Arsenal absolutely annihilated West Ham 9-1 on Saturday to make it 15 goals in just two league games.
To be fair to the Hammers, it was a fairly even game until Gilly Flaherty lost her cool and received a second yellow for dissent for protesting Arsenal’s second which seemed offside.
Her first yellow had come for clattering into the back of Steph Catley, requiring Arsenal to make an early change. At that point, West Ham were only losing 2-1 and had already pulled it back once.
The red card was all Arsenal needed and while it was a poor call from the officials, there is still no need to fall apart as West Ham did.
Vivianne Miedema got a brace but Jill Roord grabbed another hat-trick taking her to six goals in two games so far in 20/21. Kim Little, Beth Mead and also got on the score sheet.
Arsenal now have a two-point advantage on their main title rivals, Chelsea and Manchester City as the Citizens dropped two points at home to Brighton.
https://twitter.com/wslstats/status/1305189325190189056
Everton, who are a contender for a Champions League place, are the only team who have managed to keep pace with the Gunners so far. Both sides have six points but the Gunners have a superior goal difference.
Then, a second group of four teams are chasing the leaders two points behind and we find all the title and Champions League contenders there.
Chelsea who won 9-0 at home to Bristol. United, who won 5-2 away to Birmingham, Brighton who upset the odds by grabbing a point at City with a superb defensive performance and City who dropped two points unexpectedly.
It is quite funny that after only two games, the three tier league has been installed as per my prediction post earlier this month.
The top five teams are already in there fighting for the top three places alongside Brighton, who invited themselves to the big guns table. Then, at the bottom of the table, the three teams with zero points are the expected three. Bristol are in the relegation zone with a -13 goal difference due to the hammering they took at Chelsea.
Arsenal go into the international break at the top of the league and will hope that no-one comes back injured after the next couple of games, with the FA Women’s Cup 2019/20 quarter-final against Spurs at home and semi-finals a couple days later.
The next league games are planned for Sunday 4 October with United v Brighton, City v Spurs, Birmingham v Chelsea, Villa v Everton and the Gunners at home to Bristol.
And, a reminder of their last League meeting a Meadow Park, where Miedema scored six and assisted four goals as Arsenal ended up 11-1 winners.