Emily Keogh and Sophie Lawson
Jan 20, 2025, 04:00 AM ET
The Women's Super League (WSL) has woken from its winter slumber and the big result was Manchester United's first league win (4-2) over their rivals amid a frantic 90 minutes that 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 five past West Ham. Tottenham picked up a useful three points with a 1-0 win over Leicester City, Aston Villa were denied a win vs. Everton when Veatriki Sarri's late equaliser cancelled out Rachel Daly's opener, and Liverpool wrapped up all three points against Brighton with a less-than-comfortable 2-1 win.
It was a shaky weekend for the top three in Liga F, with both Real Madrid and Atletico dropping points. Having taken the lead against Levante, Atleti were pegged back just before the hour and finished with a 1-1 draw, while Real Madrid suffered an unexpected 1-0 loss at home to Eibar. Leaders Barcelona managed to keep their 100% record going with a 2-0 win over Athletic Club, but it took until the 90th minute before Alexia Putellas finally found the breakthrough and Vicky López added a swift second.
In Serie A, Roma revitalised their title hopes with a 3-1 win over Juventus, but Emma Severini's penalty against Sassuolo was only enough to claim a point for Fiorentina. Finally, in France, Lyon got back to winning ways with a 2-0 win over PSG at the Parc des Princes in a less-than-memorable game.
Nightmare for Keating costs City
Manchester City goalkeeper Khiara Keating endured a tough evening at the Etihad as a couple of costly errors handed Manchester United a 4-2 victory, further denting City's fading WSL title hopes.
United forward Ella Toone will claim the plaudits for her hat trick, but City's goalkeeper was at fault for two of them: first when her short pass to Leila Ouahabi was cut out for Toone to make it 3-0, and then just seconds into the second half when her clearance was blocked by Elisabeth Terland, allowing Toone to race through and make it 4-2. Keating's frustration was palpable throughout the game as she roared in frustration, threw her arms in the air and sank to the ground -- needing to be consoled by her teammates multiple times.
This isn't the first time Keating has faced adversity. Last season, errors against Arsenal and a costly mistake in the FA Cup semifinal against Tottenham left her in tears. Yet, each time, she has shown remarkable resilience, regaining her spot as City's first-choice goalkeeper and earning a callup to the England squad.
Having initially used summer-signing Ayaka Yamashita as his No. 1, City manager Gareth Taylor expressed confidence in Keating's ability to recover. "She's proven before [she can bounce back] and she will do it again. We never push the blame in any one direction so I think she will be OK within a couple of days," he said. "We win, lose and draw together as a team. There is no individual blame. She will be feeling worse I imagine." -- EK
Chelsea, Arsenal net five each to start 2025
Chelsea and Arsenal continued their dominant recent form, scoring 10 goals between them and maintaining clean sheets as they kept up the pressure in the title race.
Arsenal, back at Meadow Park and hosting newly-promoted Crystal Palace, secured a commanding 5-0 victory. The match marked a milestone for Slegers, who was officially appointed as the club's permanent head coach after leading the team on an interim basis since October. Under her guidance, the Gunners ended 2024 on an 11-match unbeaten streak, and they've now carried that momentum into the second half of the season. Following City's loss, the north London club sit second with 24 points and 25 goals -- the second highest in the league so far.
WSL leaders Chelsea followed suit with a resounding 5-0 win of their own, cruising past West Ham and maintaining manager Sonia Bompastor's unbeaten record to become the first WSL team to ever avoid defeat for 11 games straight.
Goals from Catarina Macario, Erin Cuthbert, Aggie Beever-Jones, and Sandy Baltimore put the Hammers to the sword before Amber Tysiak inadvertently scored an own goal late on. The result marked Chelsea's joint-biggest away win since September and has their goal-total sitting at 36 now. Bompastor, who rested key players Guro Reiten and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, opted to rotate her squad ahead of the highly anticipated London derby against Arsenal next weekend and things are looking ominous for the rest of the league. -- EK
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Chelsea smash West Ham 5-0 in the WSL
Chelsea's relentless WSL run continued with a 5-0 win over West Ham to make it 10 wins in 11 games.
Eibar serve up a shock vs. Madrid
With a midweek Supercopa semifinal against Real Sociedad coming up, Real Madrid boss Alberto Toril opted to lightly shuffle his team for Saturday's Liga F tie against an Eibar side that had only managed three wins from their first 14 games of the season.
