LONDON (Reuters) -Chelsea extended their winning run to nine victories from nine Women’s Super League (WSL) games but they were pushed all the way by a Brighton & Hove Albion side who lost 4-2 after a battling performance in terrible weather at Kingsmeadow on Sunday.
Chelsea remained top on 27 points with Manchester City, who hammered Leicester City 4-0, second on 22 points and Arsenal, who cruised to a 4-0 win over Aston Villa, third on 18.
With a blustery wind and pouring rain making conditions difficult, the insistence of both teams on playing the ball out from the back led to a number of hair-raising situations and a few goals that neither side will enjoy watching back.
Chelsea were 3-1 up and cruising after a goal credited to Johanna Rytting Kaneryd in the 51st minute that the winger knew little about, but a mistake by Blues keeper Hannah Hampton gifted Kiko Seike a goal for the visiting Seagulls in the 71st minute and sparked a frenetic hunt for an equaliser.
Seike went close again late on but her effort was diverted behind for a corner and that miss was punished when Sjoeke Nusken scored her second goal of the game from a stoppage-time corner at the near post to wrap up the three points for Chelsea.
Manchester United had a poor run of form before the international break but they came roaring back with a 4-0 thumping of Liverpool at home to move above Brighton and into fourth spot in the table on 18 points, behind Arsenal on goal difference.
In North London, a Beth England brace gave Tottenham Hotspur a 2-1 win over Everton, while in the late kick-off West Ham United bounced back from conceding two goals in the opening 11 minutes to beat Crystal Palace 5-2.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor, editing by Ed Osmond and Clare Fallon)
