Alessia Russo scored the only goal of the game to help Manchester United Women produce one of the narrow football scores of the weekend in the Women’s Super League. The Gunners, who were missing regular captain Kim Little due to a season-ending hamstring injury, were forced to replace Williamson following an unfortunate fall early in the opening quarter before Alessia Russo capitalized on the visitors’ misfortune by scoring in first-half stoppage time. Nikita Parris forced the entrance with a charging run down the right, dragging the ball back to the penalty spot where Russo had precisely timed her run, sweeping home with a prestigious first-time finish (45+6).
Concerns for Williamson dominated the rest of Arsenal’s depressing evening, with Jonas Eidevall’s team unable to gain a footing in the game, and now trail their Manchester rivals by six points with five games remaining in the fight for this season’s WSL title. Despite being far from their best, United are in first place, four points ahead of second-placed Chelsea with two games remaining.
The sight of Williamson, who was playing out of position due to Arsenal’s mounting injury woes, gesticulating towards her bench in agony after an innocuous-looking challenge marred the evening’s entertainment – a worrying sight for England manager Sarina Wiegman just three months out from the Women’s World Cup. Arsenal was fairly muted in a crucial game that will have a considerable influence on the direction of the title battle, clearly shocked by the loss of Williamson, who was assisted down the tunnel by teammate Little.
Within the first six minutes, Russo blasted a warning shot after Ona Batlle darted down the wing, finding Katie Zelem, who found the Lionesses striker unmarked inside the box. The subsequent strike was poor, but Russo’s penchant for snuffing out goal-scoring opportunities were almost destined to be Arsenal’s undoing. Deep into first-half stoppage time, the England international regained her poise in front of goal, receiving Parris’ well-worked cut back and blasting through Manuela Zinsberger’s grasp. The play was devastatingly swift and equally incisive, and it was the finest of the night for the home team on an otherwise quiet night. Arsenal sought to reverse the direction of the tie during a better second half, pressing with increased intensity, but failed to test custodian Mary Earps with anything decisive.
“You can see the pitch here now; it asks for a lot. I believe that the playing schedule and playing on such pitches will continue – players will be injured,” Arsenal Women manager Jonas Eidevall said. “If we want to keep the players on the pitch, we must all improve the infrastructure. We discussed it before the game, saying that we have handled missing guys quite well thus far this season. But, with all that was going on here, with banned players and Leah [Williamson] coming off hurt, I think it was one absence too many for us.”
“It is up to us to do what we can. We know that even if Chelsea wins every game, we won’t be able to catch them. But what we can do is keep moving forward, keep performing, and keep getting better,” Manchester United boss Marc Skinner said. “I’ve told my players to take each game as it comes and give it their all – we’ll keep doing what we’re doing. I saw her inside, and she seemed to be in a good mood. We certainly hope it’s something minor and only precautionary. We wish her the best of luck. We’d all like to see her captain the Lionesses this summer.”
At the other end of the table, Brighton battled hard for a 3-2 win over Everton, moving them off the bottom and above of Leicester and Reading. Elisabeth Terland scored twice, once in the 12th minute with a header and again 10 minutes later. Katie Robinson had made it 2-0 shortly before the break with a clever move and nice finish. Everton’s Katja Snoeijs answered with a second-half double of her own, but it wasn’t enough to save the game.
Arsenal plays Wolfsburg in the Champions League on Sunday at 2.30 p.m., with the return leg at Emirates Stadium on May 1, while Manchester United travels to Aston Villa in the WSL on April 28 at 7.15 p.m.
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