But something that would not have been on Toril's bingo card was 22-year-old Guatemala international Andrea Alvarez nipping the ball from Maëlle Lakar and firing into Mylène Chavas' unguarded net from 30 yards with less than half an hour on the clock.
Madrid have evolved this season, and the shape and form of the side 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 tell but, as the clock ticked, it was the Eibar who played with more structure and team ethic as everyone pitched in to help María Miralles keep her well-earned clean sheet. -- SL
QUICK HITS
EIGHT. Roma hand Juventus first loss. Even with a pair of draws denting their perfect record, Juventus were still easing through this Serie A season, or they were until their trip to the capital on Sunday. Roma are still looking a little off colour this term, but goals from Giulia Dragoni, Manuela Giugliano and Elena Linari showed more of the side which have streaked to the last two Italian titles. Juve, who have been routinely brought to their knees in the Champions League this season, will be hoping that the loss is just a blip. But for large swathes of the Roma game, they didn't 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 twinge of frustration for Aston Villa after the visitors let Everton back into their clash on Saturday evening, with three points there for the taking. But this 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 far more composed and balanced since taking charge on an interim basis four games ago.
SIX. Lyon pile the misery on PSG. That the Première Ligue title is now decided by way of a playoff at the end of the season does take a little something out of the all-too-familiar clashes between PSG and Lyon -- and Les Parisiennes would have to have a monumentally bad second half of the season not to finish in the top four/playoff places -- but everything is still just a little stilted for France's second-best team. Having been knocked out of the Coupe de France by minnows Fleury the previous weekend, Lyon were a long way from their imperious best but were as good as they needed to be. The loss saw PSG slip to third, behind Paris FC, and it seems their rivals are now the far superior side from the capital.
FIVE. Barcelona leave it late. Much like Real Madrid, Barcelona put out a weakened team against Athletic Club with one eye on their midweek Supercopa semifinal, and laboured all game for the breakthrough. Of course, just when it looked like the Basques would pull off a sensational draw, Putellas' 90th-minute strike denied the hosts a worthy point, with "Golden Girl" Lopez turning the screw with a superb effort four minutes into stoppage time. The main takeaway is that Barcelona got over the line, just like they did against Sevilla in September and Valencia in December, but it's certainly not the first time we've seen the team stutter under Pere Romeu this season.
FOUR. Fiorentina fully off the boil. Fiorentina started the season strongly but have seriously wobbled over the last two months, and another draw over the weekend saw La Viola extend their winless run to five. It would be easy enough to bemoan the absences of Agnese Bonfantini (suspended) and Vero Boquete (calf injury), but the team have been left looking flat and uninspired going forward, with a lack of depth exposing them.
THREE. Liverpool still slack in front of goal. Liverpool's win over Brighton might have put an end to a four-match losing run for Matt Beard's team, but there's still one sizable question mark over where the goals are coming from. Liverpool have the fourth-worst goals tally so far this season, and their winner came via an own-goal from Jorelyn Carabalí. Although the Reds can attack and have found joy getting Olivia Smith onto the ball -- the 20-year-old took her tally to three for the season after netting the opener on Saturday -- there is still a serious drought up top for the Reds that seems to suggest more than just shooting practice is needed.
TWO. Atleti lose further ground on the top two. Levante Badalona might be the forgotten team from Barcelona, but they are better than their 17 points from 15 games suggest and it's an ability to build momentum which is holding the independent side back. So, it shouldn't have come as such a surprise that Levante bagged a point when Atletico came to visit over the weekend, nor that they finished the game the stronger of the two sides, leaving their visitors with just one win in their last six league games. Atletico can have few excuses for the increasingly uninspired football they're playing under Victor Martín.
ONE. Spurs get a slice of luck. It's not been the best of seasons for Spurs so far and they were arguably a little lucky to pick up all three points against an injury-hit Leicester side over the weekend. The matchwinner came after just four minutes, to a Janina Leitzig own-goal, but Spurs managed just two shots and none on target over the 90 minutes. The wider question is why the pieces still haven't clicked into place for Robert Vilahamn's side this season, with no question about the individual quality available to the coach. However, halfway through the WSL season, the attack still doesn't work within itself, and the team are striking discordant notes with little sign they will find natural rhythm and harmony. -- SL
