Manchester City returned to the top of the WSL table following a statement 5-0 win over West Ham on Sunday. Gareth Taylor’s side were 2-0 up within the opening three minutes thanks to goals from Leila Ouahabi and Khadija Shaw, leaving the visitors stunned.
Shaw scored again before the half-hour mark to take City’s goal tally to three while also reaching a significant personal milestone. With her 24th-minute strike the forward scored her 50th WSL goal. Laura Blindkilde Brown made it four in the late stages before the in-form Jess Park capped off the performance with an impressive solo run and finish. “When you look at that result it’s a big one. It’s a good scoreline for us,” Taylor explained. “They hit the woodwork on a couple of occasions but overall I’m really pleased with the performance.”
The result means City now have a better goal difference than Chelsea – by three – and they lead their main rivals for the WSL by three points, although Emma Hayes’ side have a game in hand.
Manchester United’s hopes of Champions League qualification were ended after a 2-2 draw with Tottenham at Leigh Sports Village. They took an early lead through Melvine Malard but two goals in two minutes from Bethany England and Jessica Naz turned the match on its head. The visitors thought they had clinched a first ever win over United, but Maya Le Tissier broke into the box to score a scrappy equaliser with just seconds left to play. “The one thing you can never question about the group is their unwavering energy to try and get a result from a game where I thought we dominated,” the United manager, Marc Skinner, said. “There was nothing in the game for them barring two really bad mistakes from us, and that for us is something we will address internally, we will fix.”
Arsenal capitalised on Manchester United’s draw to secure the third and final Champions League spot with a convincing 3-0 win over Leicester City. Beth Mead scored twice and Alessia Russo netted her ninth goal of the season in front of over 42,000 fans at the Emirates Stadium to seal the crucial win. Frida Maanum returned to the pitch for the first time since collapsing in the Continental Cup final last month, while Vivianne Miedema also came off the bench to mark the end of her two-month injury layoff. “Relief is not the right word,” said the Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall. “We want to push and have as many points as possible. The way we see ourselves when we look in the mirror, we see a European club.”
