Teagan Micah has kept a clean sheet on her Women's Super League debut, making a series of key saves as Liverpool beat Brighton 4-0.
Sam Kerr scored for leaders Chelsea but so did Leicester's Courtney Nevin, in her own goal after an unfortunate rebound, in a mixed afternoon at Kingsmeadow for the Australian teammates as Kerr's reigning champions won 5-2.
Caitlin Foord, Kyra Cooney-Cross and Steph Catley all started for Arsenal as they beat West Ham 3-0 to remain second, three points behind Chelsea. England's Beth Mead scored twice, her first league goals since returning from the ACL injury that kept her out of the World Cup finals.
Alanna Kennedy's Manchester City had a day out as they smashed Tottenham 7-0, with the defender on deck throughout and fellow Matildas star Mary Fowler coming on as a sub as Jamaica's Khadiha Shaw and England's Laura Coombs bagged hat-tricks. They remain third, six points adrift of Chelsea.
Manchester United won 2-0 at Bristol City with World Cup top-scorer Hinata Miyazawa on target. Australia's Clare Wheeler played for Everton in a 2-1 win over Aston Villa.
Matildas goalkeeper Micah, who has been waiting for her first WSL start since joining from Swedish club Rosengard in July, produced three important saves before the match against Charlize Rule's Brighton was 10 minutes old.
First she pushed aside a deflected Pauline Bremer shot, then beat away Maisie Symonds' inswinging corner under pressure and tipped over a dangerous cross-shot from Brighton's leading scorer Elisabeth Terland.
Micah was beaten in the 13th minute as Terland glanced another Symonds corner goalwards, but Gemma Bonner cleared the ball off the line.
Liverpool went on to dominate with Dutch forward Shanice van de Sanden scoring to celebrate becoming a mother - her partner gave birth to a girl on Tuesday.