Manchester City's belief has grown but are they capable of winning the Women's Super League this season?
Without crucial results to back it up, Andree Jeglertz's message to his Manchester City players that they are capable of winning the Women's Super League would be "empty words".
But his side are already delivering, closing the gap to leaders Chelsea to just one point with a well-fought 3-2 victory over fellow title rivals Arsenal on Saturday.
It is still early days in Jeglertz's tenure and only five games into the WSL season - but that is almost a quarter of the way through the campaign in a 12-team league.
City haven't won the WSL for nine years, coming runners-up six times since 2016, including missing out on the title on goal difference in 2023-24.
But Jeglertz's belief in his players is clear and despite a 2-1 defeat by Chelsea on the opening day of the season, City are now looking like real contenders.
"I can be in front of the team and say 'I believe we can win the league and we can beat all the teams' - but if we don't do it, it can become empty words," he said.
"So for the group to have that feeling that we can challenge and we can beat them [is important].
"We lost against Chelsea so we needed this [victory over Arsenal] to also make sure that when we play these teams again, we believe we can win. Confidence as a team is the most important thing."
It's important to win while in a process - Jeglertz
Arsenal had pegged themselves back from being behind twice before Iman Beney's dramatic late winner at Joie Stadium.
It extended City's winning streak to four WSL matches - their best run of form since November 2024.
It was also City's first victory over Arsenal in the WSL since February 2023, having gone five games without a win against the European champions.
While Arsenal have dropped seven points from a possible nine in their past three games, City have quietly and efficiently gone about their business.
"Of course I'm happy with the result. The game was won by us keeping on believing," said Jeglertz.
"Even when they made it 1-1, then 2-2, the team was still believing that we would create more goalscoring chances.
"There was no player thinking 'oh, now we need to protect this result'. That will not happen in this group. That belief is a key thing.
"The team is showing when they have setbacks - they conceded two goals - that they don't do their own things, they just keep going."
It has perhaps been a stick poked at City in previous seasons - that they don't have the bite or ruthlessness of six-time successive champions Chelsea.
They looked stale and rigid at times, playing a well-drilled style of possession-based football from the days under former manager Gareth Taylor.
But Jeglertz has added a sprinkle of unpredictability and adaptability since his arrival in the summer.
Pushing midfielder Yui Hasegawa further up the pitch has delivered excellent results, while his attackers play with fluidity across the frontline.
Full-back Kerstin Casparij played more advanced against Arsenal and Khadija Shaw received the ball in the middle, where she is most damaging.
"For me it's about making sure we keep the Manchester City identity of being possession-based, but it is first of all about scoring," said Jeglertz.
"In these last few games we have created a lot of goalscoring chances. That always has to be the priority.
"It's about finding the ways to maximise each player. That is my biggest philosophy. I hope and I think the players feel that.
"I still think we are in a process but it's important to win while you're in a process also."
We wanted more points at this point - Slegers
Arsenal were the talk of the town in the summer, fresh from winning the Women's Champions League for the second time in their history.
Renee Slegers had guided them safely through a tricky period as interim manager and was rewarded with the full-time role, delivering the biggest trophy months later.
An exciting transfer window saw them recruit squad depth and bring in the first £1m player in Olivia Smith.
So expectations for this season were extremely high.
But it has not gone to plan so far, with two draws and a defeat in their past three matches leaving them fifth in the table, trailing Chelsea by five points.
By contrast, Chelsea dropped just six points last season as they went unbeaten and won a domestic treble.
Arsenal ended last season 12 points adrift after another poor start in which one defeat in four matches led to former boss Jonas Eideval's departure.
This latest defeat by City is damaging.
"We are very disappointed with the result. We were disappointed with the United and Villa results [both draws] as well. We know the league is quite small," said Slegers.
"There are some really good teams in this league that make it hard for you. Anything that is within our control, we want to try to control.
"We always go for three points in these types of games. If you would [ask] before the season, we wanted more points at this point.
"But we know how much strength we have in this squad. When we are in pressured situations or we know we have to come back from things, we know we can."
Ben Haines, Ellen White and Jen Beattie are back for another season of the Women's Football Weekly podcast. New episodes drop every Tuesday on BBC Sounds, plus find interviews and extra content from the Women's Super League and beyond on the Women's Football Weekly feed
Category: General Sports
