It took grit, grind and guile for Manchester United to defeat Arsenal in the Women’s Super League on Tuesday.
Four days after Rachel Williams scored an 89th-minute winner to beat Brighton in the FA Cup semi-final, Alessia Russo scored in the sixth minute of first-half injury time to give her team a slender advantage at the top of the table.
United’s victory earned them a league double over, Arsenal, a rare feat even for the best teams. Manchester City have done it, as have Chelsea but it is an achievement for the very best WSL campaigns and, even against an Arsenal team decimated by injury and inconvenienced by the fixture list, United were made to dig deep in order to gain a vital three points in the title race.
Traffic issues and a minor car accident close to Leigh Sports Village slowed a sold-out crowd (final attendance 6,658) from being ready for the game’s first whistle. The car parks around the stadium are becoming increasingly full on matchdays and United now have the “nice problem” of learning to cope with increased demand in a winning team.
To deal with a demanding opponent, manager Marc Skinner made two changes to the starting XI that triumphed over Brighton; in came Aoife Mannion & Nikkita Parris for Millie Turner (who was carrying a minor niggle after…
