Second half of the season starts with a bunched table but the league-leading Blues still look a cut above

There is something about a pause that reinvigorates, builds anticipation and allows for a reset. The WSL will have halted for 32 days by the time Liverpool host Brighton on Friday to kickstart the second half of the season, but it has felt longer.

Perhaps it is that men’s football continues to be played, with matchday after matchday sliding by without women’s football. Perhaps we go into January, widely considered the most miserable month, desperately craving the joy of the game. Regardless, excitement is high. How will new players perform? Who is signing whom? What effect will player departures have? What tactical and technical changes will have been made?