It was a busy weekend of action in the Women’s Super League, with plenty of goals on Saturday.
Brighton upset the chances to beat Man City 1-0, with the Cityzens now winless in their last two WSL matches, with Lee Geum-min scoring for the Seagulls.
Arsenal remained top of the table, with the Gunners beating Leicester 6-2, while Emma Hayes’ side, who were three points behind them, claimed a resounding 3-0 win against Everton away from home.
Tottenham and Liverpool also went head-to-head in a huge encounter, with Celin Bizet Ildhusoy and Sophie Haug both scoring for their respective sides to halve the points at 1-1, as Man United defeated West Ham 5-0.
Here, Mail Sport looks at five key talking points from this weekend’s action.
Manchester City failed to capitalize on their chances on Saturday afternoon as they were defeated 1-0 by Brighton
City currently sit sixth in the WSL standings, but are just one point away from a top-four finish
Lee Geum-Min scored for Brighton in the 91st minute to seal the win
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Same old story for the wasteful city
Manchester City’s biggest problem last season was failing to convert their chances, and the same problem haunted them again against Brighton.
Despite 35 shots in 90 minutes, Gareth Taylor’s side could not find the back of the net.
City missed a number of clear opportunities and were made to pay when former player Lee Geum-min scored the only goal of the match for the visitors. “We were off the pace,” Taylor admitted.
‘It’s up to us, we should have scored a lot of goals, but it just didn’t happen. We showed some effort towards the end, but then we started to take our chances.”
It has not been an easy week for Taylor, who found himself in the spotlight after accusing Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall of bullying the fourth official during City’s 2-1 defeat last weekend.
Eidevall said Taylor’s comments bordered on “slander” and called on him to apologize.
Aggie is a great sub!
Aggie Beever-Jones could perhaps show Manchester City’s attackers where they are going wrong.
The young Chelsea forward has only played 68 minutes of football this season and has not yet started a game, but has already scored three goals to her name.
Emma Hayes has opted not to loan the forward out after previous spells at Bristol City and Everton and it is a decision that appears to be paying off.
Beever-Jones scored the third in Chelsea’s 3-0 win over the Toffees with a brilliant strike into the top left corner.
Sam Kerr will always lead the way in the big games when she is fit, but the 20-year-old is certainly proving she can be a capable substitute and provide the Australian with some much-needed rest later in the season.
With Sarina Wiegman’s England team struggling with goals of late, a first senior call-up for Beever-Jones may not be far away.
Elsewhere, Aggie Beever-Jones shows she can be a more than capable replacement for Sam Kerr
She scored in Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Everton and should certainly be in contention for an England call-up soon
Celin Bizet scored for Tottenham in the 1-1 draw against Liverpool, following in the footsteps of her fiancé, Aron Donnum
Couple of goals
Tottenham striker Celin Bizet followed in the footsteps of her fiancé Aron Donnum by scoring against Liverpool.
Bizet put Spurs ahead with an impressive solo run and goal, three days after Donnum scored for Toulouse in their 3-2 Europa League win against the Reds.
Tottenham boss Robert Vilahamn was full of praise for Bizet after the match. “Very impressed, she was unhappy at the last performance when I took her away so we had a little chat about that but she needed to develop and she did that all week.
She took that ball and had a good finish (today). That’s exactly how I want her to work, so overall she was brilliant for 90 minutes and was a threat the entire time.
Good game – great goal.” However, unlike Donnum’s side, Spurs were unable to maintain their lead as Bizet’s Norwegian compatriot Sophie Roman Haug equalized for Liverpool in the second half.
Skinner wants more after 5-0 win
Manchester United may have scored five times against West Ham, but Marc Skinner still demanded more from his side at full-time.
Despite having five different goalscorers – Geyse, Millie Turner, Nikita Parris, Lucia Garcia and Melvine Malard – Skinner thought his players were taking it easy after leading 3-0 at half-time.
“I’m happy with the result, the goals and the clean sheet, but I want to be consistent in the message I give to the media and the start of the second half wasn’t good enough,” Skinner said.
‘We were sloppy, we had become too comfortable after the first half and I thought the first half was excellent.
The best thing about our group is that I said this at the end of the meeting and they said, “Yes, we agree.”
We want the highest possible standards at Manchester United for 90 minutes.” United have now scored 12 goals in two games after beating Everton 7-0 in the League Cup last week.
Jonas Eidevall’s half-time team talk inspired Arsenal to turn a two-goal deficit into a 6–2 win
Alessia Russo scored to help her side bounce back against Leicester and extend their winning streak to five consecutive games
Jonas’ words of wonder
Jonas Eidevall had to give his Arsenal side an ’emotional’ half-time team talk, but even he could not have expected his players to turn their fortunes around as dramatically as they did.
The Gunners trailed Leicester 2-0 at half-time after two goals in two minutes from Sam Tierney and Janice Cayman
But Eidevall’s team came out fighting in the second half. Chloe Lacasse halved the deficit before Alessia Russo equalized three minutes later.
Two more quick-fire goals from Caitlin Foord and Victoria Pelova turned the match on its head, before further strikes from Stina Blackstenius and Lina Hurtig took Arsenal’s total to six.
“I’ll need a few days to get over that, I think,” admitted Leicester boss Willie Kirk. “What a lesson it is to show us how good we can be, and what can happen to you if you’re even two feet away.”