Key events
GOAL! Chelsea 2-0 Leicester (James ‘5)
Not five minutes have passed at Kingsmeadow and Leicester have now kicked off three times. Lauren James is up to her usual tricks again. The goals are flowing for Chelsea already and this could get ugly for Leicester if they’re not careful.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 West Ham (Maanum ‘2)
Frida Maanum has done something similar for Arsenal! An early goal for them in this London derby.
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Leicester (James ‘1)
I’ve got the Manchester United and Chelsea games on my screen. But I’ll flick across to the others when I can.
Lauren James has wasted no time in putting Chelsea ahead inside the first minute at Kingsmeadow. A delightful finish after a razor-sharp attack from the Blues.
KICK OFF
We’re under way in the 2pm fixtures. At Ashton Gate, Nikita Parris has been catapulted into the post, trying to score. Worse luck, she’s hurt herself and the goal won’t even stand.
Approaching kick-off time in the 2pm games. What price an Chelsea-Arsenal-Liverpool treble?
Bristol City 0-2 Manchester United. It’s a quickfire double for United at Ashton Gate after they’d been held for 50 minutes by their diffident hosts. Hinata Miyazawa and Nikita Parris have both found the net, with Ella Toone notching a pair of assists.
Strangely, a third of the people to respond to this poll on Twitter X believe the answer is ‘no’. I’d seriously question that, guys, with all due respect to Leicester.
Suzanne Wrack caught up with the WSL’s form player before this weekend.
It’s all eyes on Beth Mead at Meadow Park, after her inclusion in an England squad for the first time in more than a year, following the ACL injury that ruled her out of the World Cup. She’ll be back in Sarina Wiegman’s team for December’s Nations League fixtures against Scotland and the Netherlands.
Mead’s blossoming relationship with Alessia Russo at Arsenal is one for Wiegman to monitor. It’s worked wonders so far this season for Jonas Eidevall’s team, who trail leaders Chelsea by just three points going into today’s games.
Some very sad news from the world of football has broken this afternoon.
Liverpool v Brighton team news
Liverpool: Micah; Fisk, Bonner, Clark; Kovisto, Nagano, Höbinger, Holland, Hinds; van der Sanden, Haug.
Subs: Laws, Fahey, Kearns, Kiernan, Lawley, Enderby, Lundgaard, Flint, Parry.
Brighton: Baggaley; Carabalí, Thorisdóttir, Bergsvand, Kullberg; Robinson, Losada, Rule, Bremer; Symonds, Terland.
Subs: Evrard, Pattinson, Sarri, Lee, Olme, Pinto, Li, Startup.
Chelsea v Leicester team news
Chelsea: Berger; Périsset, Mjelde, Carter, Charles; Ingle, Cuthbert; Rytting Kaneryd, Kirby, James; Kerr.
Subs: Musovic, Fishel, Nouwen, Nüsken, Lawrence, Fleming, Hampton, Buchanan, Beever-Jones.
Leicester: Leitzig; Bott, Thibaud, Howard, Nevin; Tierney, Palmer; Whelan, Cayman, Rantala; Petermann.
Subs: Green, Siemsen, Goodwin, Cain, Kop, Baker, Robinson, Sherwood, Draper.
Arsenal v West Ham team news
Arsenal: Zinsberger; McCabe, Illestedt, Wubben-Moy, Catley; Pelova, Cooney-Cross; Mead, Maanum, Foord; Russo.
Subs: Beattie, Little, Miedema, Wälti, D’Angelo, Maritz, Kühl, Lacasse, Codina
West Ham: Walsh; Shumizu, Hayashi, Tysiak, Cissoko, Smith; Evans, Stringer, Harries; Asseyi, Ueki.
Subs: Atkinson, Ziu, Filis, Denton, Cooke, Stapleton, Ademiluyi, Flannery.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to today’s WSL clockwatch. There’s plenty of action to get our teeth into, besides from the early kick-off, which is currently Bristol City 0-0 Manchester United. In terms of the 2pm games, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool are all at home and will expect to win, with Aston Villa v Everton and Manchester City v Tottenham both kicking off later.
We’ll be around the grounds from those 2pms in particular, with a rundown of team news to follow in the next post. Get your correspondence in and let’s see what the WSL has in store for us this afternoon. Should be good fun.
