The Women’s Super League returned from the international break with a jampacked Sunday schedule — all six games kicked off between midday and 2.30pm.
The intensity of the fixture list was matched by that of the matches. Five of the six winning teams scored four or more goals, with Tottenham’s 2-1 home defeat of Everton the tightest contest on the day. There were also issues with the league’s YouTube broadcasts, with games shown without commentary and with erroneous substitution graphics, causing complaints online.
Arsenal and Manchester United winning 4-0 at home against Aston Villa and Liverpool respectively ensured they overtook Brighton, who fell to fifth after a 4-2 defeat at Chelsea. Manchester City looked in fine form with a 4-0 victory of their own, over visitors Leicester City. At the bottom, West Ham’s comeback from two goals down to win 5-2 against bottom club Crystal Palace pushed them up to eighth in a tight relegation battle.
Have Brighton shown a blueprint for stopping Chelsea?
Any critics of playing out from the back will have taken cruel pleasure from Sunday’s game at Kingsmeadow.
Chelsea and Brighton played out an entertaining match with a combined 49 shots, nine big chances missed, and six goals scored. It was leaders Chelsea who eventually came out on top to extend new head coach Sonia Bompastor’s winning streak to begin her reign to 13, overtaking predecessor Emma Hayes’ best-ever run, but they should have been punished by the visitors.
Both sides were repeatedly forced into errors by the other, generating huge chances. Chelsea’s first two goals came as Sjoeke Nusken and Aggie Beever-Jones nicked balls from Brighton players in the penalty area. Likewise, both Brighton’s came from turnovers of possession: Jelena Cankovic finished well from the edge of the area against her former club and Kiko Seike could only put away one of several opportunities she had in the game when goalkeeper Hannah Hampton passed the ball directly to her.
There is no doubt Brighton put Chelsea under far more pressure than any team they have played so far this season.
“We came here to try and win,” said head coach Dario Vidosic afterwards. “It would be the same every game, even if it’s a friendly. We want to win. We want to instil that mentality — that it doesn’t matter the badge we are playing against. We want to win games. We want to keep evolving what we’re doing and hopefully, the next time we come and play a great team like Chelsea, we can be even better and be talking here with three points.”
Counterpart Bompastor was not concerned about the issues her team encountered when playing out from the back.
”I prefer my team and my players to be confident enough and brave enough to try again, even if sometimes you can be in that position where you lose some balls. Sometimes it’s about making a better decision, sometimes executing more quickly, sometimes scanning better, sometimes a bad control or bad decision again,” Bompastor said. “Lots of small details that are really important at the high level. The best teams are the ones who make the least mistakes. But you will always have mistakes in the game and I want my players to be brave enough to try again.”
Brighton’s aggressive press certainly offered a blueprint for how to unsettle Chelsea, although what they gave up defensively could also be a warning.
It was clear Vidosic’s side had learned from their experience at the Emirates a month ago, where they lost 5-0 to Arsenal, and continued to commit to their game plan. It meant that even when Chelsea looked like they were putting yesterday’s game beyond Brighton, the visitors kept getting back in it.
The question is whether the reward is worth the risk given Brighton conceded so many chances and still finished the game like every team to have faced Chelsea this season; with zero points to show for it.
Manchester United shut out the noise
The noise around Manchester United is constant at this point and this weekend was no exception. An interview with Sir Jim Ratcliffe in the United We Stand fanzine, published on Saturday, emphasised the lesser priority given to the women’s team under new co-owner INEOS.
”There’s only so much that you can do and our focus has been on the men’s team. If not, you get spread too thinly. We need to sort out the main issue — the men’s team. The women’s team is an opportunity,” Ratcliffe said.
Plenty of club executives have paid lip service to women’s teams while doing little to change their material realities. Ratcliffe continues to go the extra mile by not even bothering to pretend he cares.
The sacking of sporting director Dan Ashworth after only five months will ostensibly represent a further blow given his much-vaunted experience in the women’s game.
Ashworth’s time at the Football Association, on top of stints with Brighton and Newcastle, were supposed to equip him with the ability to keep the United women’s side well-integrated with the club as a whole. Manager Marc Skinner had emphasised heavily in pre-season how regularly he was in touch with Ashworth.
Yet any behind-the-scenes drama was far from the minds of United’s players yesterday, as they pulled out their most impressive performance of the season to sweep Liverpool aside. Goals from Elisabeth Terland, Leah Galton, Dominique Janssen and Melvine Malard demonstrated an attacking impetus that had been lacking in recent weeks. It was an important win given their losses to Liverpool last season had been a catalyst for a disappointing fifth-placed finish, one position below the Merseysiders.
This result alone will not entirely allay concerns about the way United have approached some other games this season, but given all the drama behind the scenes, it is sometimes hard to know exactly how much it is fair to expect from this team.
Comeback eases West Ham’s relegation fears… for now
With West Ham two goals down within 11 minutes at home to fellow relegation candidates Crystal Palace, it was easy to feel concerned. But Rehanne Skinner’s side rallied to win 5-2 — a crucial boost in the race to avoid the drop.
Palace had gone ahead early on with goals from Mille Gejl and Indiah-Paige Riley, but a West Ham onslaught meant the game had been turned on its head by half-time as Viviane Asseyi, Seraina Piubel and Manuela Pavi put the home side in front. Late goals from Anouk Denton and Katrina Gorry made the result look very comfortable indeed.
There is no doubt the points will be gratefully received by West Ham, who have now managed to win three games out of four in all competitions. But with three points covering the WSL’s bottom five, there are more twists to come. Concerned looks should perhaps begin to be directed in Leicester’s direction after they were easily beaten at Manchester City and with Chelsea up next in their final match of the year.
West Ham have at least shown they can score goals, exceeding the goals totals their fellow bottom-five sides Everton (four) and Leicester (two) have managed in the nine games so far in just one match.
(Top photo: Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
