The full-time whistle blew and Ebony Salmon roared.
The Aston Villa winger deserved the show of release. Her display in Villa’s 2-1 Women’s Super League (WSL) win against Liverpool was sharp and blistering when needed. And Villa needed it.
It was Salmon’s shot in the 89th minute that ricocheted off Liverpool defender Jenna Clark and trickled beyond goalkeeper Rachel Laws, ending a dismal run of six successive league defeats and presenting head coach Natalia Arroyo with the first points of her tenure since joining in January.
The last two sides to suffer that many consecutive defeats in the same season were Bristol City in May 2024 (nine) and Reading in May 2023 (six). Both were relegated.
So Salmon roared and pumped her fist towards the skies.
That Villa are even mentioned in the same sentence as relegation scrap, let alone actively trying to escape one, would have been an unfathomable prediction at the start of this season. Spearheaded by ex-England striker Rachel Daly, this team ranked seventh in the world for overall transfer spend in 2024, above Manchester United and Manchester City. They finished the 2022-23 season in fifth and last season in seventh.
A MASSIVE THREE POINTS 😍 pic.twitter.com/zjHmtvDuAQ
— Aston Villa Women (@AVWFCOfficial) March 30, 2025
Yet this has…
