Women’s Super League: talking points from the weekend’s action

Six-goal Arsenal find ruthless edge

There has been plenty of commentary around Arsenal’s lack of clinical finishing. Despite finding wins, they have looked unconvincing at times and before Sunday’s game, they had a shot to goal conversion rate of just 14%. In the second half against Leicester, however, they finally put those conversations to bed with a display of ruthless attacking football. Four goals in 12 minutes saw them turn around a two-goal deficit as they sliced through the defence with precision. Stina Blackstenius and Lina Hurtig netted two more to add to the Foxes’ woes. In an extra confidence boost, they had six different scorers, spreading the goals throughout the team. “When you see the players coming on and how involved they are in creating goalscoring opportunities, I really think that’s something that we can use during the season,” the Arsenal manager, Jonas Eidevall, said. “We have both starters and finishers in our forward setup, because we want to have a lot of energy when we’re playing and sometimes that needs fresh legs.” SD

Brighton break spell against City

Brighton caused a huge upset as they beat Manchester City 1-0 on Sunday, marking the first time they had beaten them in the league and the first time they had taken points off of them since September 2020. Lee Geum-min, who scored the winning goal in the 81st minute, said: “It’s the first time we have ever beaten City and that makes me really happy. It is special for me, for everyone, for our team, and for Brighton. It’s great for our supporters. It [the win] feels good. I feel really happy to get the three points and it feels great to score for this club.” SR

Aura of inevitability around Chelsea

How soon can you predict the destination of the WSL title? Not this soon, but Chelsea’s almost machine-like efficiency is certainly making a fifth successive tittle look more than plausible. Emma Hayes’ farewell tour began with a clinical 3-0 defeat of a disorganised Everton to move them three points clear of second-place Arsenal. Hayes said she was “just thankful this week is over and I don’t have to talk about me any more”, after the club announced her exit at the end of the season. For Brian Sørensen, it has been a far tougher week, with their defeat to Chelsea coming off the back of a 7-0 thumping by Manchester United in the Continental League Cup. The Dane said the side had to rest legs against United because they didn’t have the squad to compete on more than one front, and there were positive signs against Chelsea. “We needed to be level or be leading at the break,” said the manager, whose side matched Chelsea with five shots on target but had nothing to show for it. “We need to convert them. Against a team like Chelsea you are not getting 10 big chances or five half chances. We got today four big chances and we need to convert them to get a result.” SW

Spurs’ progress clear to see

Tottenham controlled things for large portions of their 1-1 draw at home to Liverpool, the only big frustration being a lack of goals to show for it. That said, this is a team rebuilding under an exciting manager, Robert Vilahamn, and it’s not all going to be smooth sailing. The north London side are also without their injured top scorer, Bethany England, and with her return to look forward to, the issue of not taking chances could be resolved fairly straightforwardly. As it stands, Spurs are only seven points away from their 18 points earned across the entirety of last season. The progress is evident in the numbers and when you watch them. Vilahamn agreed that a draw was a fair result at Brisbane Road, as the teams shared the spoils and stats, with 15 shots apiece and three on target apiece. SW

Match report: Tottenham 1-1 Liverpool

Skinner frustrated by second-half performance

A comfortable 5-0 victory pointed to a dominant Manchester United display against West Ham but Marc Skinner looked a frustrated figure at times on the sideline. His irritation was down to the dip in performance in the second half, perhaps stemming from complacency that allowed the visitors to find some confidence in the game. “It’s not a bad attitude,” he said. “It’s just that we took our foot off the gas a little bit and you let the other team in. The league is too good to do that now.” What will have satisfied the United manager was the energy with which his side started the game, taking the lead through Geyse within just three minutes, and the fact that there were five different names on the scoresheet, as well as the improving form of Ella Toone. “What pleased me most was the fluidity,” he stated. “When you play against us, we can attack in so many different ways … I love the flair. I want us to excite our fans.” SD

Ward steadies the ship

The Aston Villa manager, Carla Ward, was under a lot of pressure heading into their bottom-of-the-table clash against Bristol City on Sunday as the club had picked up zero points from their opening five fixtures. Another loss would have been extremely worrying but her team let some steam out of the pressure cooker by finally securing their first win. The 2-0 victory has lifted them off of the bottom of the table, albeit only by goal difference. Ward will have to now build on the win to get the Villa ship back on course but it is a step in the right direction for the manager, who dedicated the win to the fans. “If you’d said to me ‘if you lose the first five games, do you think the fans are going to have your back?’, I probably would have said ‘no’. They’ve stuck with us which has been unbelievable. It’s ‘thank you’ to them.” SR