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

Five goals, five different goalscorers and a clean sheet – Arsenal’s performance against Brighton felt like it was a long time coming. So often this season they have created chances but not been clinical. On Friday night, however, they were in the mood, producing a high-intensity first half that left Brighton shell-shocked. Beth Mead and Emily Fox combined brilliantly down the right, Katie McCabe and Caitlin Foord equally so down the left to exploit the weakness of the visitors’ full-backs and fallible defensive structure. A trademark Mead goal reminded fans of more fruitful times, a spectacular finish from Frida Maanum the same. The special moment of the night, however, belonged to Lina Hurtig. Her 76th-minute header was her first goal in 362 days, a perfect return after the Sweden winger had spent the best part of the last year on the sidelines. SD

The Manchester City winger Lauren Hemp made another strong case for being the best winger in the WSL by providing a hat-trick of assists in their 4-0 victory at home to Tottenham. The Jamaica striker Khadija Shaw grabbed the headlines with her three goals but it was Hemp’s own, different kind of treble that took her up to a division-leading five assists from seven games. Hemp was tried on both flanks by the Manchester City head coach, Gareth Taylor, who said: “Lauren has been top. She had a lot of joy playing against their right-back over on the other side. Against [Ashleigh] Neville [who is right-footed] it was quite a challenge for her, cutting on the inside, but that allowed [Kerstin] Casparij to get a little bit further forward. I’m a big fan of Lauren’s. She’s such a big player for this team, in a very good team and her relationship with Jill [Roord] on the left side and Leila [Ouahabi] and obviously Bunny [Shaw] has been really good.” TG

Robert de Pauw was a frustrated figure following Aston Villa’s 0-0 draw with Manchester United and said he is sick of seeing his team drop points. Villa enjoyed more possession and had more shots than United at Leigh Sports Village but failed to make the most of them. The result leaves them 11th in the WSL table, level with Everton. Although De Pauw was pleased with his team’s performance he is still longing for that first WSL victory. “I am a little bit sick of good performances without the three points,” the Villa manager said. “That frustrates me still. But I am proud of the way the girls played, they showed fire and determination from the beginning.” EH

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The England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton may have kept a fourth clean sheet in six WSL starts this season with Chelsea’s 3-0 win at Liverpool but the Blues manager, Sonia Bompastor, insists that both Hampton and Zecira Musovic are “No 1s” in her team. The Sweden keeper has been favoured for both of Chelsea’s Women’s Champions League matches so far this term and therefore looks set to start away at Celtic on Wednesday, but Bompastor says: “It was not on purpose to do that, to give one competition to one keeper and the other competition to another one. It’s just like making sure both of them get games, because they deserve it. I have the chance to have two really good goalkeepers. For me, they are both No 1s. I told them that. They know. Performance is obviously really important for them. There is a very good competition between them.” TG

West Ham were dominant in their 1-0 defeat of Leicester City, their first win of the season. Viviane Asseyi, who collected Manuela Pavi’s perfectly weighted through-ball before rounding the keeper and slotting in, said: “The last game we also dominated and we didn’t have a victory at the end. Today’s good because the work finally paid off and we have to keep going because it’s just the beginning.” The win has come at a critical time for the Hammers, with Brighton up next followed by fellow relegation battlers Crystal Palace and Aston Villa before the winter break. Three points were enough to put Rehanne Skinner’s side up to ninth but it will also fill them with confidence heading into games where they have a realistic chance of hauling themselves further away from the relegation zone. SW

Laura Kaminski said her Crystal Palace side are not quite on par with their WSL rivals after dropping points against Everton. Palace took the lead just 29 seconds into Sunday’s match through Indiah-Paige Riley but failed to make the most of their chances for the rest of the game. Honoka Hayashi went on to equalise for Everton with about 20 minutes left. After the match, Kaminski argued that her team’s lack of top-tier experience is the main reason they have struggled to rack up points. “Maybe we’re not quite there yet,” the Crystal Palace manager said. “We’re seven games into the WSL and I’m asking the players to bury chances like we’ve been here seven years!” EH

Source: theguardian.com