low-driven strike with her right after creating the space herself, a diving header at the far post to cap it all off.
Khadija Shaw heads in Manchester City's third goal against Everton (Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)That doesn't mean Shaw isn't guilty of wasting chances and improving her craft. Shaw should arguably have more goals to boast going into the winter break (against United, she spurned a handful of chances before finding her goal, while she was denied a fourth against Everton from the spot).
Still, the WSL has never been more competitive than in its current guise. Just 10 points separate leaders Chelsea and sixth-placed Tottenham going into Christmas, a clear decrease from previous seasons–in 2020-21 it was 13, in 2021-22 it was 12, and in 2022-23 it was 15. Meanwhile, only three points separate the bottom three sides, with Bristol City’s five points (level with West Ham United) the most for a bottom-of-the-table side in the last four seasons.
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The quality in front of goal and in defence has correspondingly improved across the league. Where a glut of strikers might have historically terrorised the league’s defences outside the established top sides, that trend is becoming less frequent.
The constant, however, continues to be Bunny Shaw.