Another weekend of WSL drama, and the theme is clear: comebacks. Arsenal, Chelsea, and City all had to dig deep to overturn setbacks, with late goals, returning legends, and record-breaking milestones dominating the headlines. From Arsenal’s late flurry of strikes to Sam Kerr’s emotional 100th Chelsea goal, here’s your debrief on a weekend where resilience defined the league.
West Ham v Arsenal
Within five minutes, Arsenal Daphne van Domselaar gave the home side the lead after she fumbled a routine catch into the goal from a Shekira Martinez cross.
In both games, Arsenal had to come from behind to win.
Frida Maanum scored the equaliser, which gave the fans and players confidence again.
Other goals came from Stina Blackstenius, Alessia Russo, who also scored an injury-time penalty to make it two for her and Caitlin Foord, who scored on her 100th appearance for the club.
The Gunners scored only nine goals in the final 10 minutes of games last season, but made it four in two games.
Slegers is already making full use of her options with several changes from the opening weekend, giving those who may be considered fringe players the chance to prove a point. And they did - Mead added another assist, and Frida Maanum scored the equalising goal.
Manchester City v Brighton
Fran Kirby scored in 14 minutes and arguably had the better first half, and fans started questioning what was going wrong for City.
Young lionesses Michelle Agyemang’s shot was pushed away by Khiara Keating right into the foot of Kirby Lionesses legend, who hammered it past the keeper.
City did not look together at all in the first half but by the hour mark they found the net. Lelia Ouahabi sent in a cross to Bunny Shaw who literally through her body at it and score.
in the 74th minute Yui Hasegawa was given the perfect winner with a slotted pass by Aoba Fujino to fire it into the far corner.
City finally get some points after losing 2-1 to Chelsea in the opener at Stamford Bridge while Brighton put up a good fight and seem more like a team on the pitch have one point.
Only eight of their 19 were on target for the home side - less than half - but two did count to win the game.
Aston Villa v Chelsea
The biggest moment of this game is likely the return to Sam Kmatch-day 20 months off with injuries including aminute
Her first appearance in a match-day squad was last week's match against City. She was substituted in the 75th minute for Joanna Rytting Kanyard.
Six hundred thirty-four days out,and confidence to be built on after she had a real chance, she instead passed it to Beever-Jones, unlike pre-ACL injury Kerr, who would have gone for it.
Sam Kerr scored in her first game since January 2024, finishing 3-1 for the visitors.
Kerr's stoppage-time goal is a scrappy goal before carefully blasting it past Roebuck.
'It means everything, said Kerr. 'To score 100 goals for any club is amazing, but to do it for a club like Chelsea is incredible. It's something I'm really proud of and I don't take it lightly!'
It has taken Kerr just 128 games to reach a century of goals for Chelsea, and she says reaching the landmark is something she will long remember.
'I know people may think scoring 100 goals is just another thing, but for me, it's an amazing achievement and something I'll look back on for the rest of my life,' she explained.
'I'm a goalscorer, that's what I love doing, and those 100 goals represent a lot of hard work, dedication and sacrifices to get there?
In 20 starts Aggie Beever-Jones has now scored 16 goals.
Alyssa Thompson made her first appearance for the blues.
Kiera Walsh scored her first goal for Chelsea after joining last January from Barcelona to give Chelsea the lead in the 55th minute with a low strike pass the keeper.
Chelsea won in a scrappy game last season; they could have been down 3-1 in the first half if it were not for Hannah Hampton.
Ebony Salmon scored Villa's only goal of the game to cancel out Aggie Beever-Jones' opener.
Salmon could have scored at least two more goals before the break.
Aston Villa goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck made her first start for villa and first start in the WSL since the 2023/24 season.
Villa were very much in the game even if the scoreline says otherwise they were able to press high and maintain possession however unlike Chelsea they did not have the depth of the bench to maintain that high tempo.
London city Lionesses v Manchester United
Manchester United sit top of the league on goal difference scoring nine goals and only conceding one but this was against two of the weaker sides in the WSL like Arsenal have experienced in their first two games.
It started with a penalty after Jana Ferndanez fouled Melvine Malard with captain Maya Le Tissier slamming it home.
But United doubled their lead before half-time when full-back Jayde Riviere smashed past home stopper Elene Lete from a tight angle.
And the win was sealed within five minutes of the restart through a double by Malard.
Mallard has four goals in two games, the same number she had all last season.
The Lionesses scored a consolation as Nikita Parris netted from close range against her former side.
Jess Park has scored her first goal for Manchester United in her first start for the club from outside the box as she went on her own and curled it in from a long range.
However, it was not all sunshine for United. Millie Turner was stretchered off and seen interacting with fans after the game with a brace (around her knee) and crutches.
With a building site behind the dugouts is a very apt reflection of London City Lionesses at the moment with 17 new players that is a lot of gelling still to occur- a work in profess.
Owner Michele Kang, one of the 3,000 spectators in a sell-out home crowd, said in her exclusive interview with BBC Sport this week that she has aspirations for the club to "be at the top of the game".
Lionesses ended up conceding five against United - just as they did in their last meeting, a Women's Championship defeat in April 2019.
Leicester City v Liverpool.
Leicester City new signing Emily van Egmond score three minutes after the side went down to 10 players when Shannon O’Brien was sent off with her second yellow card.
Interim manager Rick Passmoor's side were outclassed by the visitors during the first half and played the final 35 minutes with 10 players.
Gareth Taylor is very adamant on playing the same style of football that he did at Manchester City; however, at Liverpool, he does not have the squad to play a possession-based game and build out from the back.
The home side who have been declared currently by OPTA as most likely to be detonated won 1-0 at the King Power Stadium.
Despite that, Leicester bagged their winner against the run of play in the 59th minute, with Tierney feeding Janice Cayman on the right wing and the skipper delivering a pinpoint cross to an unmarked Van Egmont, who headed beyond Faye Kirby from close range for her first Leicester goal.
Everton v Spurs
After their dramatic win last week at Anfield in Merseyside winning 4-1, the home side lost 2-0 to Spurs in their first ever game at their new home at Goodison Park.
Tottenham's constant pressure paid off when Olga Ahtinen scored in the 27th minute, nipping the ball away from Rion Ishikawa and playing a one-two with Tandberg before slotting past Courtney Brosnan.
Tandberg then stunned the 6,473-strong crowd on 49 minutes when she spotted Brosnan off her line, lobbing her from 40-yards out with a sweet strike that nestled in the bottom corner.
Goodison Park is the biggest dedicated women's stadium in the country but many areas have been covered with branding for the women's team. Everton are keen to make the stadium more intimate having taken on a ground with a previous capacity of 39,572.
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