Women’s Super League: Matchday 2 round-up | OneFootball

Seventh heaven for the Champions, while Man City and Arsenal get their first wins on the board.

Crystal Palace 0-7 Chelsea

Seven goals from six goalscorers was enough to spoil the party at Selhurst Park on Friday night, as Chelsea showed their ruthlessness in front of goal.

Palace’s first home match in the WSL was a big moment, although as Laura Kaminski said post-match, “these aren’t occasions, they are opportunities for points” – but unfortunately no points for the Eagles on this occasion.

Chelsea’s narrow win over Villa last weekend left question marks regarding whether they would be the powerhouse they were last season, but in the second half of this match, they took control of the match and worked their blue magic.

Goals from Aggie Beever-Jones, Lucy Bronze, Lauren James, Nathalie Bjorn, Catarina Macario and two from Guro Reiten mean Chelsea sit top of the table with a +8 goal difference after just two games – and we saw last season just how crucial goal difference might be.

Palace have had a competitive first half in both their games but have struggled after the break, with nine of their eleven goals conceded coming in the final 45 minutes, something Kaminski has recognised needs improving.

Kaminski said: “If you gave the ball away in the Championship, you wouldn’t be punished so harshly, but we are learning hard lessons at this level.”

Man City 1-0 Brighton

Last season’s golden boot winner Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw got her goalscoring campaign off the mark as City beat Brighton at the Joie Stadium, in what captain Alex Greenwood described as an “ugly win.”

The deadlock was broken on the stroke of halftime, and despite creating 21 chances over the course of the match, City were wasteful and failed to score again.

A big boost to City will be the return of midfielder Jill Roord, who has been sidelined with an ACL injury since January after making a great start to last season, and came on to huge applause for the last 10 minutes.

City will be delighted to have kept the pressure on Chelsea, but they’ll know they need to be more clinical going forward to compete with a team who netted seven on the same weekend.

Brighton might feel they could have got something from the game, but will take encouragement from a narrow defeat against a team who scored so freely last season.

Gareth Taylor said: “Brighton are a very well coached team. You can see Dario [Vidosic] has brought in some new ideas and they’re going to surprise a lot of teams this season because they can cause a lot of problems.”

Leicester 0-1 Arsenal

Arsenal got their first win of the season under their belt, following a relentless week which saw them draw with Man City and beat Hacken to qualify for the Champions League group stages.

Despite not being at their best, the win will have been more than enough for the Gunners on this occasion.

Jonas Eidevall said: “This is exactly one of these games, when you sum up the whole season, where you need to take three points, without playing brilliant football, but you need to find ways to win.”

Meanwhile, Leicester showed positive signs in defence and Amandine Miquel is remaining positive.

Miquel said: “No, I’m not disappointed. It’s game two – if you start being disappointed now, it’s going to be a long season!”

Everton 0-1 Man United

Former Toffee Grace Clinton’s fourth-minute goal proved decisive, as she made it two goals from two games, and continued her good form from last season.

United join Chelsea as the only other team on maximum points after two games, a dream start for Marc Skinner’s season.

Phallon Tullis-Joyce continued to impress in goal as Mary Earps’ replacement, as Brian Sorensen’s side remained without a win against United in 11 WSL meetings.

Everton join Crystal Palace as the only teams without a point after two games.

Aston Villa 2-2 Spurs

Spurs salvaged a point at Villa Park through Bethany England’s stoppage time header, as they remain unbeaten after two games.

Villa dominated the match, with 19 shots to Spurs’ four, and when Rachel Daly made it 2-1 in the 88th minute, they might have thought they had done enough.

Despite promising signs from Villa’s opening two games, they only have one point to show for it and Robert de Pauw will be hoping to start reaping rewards of their periods of good play.

West Ham 1-1 Liverpool

Liverpool’s record signing Olivia Smith gave Liverpool the lead, before Riko Ueki’s late header gave the Hammers their first point of the campaign.

The Reds spent £212,000 to sign Canadian international Smith from Sporting CP in the summer, and her first half finish showed exactly why they brought her in, as she used her left foot to curl the ball into the far corner.

After drawing with Leicester on the opening day, Matt Beard was once again frustrated at full-time.

Beard said: “We’ve got ourselves to blame. We had chances again to win the game and we’ve not taken them, same as last week. All the time it’s one nil, the opposition have the opportunity to get back into the game.”

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