Arsenal and Manchester City enjoyed important away victories against Liverpool and Tottenham respectively to keep pace with the Women’s Super League leaders and defending champions Chelsea.
Vivianne Miedema, who sat out 312 days with an anterior cruciate ligament injury before making an October comeback, scored her first goal since December 2022 on the hour of Arsenal’s 2-0 victory at Prenton Park.
Leah Williamson returned from her own ACL recovery as a substitute in Arsenal’s midweek League Cup victory against Reading and was named in the Gunners squad by Jonas Eidevall – celebrating his 41st birthday and 100 games in charge – but did not play.
The January signing Emily Fox, who was named player of the match, was instrumental in the buildup to both goals, Arsenal’s second coming via a left-footed effort from Caitlin Foord as the Gunners became the first side in WSL history to reach 500 points. The result drew Arsenal level with City on 28 points, three behind the Blues.
City’s advantage on goal difference is largely because of the prolific efforts of Khadija Shaw, who scored her 13th of the league campaign in her side’s 2-0 victory at Tottenham.
City had won this fixture by a seven-goal margin in November and while Spurs proved sterner opposition this time the Jamaica star Shaw, still made her mark.
An own goal from the Tottenham defender Amy Turner put Gareth Taylor’s side in the ascendancy after nine minutes and Shaw wrapped up the points. Tottenham stay sixth after Robert Vilahamn saw his team’s four-match winning run end despite a solid display at Brisbane Road.
Nikita Parris’s double made the difference in Manchester United’s 2-1 victory against Aston Villa to ease the pressure on the head coach Marc Skinner, who had faced calls to leave from some fans.
United, cast adrift of the top three after losing three of their previous five league matches, remain 10 points behind the leaders but still in the mix of clubs vying for Champions League places.
after newsletter promotion
Both of Parris’s goals came in the first half as United earned only their second home league win of the season, with Rachel Daly pulling one back on the hour with a controversial penalty.
Defeat capped a difficult week for Villa, who are waiting to find out if they will be expelled from the League Cup after fielding the ineligible Noelle Maritz as a substitute during the 7-0 victory at Sunderland on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, Janice Cayman fired Leicester to a 1-0 victory against Everton, the second time the Foxes have defeated the Toffees in five days after the 5-1 League Cup win.
* This article was amended on 29 January to correct Khadija Shaw’s WSL goals total (13)