Russo penalty gives Arsenal north London win as Olid’s United halt City’s run
On Sunday Alessia Russo’s spot-kick helped Arsenal come from a goal down to beat Tottenham 2-1 in the Women’s Super League north London derby, while Manchester United drew 1-1 with Manchester City under new manager Eva Olid.
The penalty that turned the match in Arsenal’s favour occurred after the ball struck Ella Morris’s raised arm as her teammate attempted to clear, and Russo reflected on the result afterwards: “It’s been tough. We haven’t got the results we wanted,” penalty scorer Alessia Russo told the BBC afterwards. “This was an important win as far as north London derbies goes. It was really important and this was a great opportunity to try and turn it around.” It took seven games for the Gunners to record their second league victory of the season, and the report noted the first half was in particular “sloppy and lacking fight,” with a need to tighten passing and sustain the grit they showed to hang on.
Freya Godfrey scored for London City Lionesses in a 2-2 draw with Liverpool, her second consecutive WSL goal after making her senior England debut earlier this month against Greece; she capitalised on a Khiara Keating error to find the net. Alexia Putellas praised the 21-year-old, saying: “She can arrive where she really wants. I always tell her, she’s a star girl. She will be the future of this club. She has to keep working like she is doing now. She will be the future of England as well as the present.”
Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City represented a marked response after a 5-0 home defeat by Chelsea six weeks earlier, with the report saying United competed “toe-to-toe with the defending champions.” Eva Olid reflected on the earlier heavy loss and its effect on the squad: “It was a hard week after Chelsea but sometimes you need a difficult moment to happen, to react and see exactly where the problems [were] or the things we had to solve as a team,” she said. “It had to happen to now be the team we are.”
Birmingham recorded their first WSL victory, beating Charlton 1-0 in a contest between this season’s league newcomers after taking a point at the Emirates the previous week. Amy Merricks’s side created 20 chances in total but managed only five on target; Océane Hurtré and Lisa Naalsund hit the bar and Lily Crosthwaite missed three gilt-edged opportunities before Wilma Leidhammar’s 68th-minute strike decided the game. Merricks said: “That was the most important thing today. We needed to pick up three points and we delivered that. I don’t think the performance was our finest. You could feel the caginess across the pitch and that is something we need to work on. We are in a better place, and we keep pushing.”
Chelsea recovered to secure three points against Crystal Palace after trailing for much of the first 51 minutes despite dominating early statistics — creating 12 opportunities to Palace’s four and registering 20 touches in the opposition box. Sonia Bompastor introduced Erin Cuthbert and Sandy Baltimore at half-time; Cuthbert added a defensive bite and Baltimore set up Melvine Malard to put Chelsea ahead before scoring a penalty to confirm the result. Jo Potter made only three substitutions, the first arriving in the 77th minute.
Aston Villa beat Everton 3-2, going 3-0 up within 50 minutes through goals including strikes from Noelle Maritz and Amalie Vangsgaard, but were pegged back late by Holly McNamara and Noémie Mouchon before holding on. Brian Sørensen, who took charge last month, described the display as “overall a good performance” and added: “Of course, maybe they got a bit too excited at the end but I also think we had the opportunities to kill the game off a lot sooner. But three points is three points, that’s all that matters.”
Brighton defeated West Ham 3-0 as captain Maisie Symonds opened the scoring in the 29th minute with a long-range strike, Fran Kirby doubled the lead in the 63rd minute and Kiko Seike added a third three minutes later; it was Brighton’s first WSL clean sheet of the campaign. Head coach Arturo Ruiz described the display as his side’s “most complete” performance of the season and Symonds said Brighton “got control” in the second half.
Sørensen’s victory moved Aston Villa up to eighth in the WSL and marked the first time since the 2024-25 campaign that Villa have won back-to-back league matches.