Women’s Super League: Arsenal beat Crystal Palace, Chelsea also beat West Ham | Football news
Arsenal cruised to a convincing 5-0 win over struggling Crystal Palace to celebrate Renee Slegers first game as permanent head coach.
Slegers’ official appointment was announced on Friday after a very successful interim period, in which she oversaw 10 wins from 11 games in all competitions since the departure of Jonas Eidevall.
And the momentum from that rise continued in Arsenal’s first game of 2025, scoring five goals through four different scorers to complicate Palace’s bottom-of-the-table woes.
Leah Williamson opened the scoring with her first WSL goal in almost two years, heading home Katie McCabe’s corner in the sixth minute.
It took the Gunners just over an hour to turn their apparent dominance into something more, but a quickfire double from Alessia Russo and Beth Mead – scored four minutes apart – was enough to break what was left of Palace’s fragile resistance.
Mariona Caldentey converted from the penalty spot to head Russo’s cross-post shot beyond Shaa Yanez in second-half stoppage time as the game got away from Palace – they are without a win in the WSL since the start of October.
Arsenal, meanwhile, continue their momentum under Slegers and extend their impressive unbeaten run to 12 games in all competitions.
Chelsea wants to beat West Ham
All Arsenal could do, Chelsea could match because they were 5-0 winners against West Hamextending their lead further atop the WSL.
The Blues’ first four goals were of top quality, and it took only 11 minutes for Catarina Macario to open the game. She played a neat one-two with Aggie Beever-Jones before getting her first touch with the ball curled into the top corner.
Ten minutes later Erin Cuthbert doubled the lead. Nathalie Bjorn intercepted the ball in the middle of the field, before breaking through to her teammate. Cuthbert then sent a sharp, diagonal shot past goalkeeper King Szemik.
Beever-Jones added the third with a minute of regulation time left in the game. It was a poor clearance from West Ham that found her at the top of the area and she hammered the ball home over the left-hand post.
Seven minutes after the break, Sandy Baltimore made it four when the Hammers were again caught playing from the back as Chelsea sent the ball forward. She then took a step before thundering home.
And it was the unfortunate own goal by Amber Tysiak (84) that rounded off Chelsea’s good performance. She converted Cuthbert’s cross into her own net as the Blues easily took all three points from east London.
In second place, Janina Leitzig’s deserved own goal in the fourth minute Tottenham with a difficult 1-0 victory Leicester move them to sixth place in the table.
