Emma Hayes’ Chelsea side remain top of the Women’s Super League table after a thrilling Sunday of fixtures.
Manchester United 4-0 Brighton
Leah Galton shone as Manchester United returned to winning ways after last week’s loss against Chelsea.
Galton scored twice and set up Lauren James for her goal. United looked comfortable throughout the game.
Katie Zelem scored United’s fourth from the spot as she continues her outstanding penalty-taking record.
Brighton were let off by the fact that all four teams below them in the league also lost this weekend, they are still four points above the relegation zone.
The Seagulls will look to get back on track on Friday when they face Reading.
Bristol City 0-5 Manchester City
Despite the amount of class that Manchester City has in their team, this scoreline flatters them.
Three of City’s five goals came in the last 10 minutes and Bristol were resolute and organised throughout.
In the week that saw Abi Harrison go down with a ruptured ACL, Bristol City showed that they are a very capable football team despite not scoring against City.
They have heart and it was on show in droves against Nick Cushing’s side. That being said, City just had too much quality for the Vixens.
Tessa Wullaert opened the scoring just after the 20-minute mark. Bristol stayed in the game for near enough the next hour.
Up until Ellen White found herself with a little bit of space. A little bit of space is too much to give White as she smashed the ball home past Sophie Baggaley.
Pauline Bremer then got herself an eight-minute brace with a Caroline Weir goal sandwiched between.
City are keeping pace with Chelsea, just a point behind the league leaders.
Everton 3-1 Spurs
Everton captain Lucy Graham built on the game-winning goal she scored last weekend in the Merseyside derby with an incredible strike to put this game beyond doubt.
Her effort was pure and powerful – forcing the ball to sail past Becky Spencer.
Her goal came after Molly Pike scored her second goal in as many games. Spurs undid themselves after Lucy Quinn’s equaliser. Anna Filbey being adjudged to turn the ball into her own net.
Spurs find themselves dropping into the bottom half of the table with this loss. They now sit seventh, one point behind Reading.
Arsenal 1-0 Liverpool
Arsenal are also keeping pace with league-leaders Chelsea after a professional 1-0 win over Liverpool.
The only goal of the game came from Vivianne Miedema. The Dutch maestro found the back of the net after taking two Liverpool defenders out of the game with a world-class touch.
Miedema followed up with a lovely finish down to Anke Preuss’ right, just out of reach of the German goalkeeper.
Sophie Bradley-Auckland hit the post for Liverpool early on but that is the only time Liverpool threatened to score.
Arsenal saw out the rest of the game without much drama and condemned Liverpool to their sixth league loss of the season.
Birmingham 0-6 Chelsea
Chelsea remain top of the Women’s Super League with a thumping win against Birmingham.
The home side fought well in the first half after Ji So-yun opened the scoring after just one minute with a peach of a free-kick.
Marta Tejedor’s side were broken down again by Chelsea with eight minutes left of the first half. Millie Bright broke away from defence and finished off the move that she started herself.
Birmingham couldn’t even hold on until half-time either. Chelsea scored their third in stoppage time as Beth England netted her first of two goals.
Drew Spence made it 4-0 three minutes into the second half and doubled her tally less than five minutes later.
England completed the scoring with her second goal, just 10 minutes after Spence scored the fifth.
Despite an outstanding scoreline and a result that keeps the Blues atop of the table, Emma Hayes wasn’t fully sold on Chelsea’s performance.
“I wasn’t happy with the performance,” Hayes said in a post-match interview. “After the first goal I thought we were too passive. We didn’t do enough defensively.
“Good goals, but overall I think we’re going to have to improve on that performance if we’re going to get anything next weekend [against Everton].”
Despite the result, Lily Simkin had a phenomenal game for Birmingham at right-back. She was by far their best player and looked streets ahead of a side that had just lost 6-0.
Birmingham are struggling this season and will look to try and kick on and avoid a relegation battle.
West Ham 2-3 Reading
This game had everything.
West Ham took the lead four minutes in with Katharina Baunach’s lovely curling effort from an indirect free-kick in the Reading area.
Kenza Dali laid the ball off for Baunach and she swung the ball in with her left foot.
It looked like it was going from bad to worse for the Royals. Rachel Rowe shoved both Kenza Dali and Cecilie Redisch Kvamme and was given a straight red card.
West Ham then put another past Reading, with Leanne Kiernan scoring the second for the Hammers.
When Reading looked down and out, the team came roaring back.
Within a minute of each other, both Kristine Liene and Brooke Chaplen scored a goal each to level the scoring.
Then with less than 10 minutes to go, Jade Moore scored to secure all three points for the 10-women of Reading. Heartache for West Ham but a huge win for the visitors.
