LEICESTER, England :Norwegian midfielder Frida Maanum fired Arsenal to a hard-fought 1-0 win over Leicester City on Sunday for their first victory of the Women’s Super League (WSL) season while their London rivals Tottenham Hotspur earned a 2-2 draw with Aston Villa.
Arsenal’s Alessia Russo intercepted a misplaced back pass in the 55th minute from Leicester defender CJ Bott then drew keeper Lize Kop out of her net before chipping the ball to Maanum for an empty-net goal.
The victory put Jonas Eidevall’s team fourth in the WSL table on four points. Leicester, who lost their first six WSL games against the Gunners by a combined 23-2, are ninth.
“I think we managed our expectations well. We knew it was going to be a tough game against a team that had a lot of time to prepare for this game and we had a very short time,” Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall told reporters.
“We used our squad well in these games and today we take a step back and compare to other seasons, these are one of the days where you just need to take the three points without playing brilliant football all the time.”
Spurs salvaged a point against Villa after Bethany England scored an equaliser in the sixth minute of added time.
Spurs took the lead in the first half when Eveliina Summanen scored from the penalty spot but Villa hit back with two goals in a 10-minute period in the second half through an Adriana Leon curler and a header from Rachel Daly.
Spurs had offered little in attack but just as Villa looked set to seal their first win, England scored with a near-post header to earn a point which moved them up to third.
UNITED AND CITY WIN
Manchester United forward Grace Clinton scored her second goal in as many games in her side’s 1-0 win over her former team Everton.
Clinton intercepted the ball high up the pitch and then stepped around a defender to fire home in the fourth minute at Walton Hall Park.
Marc Skinner’s team have six points after two games to sit second in the table, behind holders Chelsea on goal difference.
Khadija Shaw’s close-range strike was enough to lift Manchester City to their first victory of the WSL season, a 1-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion.
The game was a quick turnaround for City, who were coming off Thursday’s second leg of their 8-0 aggregate Champions League qualifying win over Paris FC.
“We got the job done. Sometimes in this league you have to win ugly,” City skipper Alex Greenwood said.
“This league is getting tougher and tougher ever year and we saw that with Brighton today, it was a tough game. We take the win and the clean sheet all day.”
West Ham United earned their first point of the season after Riko Ueki scored a late goal to salvage a 1-1 draw with Liverpool.
Olivia Smith got Liverpool on the board in the seventh minute and then the Reds squandered numerous chances to extend their lead, before Ueki, who had pestered Liverpool all afternoon, scored the equaliser in the 85th minute.
