Chelsea keep 100% run going but look far from perfect; Derby day in Milan

Following the last international break of the year, women’s club football returned across Europe over the weekend.

In England, it was all about the goals with 28 goals dished out across the six Women’s Super League matches including Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal all ending up on the right side of 4-0 blowouts against Liverpool, Leicester City and Aston Villa respectively. Tottenham Hotspur picked up a handy 2-1 win over Everton and Chelsea played out an engrossing 4-2 with Brighton & Hove Albion before West Ham United came from behind to best Crystal Palace 5-2.

In the Frauen-Bundesliga, it was all change at the top thanks to Bayer Leverkusen’s narrow victory over Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich‘s 2-0 away win at SGS Essen, while Köln claimed their first win of the season at hapless Potsdam. Likewise, the Eredivisie has a new league leader thanks to Renate Jansen‘s brace for PSV Eindhoven at Ajax.

In Serie A, Barbara Bonansea‘s last gasp winner spared Juventus‘ blushes against Lazio in an unexpected five-goal thriller before AC Milan and Internazionale played out their second 1-1 draw of the season. The Derby della Madonnina echoing Friday’s Paris derby, in which saw Paris FC grab a late equaliser against an off-colour Paris Saint-Germain. And over in Spain, Deportivo la Coruna suffered their biggest loss of the season with a 5-0 defeat at Granada.

---

Chelsea maintain perfect start despite error-strewn six-goal thriller

Chelsea have kept their perfect start intact, securing a 4-2 win over Brighton to extend their run to nine league games without dropping a point. This result equals the WSL’s record set by Arsenal when they secured nine wins in a row to start the 2018-19 season. Despite the victory, it was not their best performance thus far.

The Blues raced ahead with two goals in five minutes but after several mistakes, allowing Brighton — who dropped from third place to fifth — back into the game twice, the Blues were threatened with dropping points for the first time this season. Nonetheless, the hosts ensured victory in stoppage time, keeping a five-point gap between the reigning champions and second-place Manchester City, but it was an uncomfortable 90 minutes for manager Sonia Bompastor.

Despite the six-goal thriller showing frailties in the French coach’s side, she insisted she was not displeased with the mistakes and hailed her player’s bravery. “I prefer my team and my players to be confident enough and brave enough to try again, even if sometimes you can be in that position when you lose some balls,” she said. “The best teams are the ones who make the least mistakes. You will always have mistakes in the game, and I want my players to be brave enough to try again.”

Tight tussle at the bottom of the table

After nine games, the race at the bottom of the table is razor-thin, with just five points separating the sixth from 12th as the the final league match of the year approaches.

West Ham climbed to eighth with their second win of the season by toppling 12th-place Crystal Palace, who remain stuck on five points, leaving them at the foot of the table on goal difference below Leicester, another team struggling to find form amid a string of injuries.

Aston Villa, fresh off their first win of the campaign, suffered a bruising 4-0 defeat at Arsenal. That keeps them on six points alongside Everton, who lost 2-1 at Tottenham despite taking an early lead. Spurs (sixth place, 10 points) and Liverpool (seventh, nine points) sit just above the fray, but a five-point gap separates Spurs from fifth-place Brighton, keeping the race for mid-table security fiercely competitive.

With points scarce in the bottom half of the table, the fight to secure top-flight survival hinges on teams capitalising against their closest rivals as West Ham and Villa will hope to do, for example, when the pair meet in their final game before Christmas. In such a tightly contested battle, one result can have cascading effects on the rest, making every point crucial when the season resumes after the winter break.

Milan turn it on for the derby

It’s not been the best season for AC Milan, despite a change in the dugout over the summer the iffy form of previous iterations of the club have persisted. Currently sixth out of the 10 teams in Serie A, all four of Milan’s wins have come against the four below them, and all four have been by a one-goal margin. But coming into Sunday’s clash at the San Siro, the Rossonere did at least have the recent memory of a late equaliser in their last meeting against their local rivals.

Suffering just one defeat so far this season — to Fiorentina — Inter have been one of Serie A’s better performers this term, but Gianpiero Piovani’s team have struggled with sustaining pressure in games and getting over the line. Again, that was the case on Sunday, and although Inter started well and lead through Elisa Bartoli, the team faded after the break and allowed Milan to start to dictate the match.

Whilst the Nerazzurre might have felt hard done by in their first derby of the season, there was little denying Milan deserved their equaliser which Nadia Nadim took well early in the second half. Although Piovani did try to freshen his team up from the bench, everything was a little too lax and predictable, and the shared points will feel like a loss for Inter.

