The Women’s Super League (WSL) awoke from its winter slumber and the big result was Manchester United’s first league victory (4-2) against their rivals in a frantic 90 minutes which saw six goals, including a hat trick for Ella Toone. Elsewhere, Arsenal claimed their first win of Renee Slegers’ era as permanent manager in a 5-0 dismantling of Crystal Palace, while Chelsea also beat West Ham five times. Tottenham picked up a useful three points with a 1-0 win over Leicester City, Aston Villa were denied a victory over Everton when Veatriki Sarri’s late equalizer canceled out Rachel Daly’s opener, and Liverpool completed all three points against Brighton with a score of less- more than comfortable 2-1 victory.
It was an eventful weekend for the top three in Liga F, with Real Madrid and Atletico dropping points. After taking the lead against Levante, Atleti were relegated just before the hour mark and finished in a 1-1 draw, while Real Madrid suffered an unexpected 1-0 defeat at home to Eibar. Leaders Barcelona managed to maintain their 100% record with a 2-0 victory over Athletic Club, but it took until the 90th minute before Alexia Putellas finally found the breakthrough and Vicky López added a quick second.
In Serie A, Roma revitalized their title hopes with a 3-1 victory over Juventus, but Emma Severini’s penalty against Sassuolo was only enough to claim a point for Fiorentina. Finally, in France, Lyon returned to victory with a 2-0 victory against PSG at the Parc des Princes in a match far from memorable.
Keating nightmare costs City
Manchester City goalkeeper Khiara Keating endured a difficult evening at the Etihad as some costly errors handed Manchester United a 4-2 victory, further denting City’s WSL title hopes.
United striker Ella Toone will receive the plaudits for her hat-trick, but the City goalkeeper was at fault for two of them: first when her short pass to Leila Ouahabi was cut out for Toone to make the score at 3-0, then just a few seconds after the start of the match. second half when her clearance was blocked by Elisabeth Terland, allowing Toone to force her way through and make it 4-2. Keating’s frustration was palpable throughout the match as she roared in frustration, threw her arms in the air and fell to the ground – needing to be consoled by her teammates on several occasions.
This isn’t the first time Keating has faced adversity. Last season, errors against Arsenal and a costly mistake in the FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham left her in tears. Yet each time she showed remarkable resilience, regaining her place as City’s first-choice goalkeeper and earning a call-up to the England squad.
After initially using summer signing Ayaka Yamashita as his number 1, City manager Gareth Taylor expressed confidence in Keating’s ability to recover. “She has already proven herself (she can bounce back) and she will do it again. We never put the blame in one direction, so I think she will be better in a few days,” he said . “We win, lose and draw as a team. There’s no individual blame. She’ll feel worse, I imagine.” –EK
Chelsea and Arsenal score five each to start 2025
Chelsea and Arsenal continued their dominant recent form, scoring 10 goals between them and keeping clean sheets while keeping the pressure on in the title race.
Arsenal, returning to Meadow Park and hosting newly promoted Crystal Palace, claimed a thumping 5-0 victory. The match marked a milestone for Slegers, who was officially named the club’s permanent head coach after leading the team on an interim basis since October. Under his leadership, the Gunners finished 2024 on an 11-match unbeaten streak, and they have now carried that momentum into the second half of the season. Following City’s defeat, the north London club sit in second place with 24 points and 25 goals – the second highest tally in the league so far.
WSL leaders Chelsea followed suit with a resounding 5-0 victory, overtaking West Ham and maintaining manager Sonia Bompastor’s unbeaten record to become the first WSL team to avoid defeat for 11 matches consecutive.
Goals from Catarina Macario, Erin Cuthbert, Aggie Beever-Jones and Sandy Baltimore put the Hammers to the sword before Amber Tysiak inadvertently scored a late own goal. The result marks Chelsea’s biggest away win since September and now takes their goal tally to 36. Bompastor, who rested key players Guro Reiten and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, opted to rotate his team ahead the highly anticipated London derby against Arsenal next weekend and things are looking ominous for the rest of the league. –EK
Eibar surprises Madrid
With a midweek Super Cup semi-final against Real Sociedad looming, Real Madrid boss Alberto Toril has opted to mix up his squad slightly for Saturday’s Liga F match against a team of Eibar who had only won three victories in their first 14 games of the season.
But what wouldn’t have been on Toril’s bingo card was 22-year-old Guatemalan international Andrea Alvarez who caught the ball from Maëlle Lakar and fired into Mylène Chavas’s unguarded net from 30 yards with less than half an hour on the clock.
