Women’s Super League: Matchday 9 round-up | OneFootball

The title race took a dramatic turn just before the WSL winter break as both Chelsea and Manchester City dropped points, while Arsenal and Man United closed the gap: everything you need to know about the Women’s Super League Matchday 9.

Winning streak ends [Leicester City 1-1 Chelsea]

Chelsea’s perfect start to the season finally came to an end with the Blues dropping points for the first time under Sonia Bompastor. It was an uncharacteristic performance from the league’s best attacking team, but credit goes to Amandine Miquel’s side who showed incredible resilience to earn a draw. Bompastor said: ‘I’m frustrated because we have talent in the team, but we didn’t show that in the first half. The players need to realise this is a competitive league and if you don’t show up from the start, you don’t get good results.” Despite the draw, the Blues somehow managed to extend their lead at the top of the table to six points.

Toffees upset City [Everton 2-1 Manchester City]

Manchester City had a golden opportunity to reduce the gap at the top of the table to three points with a win, but crumbled under pressure. Everton deservedly beat an injury-ravaged City side that was without Bunny Shaw, Lauren Hemp, and Alex Greenwood among others. This loss means that City are now six points behind the league leaders going into the winter break. Manager Gareth Taylor said: “We’ll dust ourselves down. This team has done really well considering the amount of key players we’ve had missing throughout the season. There’s a lot of good work that’s gone in, and we’ll bounce back.”

Six wins in a row for Slegers [Liverpool 0-1 Arsenal]

Arsenal continued their unbeaten run under interim manager Renee Slegers with an important win over Liverpool. The Gunners capitalised on both Chelsea and Manchester City dropping points, and find themselves back in the title race heading into the winter break. Slegers said: “Obviously, I saw the Chelsea and City results as well. I’m happy we are getting closer, but there’s still no control from our side on what they do. We need to keep on looking at ourselves and keep on improving.”

Clinton shines in victory [Crystal Palace 0-1 Manchester United]

Manchester United squeezed out a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace to put them level on points with Arsenal in third place. The Red Devils are now just one point behind local rivals Manchester City in second place and will be looking to pull ahead of them in the table when the two sides face off on the other side of the winter break. Grace Clinton scored the winning goal, her fourth of the campaign, matching her goal tally from the whole of last season.

New manager bounce [Aston Villa 3-1 West Ham]

Aston Villa bounced back from consecutive league defeats to earn all three points against West Ham, just days after sacking their manager Robert De Pauw. Interim manager Shaun Goater said: “I was very pleased because I wanted to bring calmness and we had composure for the majority of the game. It’s a huge boost and the players will be looking and knowing that they are scoring goals again.”

Brighton and Spurs share the points [Brighton 1-1 Spurs]

The fifth and sixth placed teams in the WSL played out a 1-1 draw with both teams scoring late on. It took 75 minutes to score the opening goal, with Bethany England breaking the deadlock. However, Spurs’ joy was short-lived as the Seagulls equalised just seven minutes later through Marisa Olislagers. Six points separate the two sides heading into the winter break.