Quick hits

NINE. A point in Paris. It was maybe a little unfair that so many teams impacted by the international break ended up playing on Friday night, such as PSG. And maybe that’s a reason, or excuse, why Fabrice Abriel’s team looked so pedestrian against their local rivals. Even after Marie-Antoinette Katoto gave the visitors the lead on the hour, there was nothing particularly dynamic about PSG, nothing that suggested their deserved to be leading. Indeed, when Clara Matéo grabbed PFC’s late equaliser, if felt nothing but deserved for the team that had created throughout, and arguably should have won. With reports of frustration and disharmony in the PSG squad and imminent exits for two lynchpins in the squad, Grace Geyoro and Katoto, it’s of little surprise that the Parisiennes look a little bleu.

EIGHT. At long last, Leverkusen. After a year-and-a-half of asking “can Leverkusen find some consistency and challenge in the FBL?” in these weekly wraps, B04 have finally answered: “Yes we can!” Even allowing for a late loss to Bayern in October, Leverkusen have shown tremendous stability this season, and their game management under Roberto Pätzold has been first-rate. Against Wolfsburg on Friday, the hosts were calm in and out of possession and were well deserving of their advantage when Cornelia Kramer hit home at the start of the second half for her sixth of the season. Even with Wolfsburg pushing for an equaliser, Leverkusen didn’t waver or panic as they have in previous years but rather stayed resolute to claim the win and go top overnight. Currently second — tied on points with Bayern — Leverkusen are likely to get kicked down to third on goal difference with Eintracht Frankfurt able to go top with a win over Jena on Monday.

SEVEN. Hammers strike back. Always likely to be a tasty tie, West Ham’s clash with Crystal Palace didn’t disappoint (unless you’re a Palace fan), with the Irons coming back from a two-goal deficit to storm to a 5-2 win. But it was a real show of character from the hosts that, rather than let their heads drop after conceding two early goals, they were only spurred on and kicked right into gear with Seraina Piubel putting in a starring performance for the Hammers.

SIX. PSV go top. It’s already been a bit of a mixed season in the Netherlands with Ajax fast putting any September shakes to bed with a string of domestic wins as last season’s champions Twente have wobbled, stretched thin by European involvement. But hot on Ajax’s heels, PSV struck a hammer blow in the title race when they met on Saturday, swatting the hosts away at the Johan Cruijff ArenA. The better team throughout, after racing to a 2-0 advantage in the first half, the visitors eased through the rest of the match, leaving Ajax neutralised.

FIVE. City cruising. It’s been a pretty miserable season for Leicester so far, with just one win and a seemingly endless raft of injures, the last thing the Foxes would have wanted was the trip to the City Football Academy. Conceding the opener just two minutes in, to a Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw header, set the visitors up for another afternoon to forget. Shaw’s second sealed the win before Jess Park and Mary Fowler also got the better of Janina Leitzig. Leicester could have offered more resistance but it was just another showing of strength from City, a flexing of the muscles from a talented team who are desperate to close the five-point gap Chelsea have opened up.

FOUR. Juventus let off hook by Lazio. It’s well worth pointing out the strides both Lazio and Como have made in their first season in Serie A — Como themselves let a lead slip against Roma to lose 2-1 on Saturday — with both teams playing with a growing confidence, but the little mistakes are costing them. Having pulled level after Juventus took a two-goal lead, Lazio threw the game away in the 90th minute when goalkeeper Sara Cetinja raced out of her box, missed the ball and allowed Barbara Bonansea to roll the ball into the unguarded net, massively sparing the blushes of the Bianconere.

THREE. Granada’s five-star performance. It’s been almost three years since the last time Granada scored five goals in one league game, when they were still in the Segunda, so it would be safe to say their 5-0 dismantling of Deportivo was a little unexpected. Depor’s record this season makes for miserable reading with just one draw from 10 matches coming into the weekend, but the Galicians have rarely been thumped; even against Barcelona they only lost 3-0. But Granada took them apart with ease, with five different players all finding the net. It will be a match new Depor coach Fran Alonso will want to forget, and fast.

TWO. Short-handed Liverpool undone. One of the three WSL teams to end up on the wrong side of a 4-0 loss on Sunday, it would be easy to get lost in the gulf between the top four and those trying to break in. Whilst it’s fair to say Liverpool were in the game at Manchester United for the first half-hour, and conceding two in as many minutes took the wind out of their sails, the visitors only offered so much at Leigh Sports Village once the hosts had the bit between their teeth. The Reds clearly have more to offer but weren’t fully at the races.

ONE. Billygoats claim first win. It’s not been a particularly fun season so far for the bottom three in the Frauen-Bundesliga with Köln, Jena and Potsdam all looking for their first wins coming into match week 11. It was Köln who’ve managed to pull away, climbing to 10th with a 1-0 win over Turbine in Potsdam. It should have been a more comfortable affair for the visitors, but Alena Bienz‘s second-ever goal in red-and-white was enough. Her first came at the same stadium two years ago in an early round of the DFB-Pokal.