Madrid have evolved this season, and the team’s form shows a progression of ideas, but their talented attackers often struggle to gel. Against Eibar, it was a familiar story as Madrid tried to get into adventurous positions and let individual quality speak for themselves, but, as time went on, it was Eibar who played with more structure and ethics team as everyone pitched in to help María Miralles keep her healthy. -a deserved clean sheet. –SL
QUICK SHOTS
EIGHT. Roma inflicts the first defeat on Juventus. Even with two draws denting their perfect record, Juventus was still enjoying a smooth ride during this Serie A season, at least until their trip to the capital on Sunday. Roma still look a little off-color this season, but goals from Giulia Dragoni, Manuela Giugliano and Elena Linari showed more of the team that won the last two Italian titles. Juve, who are regularly brought to their knees in the Champions League this season, hope the defeat will be just an incident. But for much of the match against Roma they did not look like a team marching towards an inevitable title and the gap to second-placed Inter is now just four points.
SEVEN. Slow progress in the Midlands. There will be more than a pang of frustration for Aston Villa after the visitors allowed Everton back into their Saturday night clash with three points to take. But that 1-1 draw aside, things are looking considerably better for Villa, and they are yet to taste defeat under Shaun Goater, who has the team looking much more composed and balanced since she took charge four games ago.
SIX. Lyon puts misery on PSG. The fact that the Premier League title is now decided by play-offs at the end of the season takes a little something away from the all-too-familiar clashes between PSG and Lyon – and the Parisiennes should experience a monumentally bad second. half of the season to not finish in the top 4/playoffs – but everything is still a bit stilted for the second best team in France. Having been knocked out of the Coupe de France by minnows Fleury the previous weekend, Lyon were far from their best but were as good as they needed to be. The defeat saw PSG slip to third place, behind Paris FC, and it appears their rivals are now the far superior side from the capital.
FIVE. Barcelona leaves late. Much like Real Madrid, Barcelona presented a weakened team against Athletic Club with an eye on their midweek Super Cup semi-final and worked all game to break through. Of course, just when the Basques looked set to achieve a sensational draw, Putellas’ 90th-minute goal denied the hosts a worthy point, with ‘Golden Girl’ Lopez turning the screw with a superb effort four minutes after the start of added time. The main takeaway is that Barcelona got over the line, just like they did against Sevilla in September and Valencia in December, but this is certainly not the first time we’ve seen the team stutter under Pere Romeu this season.
FOUR. Fiorentina is completely out of action. Fiorentina started the season strong but have seriously faltered over the last two months, and another draw this weekend saw The viola extend their winless streak to five. It would be easy enough to lament the absences of Agnese Bonfantini (suspended) and Vero Boquete (calf injury), but the team has remained flat and uninspired going forward, with a lack of depth exposing them.
THREE. Liverpool are still behind in front of goal. Liverpool’s victory over Brighton might have ended a four-game losing run for Matt Beard’s side, but there still remains a significant question mark over where the goals came from. Liverpool have the fourth-worst goal tally so far this season, and their winner came thanks to a Jorelyn Carabalí own goal. Although the Reds can attack and have found joy in putting Olivia Smith on the ball (the 20-year-old took her tally to three this season after scoring the opener on Saturday), there is still a serious drought for the Reds. this seems to suggest that it is not enough to practice shooting.
TWO. Atleti is still losing ground on the first two. Levante Badalona may be Barcelona’s forgotten team, but they are better than their 17 points from 15 games suggest and it’s an ability to build momentum that is holding the independent team back. So it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise that Levante picked up a point when Atletico visited this weekend, nor that they finished the match as the stronger of the two teams, leaving their visitors with just one win in their last six games. championship matches. Atletico have few excuses for the increasingly uninspired football they play under Victor Martín.
A. The Spurs have some luck. It hasn’t been the best of seasons for Spurs so far and they were arguably a bit lucky to pick up all three points against an injury-hit Leicester side this weekend. The match winner came after just four minutes, via an own goal from Janina Leitzig, but Spurs managed just two shots and none on target over the 90 minutes. The wider question is why the pieces still haven’t fallen into place for Robert Vilahamn’s side this season, with no doubt about the individual quality the manager has at his disposal. However, midway through the WSL season, the offense is still not working on its own and the team is hitting discordant notes with few signs that they will find a natural rhythm and harmony. –SL
