1) Champions look set for a repeat performance

Chelsea won the league last season and I think they will do it again, with strong competition from Manchester City and Arsenal. City came second last time and, like Chelsea, reached the Champions League semi-finals, but since then Emma Hayes’s team have taken the bigger strides towards identifying where they fell short, which was primarily an issue of squad depth. Knowing the Chelsea manager Emma Hayes relatively well, I think she will want to win everything this campaign despite the retirement of their captain, Katie Chapman. Last season I felt City stalled somewhat, and though they have also brought in players I don’t think they have improved enough to reach the top. Arsenal, going into their first full season under Joe Montemurro, have made strong signings and if they knit together as a unit they should be contenders.

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2) Players to watch in the WSL this season

Lauren Hemp has done well with England’s youth teams and impressed me a lot at Bristol last season, and having moved to Manchester City could have a big impact this term. City also signed the Belgian striker Tessa Wullaert, who was a runner-up in the Champions League with Wolfsburg last season and is an experienced target player and if they do thrive she will be at the heart of it. The German defender Tabea Kemme is another new arrival, part of the new brigade at Arsenal. Like the men’s team, Arsenal look to play their way out of defence but last season they did not always get it right, and Kemme will add quality and confidence in a key area. There has been a massive turnover of players at Liverpool but it will be interesting to see what impact Neil Redfearn has as manager after the success he enjoyed at Doncaster Belles.

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3) The first fully professional season for women

What started as an amateur league with a handful of professional players has grown to such an extent that every team is now full-time. There has been so much positive change in only a few years: attendance records are smashed every season, as more people go to better grounds to watch better players on better pitches. For me the key change has been the integration of many women’s teams into men’s clubs. Manchester City started it, giving their women access to the same marketing team, the same social media team and the same training and rehab facilities as the men, and others quickly followed. Now we are attracting fantastic foreign players, allowing our internationals to train with and play against the best in the world and helping our own talent to blossom. In every single team you’ll see young English players. Lauren James at Manchester United is a great example: she’s taking her chance, running the midfield, still only 16.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lauren James on the ball against Reading in the Continental Cup in August. Photograph: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Getty Images

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4) Continued international success for England

The next three years are going to be huge for women’s football. The league has gone fully professional, England will be among the favourites for next summer’s World Cup in France, in 2020 we will be sending a women’s team to the Olympics and England’s bid to host the European Championships in 2021 is unopposed. This could be the start of something unparalleled in women’s team sport in this country. Phil Neville’s contribution will be vital: not only as a coach but because of his experience as a player in massive pressure games. He has been to Champions League finals, to World Cups, and he’s worked with one of the greatest managers of all time in Sir Alex Ferguson. His experience could be the extra 1% we need to improve our current world ranking of second.

5) Life as a professional for these players

Some people have a skewed perception of what it means for a woman to be a professional footballer. It’s certainly not a route to riches: a lot of the players will be on something around the minimum wage, a salary of perhaps £12,000-£15,000 a year. As semi-pros they would have juggled full-time jobs with their training, but now they are committing 100% to football. Leandra Little, who moved to Liverpool from Doncaster this summer, is a great example – she was a full-time PE teacher with a good salary and an excellent career pathway, and at the age of 33 she’s given it up to become a footballer. This isn’t about monetary gain, it’s about taking an opportunity that women have never had before, and being involved in a real landmark time for females in football.

Rachel Brown-Finnis is a BT Sport analyst and will be writing about the WSL for the Guardian. BT Sport has coverage of the WSL, the Continental Cup and the SEE Women’s FA Cup. Watch Chelsea vs Man City on BT Sport 3, this Sunday from 1.30pm