Women’s Super League: talking points from the weekend’s action

Manchester City were left ruing missed chances after Arsenal’s punchy second-half comeback from a goal down to win 2-1. “I thought the first half was some of the best stuff we’ve played,” said City’s manager, Gareth Taylor, after his side failed to finish off an exhausted and depleted Arsenal. “I thought we should have had more than the 1-0 at half-time but we said if 1-0 has to be enough then make it be enough.” Taylor insisted there would be “a few more twists and turns” in the title race, with City and Arsenal still to play Manchester United, and Chelsea hosting Arsenal at Kingsmeadow, but City’s hopes of a first league title since 2016 have been dealt a massive blow. SW

If there was game to test Chelsea’s league credentials, Sunday’s at Aston Villa was it. Usually fixtures between the top three or four teams decide the destination of the title but, after Chelsea had been through 120 minutes and a shootout against Lyon on Thursday night to progress to the Champions League semi-finals, Villa appeared to present a real banana skin of a match. Instead, the Blues dispatched the Midlands side, who had not lost or failed to score since 26 January, with ease. Goals from Jelena Cankovic and Guro Reiten in the first half were added to by Sam Kerr in style in the second. Reiten told Sky Sports she “didn’t even know” how they recovered in time. “We’ve played so many games with such high intensity,” she said. “We have injured players, players struggling with bits and pieces, but somehow we managed to rock up with this performance.” SW

Twelve minutes of injury time. A 96th-minute winner. Leicester’s crunch match against relegation rivals Reading had it all. Willie Kirk was full of praise for his side’s character with this 2-1