Manchester United remain top of the Barclays Women’s Super League table after a comfortable 4-0 win over Brighton and Hove Albion as matchday four did not disappoint.
United sparkled into life early in the game, racing into a 2-0 lead courtesy of a quickfire Ella Toone brace and they added another before half-time through Leah Galton.
Any doubts that Brighton could mount a surprise comeback and prevent United from reaching their ninth consecutive home league victory were over, when Adriana Leon opened her United account with a classy finish after 78 minutes to finish proceedings.
The action began on Saturday when West Ham took points away from Aston Villa for the first time this season in a 2-1 win at Bescot Stadium. It was very much a tale of two halves as West Ham came firing out of the blocks through Dagny Brynjarsdottir’s header after two minutes before Honoka Hayashi made it 2-0 shortly after.
Alisha Lehmann missed a chance to reduce the deficit with a penalty after 73 minutes and it felt like it was not going to be Villa’s day, but Kenza Dali did get them onto the scoresheet four minutes later to set up a dramatic finish. Hawa Cissoko was sent off in stoppage time but Villa could not find an equaliser to the delight of the away side.
The weekend was finished at the Madjeski Stadium when Arsenal defeated Reading 1-0. Stina Blackstenius scored the only goal of the game after half an hour, and despite the Gunners racking up 20 shots, they could not add to their lead in the second half.
Chelsea kept pace with United and Arsenal at the top with a 3-1 win against Everton at Walton Hall Park. Pernille Harder headed in Guro Reiten’s cross shortly before half-time to give the Blues the lead, but Chelsea were made to work for the victory after Kadeisha Buchanan’s own goal eight minutes into the second half levelled the scores. But Harder’s penalty put them back into the lead and the game was sealed at the death through Niamh Charles.
Manchester City finally earned their first points of the season courtesy of a stunning second half performance in a 4-0 win against Leicester City.
Khadija Shaw put City in front midway through the first half as they dominated possession but struggled to find a second. That was until the 72 nd minute, when Lauren Hemp doubled the Cityzens lead and Shaw scoring the rebound from Alex Greenwood’s missed penalty to make it 3-0.
The rout was finished when Yui Hasegawa scored on debut to seal a first victory of the season. And in London, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Liverpool 1-0 courtesy of Niamh Fahey’s own goal after 11 minutes.
Both sides had plenty of chances, but were unable to make them count, registering just three shots on target each from 18 and 10 respectively.
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