Women’s Super League: talking points from the weekend’s action | OneFootball

Toone punishes City’s approach

The Manchester City head coach, Gareth Taylor, says his side will not change their style of passing the ball out from the back, despite conceding possession frequently while deploying that tactic in their very sloppy display in a 4-2 loss at home to neighbours Manchester United. Taylor lamented his team’s poor execution of such passes, saying: “The timing was wrong, our decision-making was wrong, the movement to receive was off, we were playing the passes too late or too soon. [But] as much as United were aggressive, I still think it was us playing into their hands and little bit, and we needed to be smarter.” Taylor said that, when his team did try to play long balls, Manchester United were “mopping it up” and so he insisted his team would not simply give up on their style, adding: “We are not going to become, certainly in my reign, a team that will smash the ball long and play long kind of percentage football.” TG

Will newfound depth change Everton season?

The lack of depth in Everton’s squad has been their story for the last 18 months. Hamstrung by financial constraints and a seemingly never-ending injury crisis, Brian Sørensen’s side have dug in and shown their resilience against the odds. New ownership has brought renewed hope for the club and they have been one of the most active in the transfer window. Sørensen was able to name nine substitutes on Saturday against Aston Villa and it was the bench that made the difference in the 1-1 draw. A passive first half from Everton saw the visitors dominate and capitalise with a Rachel Daly goal. But the introduction of forward Kelly Gago and then Louna Ribadeira changed the direction of the game. Gago, in particular, looks like an astute purchase. The French striker caused Villa all sorts of problems in the 35 minutes she was on the pitch. Another substitute Veatriki Sarri salvaged a point late on for the hosts, sweeping home to open her account for the season. SD

England trio impress on Slegers’ big day

Renée Slegers dominated the narrative following her appointment as Arsenal’s permanent manager but there was also good news for her compatriot Sarina Wiegman in Arsenal’s 5-0 win over Crystal Palace. Not only did the England captain, Leah Williamson, look back to her best, she also scored for the Gunners for the first time since March 2023. After her sixth-minute strike, came goals from England forwards Alessia Russo and Beth Mead, with the former also providing the assist for the latter. Since Slegers took over from Jonas Eidevall as interim manager, Russo has scored 11 goals in 12 games in all competitions. Before that, she had scored once, against Rangers in the first round of their Champions League qualifying campaign. With the countdown to the defence of the Lionesses’ European title well and truly under way, Wiegman might be Slegers’ biggest fan. SW

Goalkeepers take centre stage at Spurs

All eyes were on Lize Kop going into Sunday’s early kick-off. The Dutch goalkeeper was making her debut for Tottenham against her former team Leicester after her January transfer. What sort of insight could she share with her new teammates? Would her former teammates have it in for her? And how would she perform? We needn’t have worried about the answers to any of those questions as the game was ultimately decided by her opposite number, and in the fourth minute too. The Tottenham full-back Amanda Nildén played a neat one-two with Maite Oroz before sending in a cross-shot that bounced off the leg of the Leicester goalkeeper Janina Leitzig and into the net. The unfortunate own goal proved costly for Leicester who lost 1-0 despite dominating for most of the game. XA

The Chelsea machine motor on

Chelsea have been outdoing themselves all season. The five-time consecutive champions have the highest WSL points tally ever at this stage of a season. Sonia Bompastor’s side are making easy work of what was supposed to be a tricky transition period after the Emma Hayes era. They also made easy work of this weekend’s 5-0 London derby win over West Ham. The game played out like a competition to see who could score the worldiest worldie. Aggie Beever-Jones and Sandy Baltimore came close with a couple of fantastic strikes but Catarina Macario scored the pick of the bunch. Her cushioned volley put Chelsea seven points clear at the top of the table. It will be difficult to stop them now. XA

Smith takes centre stage

When Liverpool broke their club record fee last summer to bring in 20-year-old Olivia Smith, it was widely acknowledged that they had signed one of the most electric young players in the game. The Canadian has hit the ground running since. Her superb solo goal to give Liverpool the lead over Brighton in the 2-1 win illustrated a mixture of all her best attributes – pace, strength, vision and finishing. Having shrugged off the attentions of Guro Bergsvand, she could not have struck the ball much better, firing high past the helpless Sophie Baggaley. Unfortunately, she was forced off with a knock to her ribs and Matt Beard used his post-match to call for more protection or she “is probably going to get hurt”. SD

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